>

1::

_~

c H A P T E R

Qrigins0fl\/Iu
» »

S
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

1. Define the major sources of human evolution.

2. Describe and critique five adaptationist accounts

of musical origins.

Identify conditions that give rise to nonaclaptive evolution

and discuss their relevance to musical origins.

Explain what is meant by a"theory of mind" (TQM).

Summarize and evaluate theories of musical precursors.

Appraise the idea that music is a human invention that

functions to induce pleasure.

19
 20 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

Prehistoric Music
The human mind consists of many skills and forms of
ligence, including those relating to vision, audition, speech
tion, planning, problem solving, and feeling. Many human traits evolved
because they solved problems of survival or reproduction encountered
by ancestral populations. Such traits are called adaptations because
Charles Darwin they emerged in response to evolutionary pressures. Adaptations
(1 809-1 882) improve the degree to which organisms can cope with challenging
"As neither the enjoy- environmental pressures, such as predators, lack of water, extreme
ment nor the capacity of weather conditions, or competition For mates.
producing musical notes are
faculties of the least use to man
The various challenges associated with the evolution of
in reference to his daily habits of life, they human traits are difficult to appreciate because the time scale is
must be ranked amongst the most myste- unimaginably vast. The first bipedal members of the hominid line-
rious with which he is endowed." ages were the Australopitloecines (about 2-5 million years ago), fol.
—from Descent of Man (1 871)
lowed by Homo laabilis (about 2.3 million years ago). Homo habili;
had much larger brains than Australopithecines and could probably
make primitive stone tools. More sophisticated tools emerged with Homo
erectus (about 1.8 million years ago). Prom the Homo beidelbergensis line
(0.8 million years ago) evolved both Homo neandertloalensis (about 350,000
years ago) and our current line, Homo sapiens sapiens (200,000 years ago).
Anatomical properties of sight and hearing evolved because they
enhanced survival and reproduction, allowing animals to avoid predators
and find food and mates. Can comparable adaptive benefits be attributed
to musical traits? Listening to and playing music seem irrelevant to issues of
survival and reproduction, so it is difficult to conceive of why such behaviors
ever evolved. We enjoy music, but survival does not depend on it the way
that survival depends on visual or auditory acuity, digestion, predator avoid-
ance, or the ability to breathe. What, then, might be the origin of music?
It is possible that music evolved because it enhanced survival
or reproduction a very long time ago in ways that do not apply today-
Survival and reproduction are not currently dependent on music, but
when early forms of music emerged over 50,000 years ago, the environ-
ment was difierent in ways that are now almost unimaginable. In that
environment, music might have had a very important adaptive function-
On the other hand, the set of activities that we call music might
evolved not from any activity that relates to the music of today, but frvm
a confluence of separate activities and processing capacities adaptfld
purposes that originally had nothing to do with music. These capacities
 Adaptationist ACCOI-"its 21

might have been coordinated and dev

eloped into musical behaviors
h ou h cultural o ' - .
F Y 8 Wlfll I10 élfifiompanying change in the human
genome 85 2005; McDermott 86 I-Iauser, 2005).
Before considering the possible 0
rigins of music, we review the
pflmflfy m¢¢l1~'1I11$mS by which all physical and mental traits come into
may develop either as adaptations or as a result of other
evo utionary or cultural processes (nonadaptations). Adaptations can
evolve through one of two processes: sexual selection or natural selection
Sexual selection occurs when there exists a range of traits some that pro-
I

mote reproduction and others that interfere with reproduction. Traits

that promote reproduction are "selected" in that animals carrying them
are more likely to reproduce and pass on genes that encode that trait.
Traits that interfere with reproduction are extinguished because animals
carrying them tend not to reproduce. There are reproductive benefits
to the ability to attract mates (mate choice) and repel rivals (aggressive
rivalry). Traits selected for mate choice include peacock display features,
birdsongs, and musky smells. Traits selected for aggressive rivalry include
sharp teeth, horns, and strong muscles.
Natural selection occurs when there exists a range of traits in an
animal population, such that some traits promote survival and others
interfere with it. Traits that promote survival are selected in that ani-
mals carrying them tend to survive long enough to pass on the genes
that encode the trait. Traits that interfere with survival tend to extin-
guish because animals carrying them do not tend to survive long enough
to reproduce. Traits with survival benefits include the ability to acquire
food, avoid predators, overcome parasites, develop or maintain physical
or mental agility used for survival, or cope with extreme cold or heat.
Both sexual selection and natural selection contribute to the evo-
lution of physical and mental traits. For the genes of an animal to be
passed on, the animal must not only be capable of reproducing; it must
also survive for long enough to be able to reproduce. The importance of
reproduction gives rise to the process of sexual selection; the importance
of survival gives rise to the process of natural selection.

Adaptationist Accounts
The process of adaptation refers to structures with modern functions
that are equivalent to those that were originally selected because they
 22 Qhapter 2 Origins of Music

Sexual Selection—The Peacock's Tail

The peacock uses the elaborate ornamentation on his
elaborate tails? His solution was that the long tails are
sizable tail to attract a peahen. A peacock displays the
sexually se/ected—for a peacock, the costs incurred to
feathers of his tail with remarkable symmetry and preci-
survival can potentially be more than compensated for
sion (this action even emits an audible hum).
by a tail that attracts mates and ultimately produces
At the same time, the weight of his tail feathers more offspring.
can be a liability to a peacock (e.g., a disadvantage to
Sexually selected traits are not restricted to morpho-
the mobility needed against predators or the energy
logical features—behavioral traits can also be sexually
resources needed to search for food). Darwin under-
selected. Birdsongs are a primary example. Miller (2000),
stood that this was a problem that needed to be
as well as Darwin (1871) himself, argue that human music
explained by a mechanism beyond natural selection: lf
making is a sexually selected behavioral trait.
natural selection weeds out traits that are detrimental
to survival, why would peacocks continue to have such Source: Original photography: Aaron Logan. Made available under
Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution-Generic License.

