scholarly journals Origins of music in credible signaling

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel A. Mehr ◽  
Max M. Krasnow ◽  
Gregory A. Bryant ◽  
Edward H. Hagen
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Infant Care ◽  
Auditory Scene Analysis ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Scene Analysis ◽  
Mate Quality ◽  
Auditory Scene ◽  
Coordination Ability ◽  
Evolution Of Music ◽  
Basic Features

Abstract Music comprises a diverse category of cognitive phenomena that likely represent both the effects of psychological adaptations that are specific to music (e.g., rhythmic entrainment) and the effects of adaptations for non-musical functions (e.g., auditory scene analysis). How did music evolve? Here, we show that prevailing views on the evolution of music — that music is a byproduct of other evolved faculties, evolved for social bonding, or evolved to signal mate quality — are incomplete or wrong. We argue instead that music evolved as a credible signal in at least two contexts: coalitional interactions and infant care. Specifically, we propose that (1) the production and reception of coordinated, entrained rhythmic displays is a co-evolved system for credibly signaling coalition strength, size, and coordination ability; and (2) the production and reception of infant-directed song is a co-evolved system for credibly signaling parental attention to secondarily altricial infants. These proposals, supported by interdisciplinary evidence, suggest that basic features of music, such as melody and rhythm, result from adaptations in the proper domain of human music. The adaptations provide a foundation for the cultural evolution of music in its actual domain, yielding the diversity of musical forms and musical behaviors found worldwide.

scholarly journals Origins of music in credible signaling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel A Mehr ◽  
Max Krasnow ◽  
Gregory A. Bryant ◽  
Edward H Hagen
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Infant Care ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Mate Quality ◽  
Evolution Of Music ◽  
Basic Features

How did music evolve? We show that prevailing views on the evolution of music — that music is a byproduct of other evolved faculties, that music evolved for social bonding, and that music evolved to signal mate quality — are incomplete or wrong. We argue instead that music evolved as a credible signal in at least two contexts: coalitional interactions and infant care. We suggest that basic features of music, including melody and rhythm, result from adaptations in the proper domain of human music, providing a foundation that cultural evolution shapes into its actual domain.

Attention effects on auditory scene analysis: insights from event-related brain potentials

2014 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Isabel Spielmann ◽  
Erich Schröger ◽  
Sonja A. Kotz ◽  
Alexandra Bendixen
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Scene Analysis ◽  
Scene Analysis ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Auditory Scene

Perceptual Processes in Orchestration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Goodchild ◽  
Stephen McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Scene Analysis ◽  
Scene Analysis ◽  
Auditory Grouping ◽  
Musical Scores ◽  
Auditory Scene ◽  
Music Research

The study of timbre and orchestration in music research is underdeveloped, with few theories to explain instrumental combinations and orchestral shaping. This chapter will outline connections between the orchestration practices of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and perceptual principles based on recent research in auditory scene analysis and timbre perception. Analyses of orchestration treatises and musical scores reveal an implicit understanding of auditory grouping principles by which many orchestral effects and techniques function. We will explore how concurrent grouping cues result in blended combinations of instruments, how sequential grouping into segregated melodies or stratified (foreground and background) layers is influenced by timbral similarities and dissimilarities, and how segmental grouping cues create formal boundaries and expressive gestural shaping through changes in instrumental textures. This exploration will be framed within an examination of historical and contemporary discussion of orchestral effects and techniques.

scholarly journals Intelligibility Redux

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Zayaruznaya
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
School Culture ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Auditory Scene Analysis ◽  
Scene Analysis ◽  
Multiple Texts ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Auditory Scene ◽  
Choir School

The medieval composers of polytextual motets have been charged with rendering multiple texts inaudible by superimposing them. While the limited contemporary evidence provided by Jacobus’s comments in theSpeculum musicaeseems at first sight to suggest that medieval listeners would have had trouble understanding texts declaimed simultaneously, closer scrutiny reveals the opposite: that intelligibility was desirable, and linked to modes of performance. This article explores the ways in which 20th-century performance aesthetics and recording technologies have shaped current ideas about the polytextual motet. Recent studies in cognitive psychology suggest that human ability to perform auditory scene analysis—to focus on a given sound in a complicated auditory environment—is enhanced by directional listening and relatively dry acoustics. But the modern listener often encounters motets on recordings with heavy mixing and reverb. Furthermore, combinations of contrasting vocal timbres, which can help differentiate simultaneously sung texts, are precluded by a blended, uniform sound born jointly of English choir-school culture and modernist preferences propagated under the banner of authenticity. Scholarly accounts of motets that focus on sound over sense are often influenced, directly or indirectly, by such mediated listening.

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