The Origin Of Music And Its Implications In Our Lives
In one form or another, music is present in almost all spheres of our lives It can be, for example, inserted into a scene from a horror movie to increase tension and anguish, or it can be used during a fitness class to keep attendees at the right pace.
On the other hand, in any social event worth its salt, some melody cannot be missing, even if it is in the background. From the famous wedding march of Richard Wagner from a wedding to the bands and singer-songwriters that set the scene at night bars, musicality is always present.
Individuals in all human societies can perceive musicality and be emotionally sensitive to sound (Amodeo, 2014). It is easy for anyone to know when a song pleases them, makes them sad or even euphoric. And, like many other things in our lives, we accept the existence of music as something natural. However, analyzed from a scientific point of view, the ability to create and enjoy music is something quite complex and has attracted the attention of researchers from many different fields.
For a few decades now, Scientists who investigate evolution have set out to find the origin of music in the biological history of human beings This perspective is based on the theory of natural selection, stating that it is the needs imposed by the environment that shape the design of all species, since the individuals that have the best adaptations (physiological or psychological) at each moment will survive.
These beneficial traits arise from various genetic mutations, which if positive for survival will have a greater chance of being transmitted from generation to generation. In the case of humans, the pressure of natural selection has affected the structure and functions of the brain over thousands of years, surviving the design that allowed more functional behaviors to be carried out.
However, our species is much more complex. Although natural selection has shaped the biological design of the organism, It is culture and what we learn throughout life that ends up defining who we are
Taking these ideas into account, there are many ethologists, neuroscientists, musicologists and biologists who agree that there was a moment in history when music helped our ancestors survive in a wild and hostile environment. In a review of the topic, Martín Amodeo (2014) states that the ability to appreciate sound art could even have played an essential role in the emergence of the human species. These statements may surprise since, currently, the use given to music is apparently recreational and is not a matter of life or death, fortunately.
Musicality would be prior to the appearance of art and language , the latter two being the almost exclusive property of Homo sapiens. Hominids before humans would not have the mental capacity necessary to develop a complex language, having to stick to a pre-linguistic communication system based on sounds that changed rhythm and melody. In turn, they accompanied these sounds with gestures and movements, together representing simple meanings about the emotions they wanted to convey to their companions (Mithen, 2005). Although there was still a long way to go in history to reach the current level, music and verbal language would have their primitive starting point here.
However, although music and verbal language have a common origin, there is a big difference between the two. The sounds we assign to words have no relation to their meaning in real life. For example, the word “dog” is an abstract concept that has been attributed to this mammal randomly throughout culture. The advantage of language would be that certain sounds can refer to very precise propositions. On the contrary, the sounds of music would be in a certain way natural and it could be said that: “music seems to mean what it sounds like” (Cross, 2010) although the meaning of this sole is ambiguous and cannot be expressed in exact words.
In this regard, researchers from the University of Sussex (Fritz et. al, 2009) carried out a cross-cultural study to support this thesis. In their research, they studied the recognition of three basic emotions (happiness, sadness and fear) present in various Western songs by members of the African Mafa tribe, who had never had contact with other cultures and, of course, had never heard the songs that were presented to them. The Mafas recognized songs as happy, sad or fear-inducing, so it seems that these basic emotions can also be recognized and expressed through music.
In summary, One of the main functions of music, in its origins, could have been the induction of moods in other people (Cross, 2010), which can serve to try to modify the behavior of others based on objectives.
Another of the pillars of current music may be in the mother-child relationship. Ian Cross, professor of Music and Science and researcher at the University of Cambridge, has studied the age of acquisition, by babies, of all the faculties that allow musical perception, concluding that before the first year of life they already They have developed these capabilities to the level of an adult. The development of verbal language, on the contrary, will take longer over time.
To deal with this, the child’s parents resort to a peculiar form of communication. As Amodeo (2014) describes, when a mother or father speaks to a baby she does it differently than when establishing an adult conversation. When speaking to the newborn while being rocked rhythmically, a higher-pitched voice than normal is used, using repetitive patterns, somewhat exaggerated intonations, and very marked melodic curves. This way of expressing oneself, which would be an innate language between the child and the mother, would help establish a very deep emotional connection between them. Parents who had this ability in hostile times would find it easier to care for their offspring since, for example, they could calm a child’s crying, preventing it from attracting predators. Therefore, those with this pre-musical ability would be more likely to have their genes and characteristics survive and be propagated over time.
Martín Amodeo maintains that The rhythmic movements and unique vocalizations made by the parent would give rise to singing and music Furthermore, babies’ ability to capture this would be maintained throughout life and would allow them, in adulthood, to feel emotions when listening to a certain combination of sounds, for example, in the form of a musical composition. This mechanism of mother-child interaction is common to all cultures, which is why it is considered universal and innate.
Music makes us feel more united
There are also theories based on the social function of music, since this would favor group cohesion For ancient humans, cooperation and solidarity in a hostile environment was key to survival. A pleasant group activity such as the production and enjoyment of music would cause the individual to secrete a high amount of endorphins, something that would occur jointly if the melody is heard by several people at the same time. This coordination, by allowing music to transmit basic feelings and emotions, would allow obtaining a “generalized emotional state in all members of a group” (Amodeo, 2014).
Various studies affirm that group interaction through music promotes empathy, consolidates the identity of the community, facilitates integration into it and, as a consequence, maintains its stability (Amodeo, 2014). A cohesive group through activities such as music would therefore see its survival facilitated as it would promote cooperation between large groups of people.
Also applying it to our days, the beauty of music when enjoyed in a group would be based on two factors. On one side, There is a biological factor that allows us to elicit shared emotions when faced with, for example, the same song This favors the feeling of mutual affiliation (Cross, 2010). The second factor is based on the ambiguity of the music. Thanks to our complex cognitive abilities, human beings have the ability to attribute meanings to what they hear based on their personal experience. Because of this, in addition to promoting basic emotions, music allows each person to give a personal interpretation to what they hear, adjusting it to their current state.
Musical practice improves our cognitive abilities
The final factor that appears to have helped the development of music as such a complex cultural factor is its ability to influence other cognitive abilities. Like almost any skill that is learned, Musical training modifies the brain in its functions and structure
Furthermore, there is a solid basis indicating that musical training has a positive influence on other domains such as spatial reasoning, mathematics or linguistics (Amodeo, 2014).
Similar in other species
Finally, it should be mentioned that animals such as belugas and many birds have followed analogous evolutionary processes. Although the main function of song in many birds (and in some marine mammals) is to communicate states or try to influence other animals (for example, in courtship through song or to mark territory), it seems that sometimes they sing only for fun. Besides, Some birds have an aesthetic sense and try to make compositions that, when analyzed musically, follow certain rules
Conclusions
In conclusion, given that music seems to be something as natural as life itself, knowledge of it should be encouraged from childhood, even though it has unfortunately lost weight in the current educational system. It stimulates our senses, relaxes us, makes us vibrate and unites us as a species, so those who classify it as the greatest heritage we have are not far from reality.