conferred a survival or reproductive advantage (Gould 86 Vrba, 1982). S0

what is the evidence that music is an evolutionary adaptation, whether
through sexual selection or natural selection, rather than a nonad-
aptive technology or gimmick such as ice cream, cigarettes, beet, or
theme parks?
First, developmental evidence suggests that music is innate: Infants
are sensitive to musical relationships without the benefit of formal instruc-
tion. Second, music is highly complex, and the degree of complexity in
music is not obviously culturally determined. The musical grammars of
Western and Eastern societies have similar levels of complexity, as do thosfi
of different ages. The music of Messiaen, a 20th-century French composer
fascinated by birdsong, is no more complex than that of S. Bach, a pro-
 Theories Based on Reproductive Benefifi 23

lific 18th-century German composer who used mathematically inspired

forms S\lCl1 85 Elle fugue. Third, music is recognized as having modular
structure, and is considered a distinct type of intelligence. Some brain
injury Can r€nCl¢r people with impaired speech perception but with nor-
mal musical abilities, or they can render people musically impaired but
with otherwise normal intelligence. Fourth, music is not
phenomenon, but has been part of human behavior for thousands of years,
perhaps as long as language. The discovery in Germany of an ancient bone
flute, analyzed by electron spin dating, suggests that music making must
have occurred at least 37,000 years ago (D'Errico et al., 2003). It is also
likely that singing preceded the use of such bone flutes, which implies an
even older origin for music making, perhaps even up to 250,000 years old
(Huron, 2001a).
These observations are consistent with the view that music is an
adaptive response to evolutionary pressures. What were some possible
survival benefits of music for our ancestors? The fact remains that no one
can be certain how or even if music emerged as an evolutionary adaptation.
However, two classes of adaptationist theories have been proposed: those
based on direct reproductive benefits and those based on survival benefits.
Both classes of theories need to explain how musical behaviors enhanced
reproduction. However, whereas theories based on direct reproductive ben-
efits assume that music functioned in the attraction of mates for reproduc-
tion, those based on survival benefits assume that musical behaviors allowed
individuals to survive in the environment long enough to reproduce.

Theories Based on Reproductive Benefits

Darwin (1872) argued that music, like birdsong and peacock feathers,
has its origin in the evolutionary process of sexual selection. In this view,
the original function of music was to attract sexual mates, which, in turn,
enhanced reproductive success. To support his position, Darwin "Music and Speech become
out enl°Ying and Pmducmg muslc n°t intelligible to a certain extent, if we may
ful to survival. He then noted that music evokes strong emotions, assume that musical tones and rhythm
in you need is jovef were used by our half-human ancestors,
and love is the most typica d . during the season of courtship, when
Finally, he observed that sounC15 tend evolve animals of all kinds are excited not only
purposes. Male animals vocalize tn ost frequently in the breeding by love, but by the strong passions of
season, and these vocalizations are us ed display anger, attraction, jealousy, rivalry, and triumph."
—From Darwin's Descent of Man (1871)
and jealousy (cf. Miller, 2000).
24 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

Birdsongs, peacock plumes, lyrebird mimicry, and

-4-v
> "
ually selected traits have one feature that is not
‘fi-_~\n-
-. ,
»- v
music, however: They are sexually dimorphic traits, which
-
that they are disproportionately evident in one sex.
not peahens, have colorful feathers, and only male birds
songs. In contrast, musical ability seems to be fairly
resented in men and women. Male students do not
classrooms of music conservatories, and the most successful
opera singers are valued in society just as much as we value
outstanding tenors. By all accounts, Madonna, Britney
Celine Dion appear to have their finances in order. In short, musi-
cality in humans does not seem to be sexually dimorphic, which
A European starling singing.
casts some doubt on the possibility that musical ability is a sexually
Source: David Corby Made available under Creative
Commons 2.5 Attribution-Generic License. selected trait.
Nonetheless, Darwin's ideas cannot be dismissed easily. First,
all examples of mating calls are sexually dimorphic. Second, as
(2000) argued, music not only evokes passion, but is also associated with
many other features that are attractive to mates. Singing implies self.
confidence and extraversion, rhythmic skills suggest a superior ability
to sequence physical movements, dancing indicates aerobic fitness, and
musical novelty attracts attention by violating expectancies. Third, music
may be more sexually dimorphic than one might suspect. Analyzing
random samples of jazz, rock, and classical albums (over 7,000 works),
Miller (2000) observed that popular male songwriters produce about
10 times as much music as popular female songwriters, and their pro-
ductivity levels peak at about age 30, when mating effort and activity are
also at a peak (see also Simonton, 1993). Although such statistics are
probably biased by a male-dominated music industry, they underscore
the importance of distinguishing between the ability to produce music
and the inclination or opportunity to do so.
Finally, many human traits that are attractive to potential
are not sexually dimorphic. Exceptional athletic skill, for examplo is
observed in both men and women. A superior ability to run,
swim, and score goals certainly implies good health, and is widely
ceived to be an attractive quality in men and women. Thus, athletic skill
mor-
might be a sexually selected trait, even though it is not sexually dl
lling
phic. Interestingly, musical and athletic skills are alike in
ways. Expert skill among both musicians and athletes takes a
more to acquire and is possessed by only a fraction of the
Such experts display their skill in either individual or gm“?
 Theories Based on Survival Benefits 25

