By: Nicholas Bannan (Editor)

Hardcover

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Why do human beings make music? No human society has ever existed without music, and people all around the world commit considerable resources, including time, effort, and ingenuity, to musical participation and consumption. Yet until recently archaeology has had little to say about the possible role of music in human evolution. This book examines the potential role of musicality in human evolution and its consequences for human culture. Drawing on a growing body of research in archaeology, anthropology, psychology, and musicology, it illustrates the inter-disciplinary necessity of accounting for the phenomenon of human music-making.

Through twelve articles, the contributors to his volume build on Charles Darwin's speculation that human language may have had its origins in forms of vocal communication closer to the condition of music. Music and language are both acquired by individuals, and thus transmitted over the generations as a consequence of an evolved biology specially adapted for these purposes. The authors of this book seek to illuminate the debate surrounding the precedence of musicality over language in research influenced by Darwin's proposal, critically examining the controversial philosophical, developmental, and inter-cultural issues implied.

The accompanying CD provides some glimpses of the practice of music in a variety of cultures and illustrates ways of listening to the human voice that reveal its intrinsic musicality.

Note on the accompanying CD List of Contributors List of Figures Introduction 1: Nicholas Bannan: Music, Language and Human Evolution Perspectives from anthropology and archaeology 2: Robert A. Foley: Music and mosaics: the evolution of human abilities 3: The evolution of the human vocal tract: specialised for speecha 4: Clive Gamble: When the words dry up: music and material metaphors half a million years ago Perspectives on the evolutionary prerequisites for musical behaviour 5: Iain Morley: Hominid physiological evolution and the emergence of musical capacities 6: Tran Quang Hai & Nicholas Bannan  : Vocal Traditions of The World: Towards an Evolutionary Account of Voice Production in Music 7: Pedro Espi-Sanchis & Nicholas Bannan: Found objects in the musical practices of hunter-gatherers: implications for the evolution of instrumental music Perspectives from social and cognitive psychology 8: Robin Dunbar: On the Evolutionary Function of Song and Dance 9: Bjorn Merker: The vocal learning constellation: imitation, ritual culture, encephalization Perspectives from musicology 10: Ian Cross: Music as an emergent exaptation 11: Johan Sundberg: Musicians performance prosody 12: Nicholas Bannan: Harmony and its role in human evolution

ISBN: 9780199227341
ISBN-10: 0199227349
Audience: Tertiary; University or College
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 368
Published: 19th July 2012
Dimensions (cm): 22.2 x 14.9  x 2.53
Weight (kg): 0.668