mances. The skills that are developed in both domains de man d excep-
tional motor control ' antici ' ' ' -
and planning. Moreover, the
capacity to enjoy sports and music is widespread in the population
audiences of both activitie S ' .
a gth d f €Xp€lI‘1€I‘lC€ enhanced group cohesion and
n ene sense o persona identit Sl<' ' .
_ _ y. ill in both domains also
involves balancing strong feelings of emotion with other h
_ _ _ ec ives suc
as articulating voices in polyphonic music or scoring _' .
n winning
gold medals.
One hnotable d'ff - 1S- more nuanced
i erence is' that emotional meaning
in music t an in
Sport , Music' -
has the capacity .
to evoke various shades
anger. and peacefulness that can shift from moment
tomomet.M
f n "- generic
ost athletic' activities elicit - and predictable
- pat-
terns o emotion such as excitement and anticipation followed by ela-
tion or disappointment. Nonetheless, the two activities are congruent in
many respects, suggesting the possibility of overlapping origins as sexu-
ally selected traits. The difficulty in drawing a strong conclusion about
Darwin's hypothesis is not that it is seriously flawed, but that equally
plausible arguments can be made for many other theories of the origin
of music.

Theories Based on Survival Benefits

Many theorists have argued that musical activities evolved because they
directly conferred a survival benefit to our ancestors. Such benefits might
have been quite significant in prehistoric environments, but in ways that
are largely irrelevant to contemporary life. Music enthusiasts may well
declare that they "would simply die" without their treasured iPod, but the
truth of the matter is that if we woke up one morning to a world without
music, life would carry on pretty much as before.

NURTURING SOCIAL BONDS

One hypothesis is that music evolved because of its capacity to promote
group cohesion and cooperation. Music can influence arousal and mood
states, and sharing these affective experl'ences may enhance social bonds
(Huron, 2001a). Group cohesion and cooperation are critical to
vival in several species because groups are more eff€Ct1V6 than 111d"/ldll
animals at detecting and defending against predators. Alliances are also
25 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

Music, Social Bonding, and the Influence of Hormones

Oxytocin is a hormone released into the brain during The scope of oxytocin's bonding effect throu h
significant emotional moments. Where oxytocin release music can extend well beyond that of a mother and
occurs during interaction between individuals, such as child through lullaby or lovers through a Serenade
breastfeeding or orgasm during sex, the effect is to to encompass large groups. Freeman cites 8HlIllf0pQl
facilitate bonding. Indeed, oxytocin has sometimes logical evidence from the music and dance rituals of
been touted in the popular press as the neurochemical preliterate tribal communities in which participants
basis of love itself. enter a trance state by singing and dancing to the
Neurobiologist Walter J. Freeman (2000) sees music point of exhaustion. Raves, with the induction of
and dance as a technology for the establishment of oxytocin release through the artificial drug MDMA
"mutual understanding and trust." He proposes that (ecstasy), might be considered an extension of this
music (as evidenced by our strong emotional reactions practice.
to it) may result in the release of oxytocin.

important because of the potential of threats even from members of

the same species. Is it possible that music evolved to secure these social
bonds?
To evaluate this possibility, it is useful to consider behaviors that
secure social bonds in animals that are phylogenetically close to humans.
In primates, social bonds are formed primarily through individual
grooming. Grooming involves one animal manually cleaning another
and for up to 20% of daytime activities. Although grooming
cleanliness, its primary role in establishing and maintaining
social bonds is widely recognized. Importantly, grooming behavior can
maintain alliances only for relatively small groups of animals. To main.
tain alliances for large groups, the amount of time spent on
would interfere with other activities that are critical to survival,
foraging, and feeding.
 Theories Based on Survival Benefits 27

According to Dunbar (1996), the emergence of Homo ercctus was

associated With social groups that were too large to maintain by manual
grooming alone. This pressure required the evolution of new behav-
iors for maintaining social bonds that could replace individual groom-
ing. Dunbar argued that language evolved to perform this function.
Vocalizations (or vocal grooming) were able to replace individual groom-
ing because they were capable of nurturing bonds with many individuals
at the same time.
The earliest vocalizations were probably rewarding but not seman-
tically meaningfiil. Thus, they may have combined structural and expres-
sive properties of both language and music. Dunbar (1996) proposed
that certain kinds of vocalizations started to acquire meaning with the
appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa, about 400,000 years ago. Such
vocalizations could communicate social information, but did not yet
have the capacity to signify abstract concepts.
Although Dunbar (1996) did not comment on the origins of music
and song, it is possible that music evolved from these early Forms of vocal
grooming. After reviewing the available evidence, Huron (2001a) con-
cluded that such a possibility "holds the greatest promise as a plausible
evolutionary origin for music" (p. 54). If so, then language and music
have a common origin in these early vocalizations. Only over a period of
millions of years would they have diverged into two distinct systems for
maintaining social bonds.
During this period of divergence, the bonding capacity of music
would have been distinct but complementary to that of language, making
it a valuable adaptation in its own right. Singing is louder than speak-
ing and can reach a large number of listeners. Music can also coordi-
nate moods, which can, in turn, nurture social coherence and prepare a
group to act in unison. Love songs seem to speak to everyone who listens
to them, as though we were the recipient or giver of love. Joyfiil music
played at ceremonies can generate positive moods and nurture goodwill
toward others in the group. Energetic music like war cries can increase
alertness and coordination, which would be useful for groups of hunt-
ers. Musical rituals, such as a rock concert or rave, cement social obliga-
tions by reinforcing a sense of group identity, whether that identity is the
local opera guild, or devotees of the Grateful Dead. The common usle of
music in superstitious practices, religious ceremonies, sexual rites, po iti-
cal campaigns, and military contexts suggests that music has a powerful
ability to rally and generate group cohesion in large masses of people
(Roederer, 1984).
28 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

Sound Example 2.1 TRAINING COORDINATED MOVEMENT

This example is a Calabrian tuna
fishing song entitled "U Leva A related possibility is that music evolved as a means of
Leva" (Heave, Heave). The strong movement. Rhythmic elements of music engage skills of regulated move.
rhythmic drive of the music helps ment, which could benefit group tasks such as hunting and
coordinate the movements of the
fishermen as they raise the fishing Religious and social ceremonies in some cultures are characterizedb
net. coordinated rhythmic activities that continue to the point of
Sound example 2.1 is avail- collapse. Drumming, chanting, clapping, and singing may continue for
able via the Music, Thought, and
Feeling iMix on iTunes. several hours. The sheer amount of time and energy spent on this syn-
chronized activity suggests that music might have evolved as a means
developing skills of coordinated movement.
One limitation of this hypothesis is that it emphasizes the
mic elements of music, and other features of music (e.g., melody,
mony, instrumentation) are left unexplained. Moreover, many other
activities could perform the same function, suggesting that the
esis lacks specificity. Other activities that require coordinated movement
include chanting, dancing, competitive sports, and any other activity that
demands accurately timed movement among groups of individuals.

ENHANCING COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL SKILL

Cross (2003a, 2003b) proposed that protomusical behaviors provide low-
risk media for the gestation of cognitive and social flexibility. Noting the
enormous diversity of musical behaviors within and across cultures, he
argued that music has an inherent heterogeneity of meaning that makes
it highly flexible in its use and significance across different cultural
texts. According to Cross, music may be defined as any activity that is
rooted in sound and movement and that is intentionally transposable.
Whereas birds make use of complex patterns of sound, their songs are
tied to specific functions and hence nontransposable.
Human music, in contrast, has a kind of free-floating meaning
allows it to function effectively in a wide range of contexts. A conse~
quence of this property is that the contexts, sounds, and actions assoCi'
ated with musical activities are highly diV€I‘S6 Within and across cultures.
For fh¢iI1f11I1t, this property makes music an extremely valuable
mental tool, allowing it to function at a stage when a range of social and
cognitive skills can be explored, tested, and developed. These skills ma)’
intilldfi the ability to cooperate and coordinate with others; the capfl¢iW
for sustained and focused attention; pattern demotion and 1-¢¢ogniti0f13
sensitivity of correlations between auditory, visual, and kinesthetic
 Theories Based on Survival Benefits 29

terns; and the ability to anticipate and respond to significant events In

this way, protomusical behaviors may help to refine a wide range of social
and cognitive skills that are beneficial for successful development into
adulthood.

PROMOTING EMOTIONAL CONJOINMENT

Dissanayake (2000) proposed a variant of the social bonding hypothesis.
She argued that music, along with dance, originated as part of a mul-
timodal system of parent—offspring communication. Affiliative interac-
tions between parents and children are thought to have occurred initially
through vocalizations, body movements, and facial expressions. These
interactions were not merely social, but promoted powerful emotional
connections, or emotional conjoinment.
Vi/hat prompted the evolution of a system for promoting such pow-
erful connections? The emergence of hominids is associated with enlarged
brains and an upright posture. Large brains require a long period of ges-
tation to allow adequate time for fetal encephalization (brain growth).
Upright postures and bipedal locomotion, however, do not permit wide
birth passages. These two factors present a problem: Fetuses are relatively
helpless until their large brains are developed, but they cannot remain in
the womb until their brains are fully developed because maternal birth
canals are too constricted. The result is that human infants are born pre-
maturely and require extended care for their survival. Neonates in many
other species are also altritial (i.e., dependent on a period of postnatal
care for survival), but humans are unique in the duration and extent of
their dependency on care. According to Dissanayake, this pressure led
to the evolution of affiliative mechanisms for securing emotional bonds
between parents and offspring. Strong emotional bonds were needed to
ensure longer and better parental care of infants.
Parental care not only protects infants from physical harm, it
provides important psychological and emotional benefits. For example,
parents can familiarize infants with important affective states by alert-
ing, soothing, praising, and pleasing them. Parents also manipulate and
respond to expectations, conveying surprise at unexpected behaviors and
praising anticipated behaviors. Infants also become familiarized with
vocal, bodily, and facial expressions that communicate information about
a person's age, mood, sex, and intentions. These expressions, like music
and dance, convey affective meaning through the use of speed, dura-
tion, intensity (stress, accent), and rhythmic regularity or variety. Vocal
30 (jhapter 2 Origins of Music

expressions make additional use Of variation in piflih (m°1°dY) and tim_

bre. These features of sound and at tion may provide the foundation
creating and responding to the tempO ral arts of music and dance.
Along similar lines, Trevarthe n (1999) emphasized the devel.
al behaviors in
opmental significance of
interactions. Protomusical behaviors involv ¢ appreciating, producing,
.
actively - patterns of sou nd. The infant engages in1 a syn-
- with
moving
chronization of vocal and kinesthetic patterns that mu
sensory information arising from auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, and visual
systems These multisensory patterns allow the infant and caregiver to
share emotional and attentional states, Which in Social and personal
development.

AFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT
Livingstone and Thompson (2006, in press) proposed a theory of musi-
cal origins in which music is conceived as an instance of a more general
capacity for affective engagement—the ability and motivation to attune
to and influence the affective states of other humans. Affective engage-
ment is not unique to music. It is also observed across many nonmusi-
cal and nonauditory domains, including tone of voice, facial expressions,
gestures and body language, dance, theatre, and visual arts. The theory
of affective engagement is based on the assumption that these seemingly
distinct domains all share a common ancestry. In other words, music
emerged in evolution not because of its unique characteristics, but as one
of many powerful affective systems.
The capacity for affective engagement is thought to have emerged
with the appearance of Homo sapiens 150,000 to 100,000 years ago. This
period marked a significant shift in human evolution in which there was a
rapid growth in cultural phenomena. According to some theorists, these
cultural activities were enabled and supported by the evolution within
Homo sapiens of a powerful new cognitive capacity, called theory of mind
(TOM; Baron-Cohen, 1999; K. Burns, 2004).
ToM refers to the capacity to "[understand] people as mental beings
“’h° beliefs, desires, emotions, and intentions and whose actions
and interactions can be interpreted and explained by taking account of
mental 86 Baird, 2005, p. 3). In other words, TOM
owsustota et ' - --
another individual, such that we tarsl
h , p e ict, and even influence the
S be Strtmgly associated with linguistic 3b1l1'
 Theories Based on Survival Benefiifi

ties (Astington 86 Jenkins. 1999) and parent—child social interactions

(T0m8Seli0. 2003). Most important, a ToM also provides a means for
understanding other people as beings whose actions and interactions are
strongly guided by their affective states.
One consequence of a ToM is the ability to construct and employ
symbols: abstractions or metarepresentations of objects, people, social con-
structs, and their interrelations. This capacity may have led to the devel-
opment of symbolic language as well as a diverse range of nonlinguistic
abstract systems that include cultural activities such as visual art, language,
dance, religion, and music. According to Livingstone and Thompson
(2006, in press), music and other arts emerged during this evolutionary
period as powerful systems of affective interaction. Taken from this per-
spective, our experience with artworks can be understood as a form of
alfective exploration——a means of investigating affective communication
within a safe environment (Davies, 2001). The affective engagement and
exploration that are involved in musical behaviors both reflect and develop
our ability to influence or attune to the alfective states of others.
The evidence for a strong association between music and affect is
compelling (_]uslin 86 Sloboda, 2001). It should be noted, however, that
not everyone agrees on the significance of emotional communication in
musical activity. Cross (2003a, 2003b) persuasively questioned concep-
tions of music that identify it exclusively with affect, arguing that its uses
are far from restricted to the mere communication or induction of emo-
tion. However, although not all musical behaviors transmit emotional
messages in a literal sense, all music experiences do involve a core affec-
tive dimension, and it is this dimension that allows music to function
flexibly over a wide range of contexts (courting rituals, funerals and reli-
gious ceremonies, sporting events, social gatherings, courting rituals).
If affect is pivotal to the various uses of music, then we might
expect to observe a correlation between musicality and emotional intel-
ligence. Emotional intelligence has been described as a set of abilities
for perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions (Mayer 86
Salovey, 1997; Salovey 86 Grewal, 2005). Perceiving emotions, the most
basic component of emotional intelligence, relates to the detection and
decoding of emotion in faces, voices, and cultural artifacts. Using emo-
tions involves the ability to utilize emotions to assist in general cognitive
tasks and problem solving. Understanding emotions is the ability to con-
ceptualize emotions and understand differences or connections between
them (like sadness and grief Managing emotions refers to the regula-
tion of emotions in oneself and others.
32 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

(2004) found evidence for an

Resnicow, Salovey, afld R¢PP
tional intelligence. They
ciation between musicality and emo
tered an emotional intelligence I6-Sf F0
24 listeners, who also
the intended emotions of piano performaniffi s. The researchers
gence and identification of
significant correlation between em0tiOI11l imclli
intended emotions (r = -54 ). In another study, ThompS0n,
and Husain (2004) examined the effects 0f music lessons on the abili
to decode affective connotations of speech prosody. Chil-
dren were assigned to music lessons, drama lessons, or no lessons for
year, and assessed for their ability to decode emotional connotations of
vocal utterances. Children assigned to the keyboard condition
formed other children, suggesting that some forms of music lessons lead
to enhanced emotional sensitivity. In the same study, musically trained
and untrained adults identified emotions conveyed in tone sequences that
mimicked utterance prosody. Trained adults (M = 45%) were better than
untrained adults (M = 29%) at discerning the emotional connotations of
the prosodic patterns.
Affective engagement is not unique to music; it is relevant to many
expressive forms, including visual arts, dance, and prosody. Auditory
experiences of music are often inextricably linked with visual and kin-
esthetic experiences. In Western and non-Western cultures, perform-
ers and listeners experience music in an integrated, multimodal way
(Thompson, Graham, 86 Russo, 2005). Several studies have examined
commonalities in the communication of affect. Krumhansl
and Schenck (1997) exposed groups of participants to different dimen-
sions of a choreographed work: dance only, music only, and dance and
music.]udgments of emotion were highly similar in the three conditions.
In another study, Thompson et al. (2005) observed that judgments of
the affective quality of music were influenced by the facial expressions of
performers, and recent evidence suggests that auditory and visual cues
to affect are integrated preattentively and unconsciously
Russo, 86 Quinto, 2008). Each of these studies points to a multimodll
conception of music that is strongly Connected with

Nonadaptationist Accounts
In the preceding theories, music is assumed to have evolved because of
direct reproductive or survival benefits. It is also possible, however,
nonadaptationist mechanisms led to the evolution of music. Evolutionaf)’
 Nonadaptationist Accounts 33

biologists urge consideration of such mechanisms to avoid the error

of naive adaptationism—the use of adaptive theorizing to explain
traits that emerged for nonadaptive reasons. Nonadaptationist
mechanisms include genetic drift, laws of growth and form (such
as general relations between brain and body size), direct induction
of form by environmental forces such as water currents or grav-
ity, and exaptation (when new uses are made of parts that were
adapted for some other function).
Whereas an adaptation is a trait that was selected to per-
form at least one of its current functions, an exaptation performs
a completely different function from that for which it evolved.
Feathers were initially selected for insulation and not for flight;
insect wings were initially selected as fanlike structures for cool-
ing; legs evolved from lobed fins, used for swimming. Exaptations
involve putting old structures to new uses. The phenotype (observ-
able structures and behaviors) is modified with no corresponding A spandrel is the space where two arches
change in the genotype (the genetic code). intersect. It is an architectural by-product
that is aesthetically pleasing.
Some functional traits were even exapted from features that
originally performed no function, but emerged because of constraints of
growth and form. The latter case is often described using the metaphor
of a spandrel, an architectural feature that refers to the triangular space
formed by the intersection of two arches. They are merely architectural
by-products, but they are also visually appealing. Similarly, the evolution
of cognitive and physical traits has left numerous vestiges or by-products
that are sometimes of value to us.
Is it possible that music is an exaptation of previously adaptive
traits, a squatter in the brain that opportunistically makes use of old
structures for new purposes? To address that question, it is important
to recognize that music is not an indivisible whole, but an interaction
of several distinct qualities including rhythm, tempo, grouping, melody,
harmony, and timbre. Many of these qualities are processed in discrete
neural areas (e.g., Peretz 8i Zatorre, 2001), raising the possibility that the
various components of music such as melody and rhythm may have dif-
ferent origins. Quite possibly, some components of music may be adap-
tations, whereas others may be exaptations. Certainly, some of the most
significant features of music have parallels in other domains, including
rhythm (important in sports and other skilled motor activities), pitch
contour (used in speech prosody or"tone of voice"), and grouping (impor-
tant for visual pattern recognition). Such parallels make it impossible to
conclude that the features were originally adapted for purposes related to
34 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

' because they might have been

mus"? , ome eatures
that
in"
relate to
the other domains that share. those - and Other3
been adapted because of their muS1C€ll might have
- - ' ' nother do ' .
been adapted because of their function Withln 8 MUSIC
ma)’ represent a confluence of skills adapted or exapted from m“8° of
melody and harmony might build on processes

to analyze and interpret the acoustic environment, scene

analysis. Rhythm might build on different traits, suc has timing media.
nisms used to coordinate Pl‘-'Y51cal Al°“g F ese lines, Pinker
(1997) proposed that music is a induce
by activating and challenging several distinct cognitive
rions, First, music activates basic processes of auditory scene
which disentangle various musical textures into distinct tones,
of tones, and instruments. Normally, these processes are engaged to son
out the conglomerate of sounds arriving at the ear, including wind, water,
speech, animal calls, and traffic noise. Music activates and challenges these
basic auditory processes: We distinguish melodies from their harmonic
accompaniment, and we perceive multiple instruments within orches-
tral arrangements. Following this stage of analysis, various properties of
music are thought to activate neural processes associated with the per-
ception of speech prosody (tone of voice), emotional vocalizations (sigh-
ing, whimpering, laughing, crying), and environmental sounds (thunder,
wind gusts, waves). At the same time, the rhythmic component of music
is thought to stimulate the system of motor control (used for walking,
running, digging, etc.).
Pinker surmised that activating and challenging these processes is
inherently pleasurable. That is, music induces pleasure merely by stimu-
lating processes that have important adaptive functions. Such a technol-
ogy is comparable to the invention of drugs, which are nonadaptive but
induce pleasure by interacting with neurochemical systems. In this view»
music is "a cocktail of recreational drugs that we ingest through the ear I0
stimulate a mass of pleasure circuits at once" (Pinker, 1997, p. 523)-
There are merits to this hypothesis. Like drugs and alcohol, music
used mood manlPuli1tion and can give rise to pleasurable phy$i<>l°8l'
cal responses such as tingles down the spine or goosebumps. Songwriters
search for musical "hooks" because they understand Such
melodic or rhythmic) trigger intensely positive experiences in
Of the population. The songwriters quest to discover a great l1°°k
is similar to a chemist searching for an arresting mixture of
 Nonadaptationist Accounts 35

Vi/hen
songsomethin catches
_ ' it- to be repeated endlessly in
ear. we like
uite s
The de ree of re etition. we
' cannot enough °f . 3 .good h°°l<-
8h P in music often borders on the ridiculous, and
suggests °111' desire to hear musical hooks over and over is somewhat
like_ an addict cles Perate f°1' aI1°fl1¢1‘ FIX, or an alcoholic- frantic
- for another
drink.
I In blthis v'e
1 ml1S1C' was "'invented’ because we find it. inherently
.

P e Pl'°¢e$ses involved in the perception of vocal pat-

terns
_d sounds in th '
h (2001 e en""°Y1m¢I1t, -
and animal calls. In support of this.
i ea ac e ' ' - similarities
) noted intriguing - - - - between music . and the
qualities many animal signals. M:?iche's demonstrations include a vari-
ety of different traditions in human music, each one followed by a strik-
mgly l9Y 3- bird, mammal, or amphibian. Such
similarities are compatible with the notion that music is merely deriva-
tive of the sounds in our environment, but also consistent with
of musical origins based on the principle of continuism, discussed in the
next section. Continuism holds that music and other animal signals have
common origins.
Pinker's hypothesis raises a few questions, however (see also Musical Hooks
Huron, 2001a). First, it is unlikely that the pleasure of music is Some famous examples of the extensive
entirely related to its capacity to engage cognitive processes such as repetition of a musical hook include the
line "Na na na nananana nananana, hey
auditory scene analysis. Pinker surmises that music acts to "exag-
Jude" from the Beatles’ "Hey Jude"
gerate the experience of being in an environment that contains (1968), which is repeated 19 times,
strong, clear, analyzable signals" (p. 536), but it seems doubtful that lasting over 4 minutes, and the snare
drum phrase in Ravel's Bolero (1928),
music has this effect. A hallmark of romantic music, for examPle,
is repeated 169 times, lasting over
is its melodic and harmonic ambiguity. Given that such music is 15 minutes
aesthetically pleasing, it seems that "clear, analyzable signals" are by
no means all that is required to enjoy music. It is extremely difficult for
most listeners to perceive and track all of the voices in a Bach fugue or
every note in a _limi Hendrix guitar solo, but these forms of music are
among the most valued by Western listeners.
Second, even if music draws from vocal (intonation) patterns,
emotional calls, or environmental sounds, it is unclear why such extra-
musical associations in themselves should have aesthetic value. Even the
notion that music is merely used for pleasure may have limited historic
and cultural validity (Cross, 2003b). It seems more likely that extramu-
sical associations—to the extent that they exist—point to communi-
cative functions of music for ancestral populations. Such as conveying
emotional states or environmenta l and cultural information. Over time,
music might have been ritualized into an thetic art form where its
36 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

asure was nurtured. The use of music to

caPacit Y to induce pie _
have little . .
relevance to the origms
aesthetic

Huron (20013) l1°n3d3PdVe beha"l°i's

(Overindulgence in food, drugs, and alc0li0l);1Ye With
malfldllistment (e.g., addicts and alcoholics ou S f
For example, drug dealers are among the most revi e mem ers o socie _
In contrast, connoisseurs of music are usuallY qmte and
trained musicians and composers are amfmg mem-
bers of our society. There are few cultures in which avid
perceived as overindulgent pleasure seekers because of their music malt.
ing. We might disapprove of the recreational drugs taken by our favorite
musician, especially if the drugs interfere with a concert tour for which
we have expensive tickets, but it would make little sense to complain that
they were"using way too much music." Conversely, there are quite compel.
ling reasons for suspecting that music emerged because of its adaptive
value, whether as courtship behavior, as one of many systems of affective
engagement, to nurture social bonds, or to engage and develop physical
and cognitive skills that were once useful for survival or reproduction.

Precursors to Music

The preceding hypotheses concern the evolutionary and historical pro-

cesses that led to the emergence of music as an important cultural art
form . Some theorists
' believe
' that music- evolved as an adaptive
. response
to pressures of reproduction or survival

hootin g, h umans like -

' to sin
'
given .
that Clilmpanzees andg.humans
Is such a cOm Par'ison credible.
' P It cou ld I
at highly related in
 Precursors to Mu$i¢

Among primates, gibbons are relatively monogamous, Investigating the relationship between gibbon duet-
as are humans. Gibbons are also atypical among pri- ting and pair bond strength, Geissmann has found cor-
mates in that they participate in musical duetting relations between the extent of duetting and measures
behavior. Geissmann (2000) describes a series of ste- of pair bond strength such as interindividual distance
reotyped interactions between the ”great calls" of the between mates. Given the urge that human couples
female and the male's vocalizations. The function of tend to have to share love songs—whether as listen-
gibbon duetting is notyetclearly understood.A|though ers or duetters or dancing partners—it seems plausible
territorial advertisement has been suggested, duet- that these traits might also be associated in humans.
ting behavior can take place in the absence of rival Source: Original photography: KevBow. Made available under
gibbons. Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution-Generic License.

terms, having only diverged from the great ape line as distinct species
about 6 million years ago. Even today chimpanzees and humans share
close to 99% of their genetic material, and are as closely related to each
other as lions are to tigers, and rats to mice.
Chimpanzee calls involve some obvious musiclike features. Pant
hooting, for example, is a rhythmic activity that continues for about
10 seconds in a continuous crescendo that explodes in a climax (Tarzan
did a good imitation). It can be analyzed into sections such as the intro-
duction, buildup, climax, and closure. In most circumstances, these calls
reflect the animal's afiective state and are used to achieve and modulate
social contact.
In the same way, music conveys emotional information, can be ana-
lyzed into sections, and performs social functions. Thus, just as chim-
panzees and humans have a common origin as species, their distinctive
Calls—pant hooting and music—might also have a common origin. More
generally, if traits are observed in both human and nonhuman animals,
they are said to be homologous, that is, inherited from a common ances-
tor that expressed that trait. This view, known as continuism, suggests that
38 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

music developed directly out of an early primate signal system

2001). The mating calls of our distant a ncestors, for example, might
Because musical behaviors and
developed into what we now call singing»
mating calls are distinct phenomena, this explanation suggests that there
were no adaptive pressures for music per se. Rather, adaptive pressures
gave rise to mating calls, the vestiges of which have merely been coopted
for use in music (McDermott 86 I-Iauser, 32)‘ _
As discussed, one property that distinguishes human music from
most animal calls is intentional transposability. Animal sounds such
as birdsongs tend to be locked into specific functions, whereas human
music is distinguished by its flexibility of Function. A more modest claim
is that, even if music and animal calls do not have the same origin, it is
still informative to examine structural similarities between them. Such
similarities might reveal, for example, similar evolutionary pressures, con-
straints of neural organization (or production), or interactions between
hominids and other animals that might have shaped the development of
music. The composer Mache (2001) identified many similarities between
music and animal sounds that, in his view, are compelling enough to jus-
tify an entire discipline called zoomusicology. As examples, he noted that
the songs of certain kingfishers involve moving up and down in small
melodic intervals along a scale, and the songs of certain robins repeatedly
end with a kind of key note (akin to doh in music).
There is a critical feature of music, however, that is not shared by
the calls of chimpanzees and other animal signals: Humans produce a
vast repertoire of complex musical patterns out of the building blocks of
pitch, duration, loudness, timbre, and tempo. As a result, music is char-
acterized by an almost infinite variety, creativity, and novelty. The vocal
signals observed in birds, monkeys, and apes, in contrast, are hard—wired
and have limited variability.
Music making is exceptionally creative because it operates accord»
ing to what is called the particulate principle. This principle describes
l1OW, in physics. Chemistry, and language, discrete units from a finite
set of elements (e.g., atoms, chemical bases, phonemes) are combined
and permuted to give rise to higher level structures such as molecules,
Words (Al>l¢r, 1989; Humboldt, 1836/1972; Studdert-
Kennedy, 2000). Music also adheres to this principle in that discrete
units of pitch and duration are combined to form higher level units
Such melodl’ rhythm. That is, music making is highly creative
because humans have the capacity to combine and permute discrete
acoustic features to generate an infinite number of possible novel com‘
 Precursors to MU-5I¢

binations. This property of music may also be a prerequisite for its

intentional transposability, the significance of which has been empha-
sized by Cross (2003a, 2003b).
It has been suggested that once our hominid ancestors developed
the cognitive ability to make use of the particulate principle, they applied
it to vocalizations, giving rise to new signal systems with vast combinato-
rial potential (Abler, 1989; Studdert-Kennedy, 2000). One such signal
system was language, but that same cognitive ability also might have led
to the emergence of music. Language and music might have emerged
at the same time as two distinct signal systems, or one system might
have developed as an outgrowth of the other system, or a precursor to
both systems—a"musilanguage"-—might have developed and then later
diverged into two separate systems (Brown, 2000).
In any case, the ability to apply the particulate principle to vocal-
izations is very likely to have occurred well after the evolutionary diver-
gence between hominids and other great apes. Hominids made use of
the particulate principle in language and music, but other apes did not.
Thus, animal calls remain limited in terms of creative potential, making
them categorically different from either language or music. In this view,
music and language are not continuous with animal calls because they
are characterized by the particulate principle. Rather, they are distinctive
capacities that are unique to the hominid line.
Both language and music adhere to the particulate principle, and
precursors to these domains may well have evolved at the same time or
from a common signal system. There are several similarities between
these two systems that support this conjecture. In particular, both
domains convey emotional meaning using similar acoustic features. In
speech, emotion is conveyed through tone of voice or speech prosody.
For example, when we are feeling sad we tend to speak more softly, more
slowly, and with less pitch variation than when we are feeling happy.
These very same acoustic variables—loudness, pace, and pitch——are also
used to convey emotions in music.
This similarity at the level of emotional communication raises the
possibility that both language and music originated from a single emo-
tion-based system of communication. There may have been an ancestral
precursor to language and music that functioned to convey emotional
meaning. Once our hominid ancestors began to make use of the par-
ticulate principle, they applied it to this emotive system, giving rise to a
powerful signal system with enormous potential to communicate com-
plex messages.
40 Chapter 2 Origins of Music

sed a similar vieW- He a

Brown (2000) d music, which he In his
cursor to both gun as a sirf1Ple system
_ . ' hr have be .
V16Wi A REV is an emotive response to a
emotive vocalizations ‘
b hat also indicates to other Class
cific one f nse As an example, East African vervet
- (ve res o - .
causing the Signal snakes, leopards, and
keys have emotiv e voca . e . -
referential meaning, - -
providing
eagles. REVs have both emotiv
nd music.
essential ingredients for language
Brown proposed tW0 b
asic stages in the evolution of musi_
An example of lexical tone from Thai
(Fromkin, 2001, p. 21 1). The five different
language. In the earliest stage, rnusilanguage was
meanings of naa are distinguished by by use of lexical tone. Lexical tone re ers tp
intonation alone. convey semantic (lexicél-l)
[naa] [_ ] low tone
might have signaled higher spatial positions or eig
‘a nickname‘
emotional states such as surprise or anger. As language and music
[naa] [_\] falling tone
split into two systems, the significance of pitch In the
‘face’
two systems diverged. Pitch differences in music eventually became
important for structural properties such as melody and harmony.
[naa] [_/] rising tone
Pitch differences in language eventually gave rise to tonal languages
‘thick’
such as Chinese Mandarin. In tonal languages, pitch partially deter-
[naa] [ —] mid tone
mines the meaning of speech sounds. Although not all languages
‘rice paddy’
are tonal, Brown suggested that nontonal (intonational) languages
[naa] [ -1 high tone
such as English might have evolved from earlier tonal forms.
‘young maternal uncle or aunt’
The second stage was characterized by two properties: combi-
natorial phrase formation and expressive phrasing. Combinatorial phrase
formation refers to the combining of lexical tonal units to make simple
phrases that have higher order meanings. Presumably, this property
emerged once hominids applied the particulate principle to the earliest
forms of musilanguage. The resultant combinations of lexical tonal units
(i.e., phrases) could then be further manipulated by expressive
phrasing involves modulating sequences of vocalizations in
amp itu e, tem o, and itch re ' -
- speech and music
observed in
ig t ave been characterized loud,
ions, whereas negative emotional states might
have been characterized b
d . , l0W-pitched vocalizations. As lan-
guage an music diverged into separat
 Precursors to Music

Whatever its origins, the music of our ancestors was undoubtedly

nothing like the diverse and complex musical systems found around the
world today. Indeed, although cognitive capacities to perceive and pro-
duce music may have evolved as adaptations, natural selection cannot
account for the sheer variety of today's musical styles. Rather, the com-
plexity and diversity of music is more easily explained through cumula-
tive cultural evolution, the process by which humans build on existing
knowledge and skills through the combined strategies of cultural trans-
mission and creative invention. Cultural transmission is the process by
which we acquire existing knowledge and skills, for example, through
imitation or direct instruction. Creative invention is the process by which
we continuously modify our existing knowledge and skills, increasing or
altering their complexity. These new forms are then again transmitted to
other generations through cultural transmission, working as a"ratchet"
to prevent slippage backward to earlier forms of knowledge and skills. In
this way, cultural practices such as music composition and performance
can jumpstart into variegated and complex forms over only a few genera-
tions, circumventing the glacially slow process of biological evolution.

Additional Readings
Cross, I. (2007). Music and cognitive evolution. In R. Dunbar 86 L. Barrett (Eds.),
OUP handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 649-667). Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press.
McDermott,]., 8t Hauser, M. (2005).The origins of music: Innateness, uniqueness,
and evolution. Music Perception, 23, 29-59.