Music: a natural phenomenon or a cultural invention? A few remarks on the currency of the polemic and its musicological consequences
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Date
2009
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Abstract
The question of musical naturalness has increasingly often been the subject
of lively debates within both natural and human sciences. In the present paper the
issue is discussed primarily in terms of the propositions which accord with the contemporary
naturalistic vision of a human and the world. One of the most important
problems in this context is the opposition between a natural phenomenon and a cultural
invention. Among the vast amount of different human achievements, some demand
strenuous learning whereas other emerge spontaneously in all societies. The
latter type of achievements is the result of the natural selection of human abilities.
Recently, it has been hotly debated whether or not music is a biological adaptation. If
it is, musical abilities should give an important advantage to individuals. There are
numerous examples of the possible advantages. Namely, the music abilities play an
important role in the enhancement of bonding between the mother and her infant
child. Moreover, they are salient in the indication of fitness during sexual display. The
abilities are also vital in the consolidation of a group during social music performance
as well as in the transmission of information about the stability and cohesion of the
group.
If musical abilities are indeed a vital form of adaptations, they may imply some
further questions such as the existence of music-specific abilities and of musical universals,
as well as the distinction between music understood as art and music understood
as universal communication (like language). All these issues have different
methodological consequences for the shape of musicology as a discipline of science.
These are, among others, pre-empting Europocentrism in research, the possibilities
and extension of the use of comparative methods in ethnomusicology, the scope and
applicability of the interdisciplinary studies based on the reductional structure of
knowledge.
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Keywords
naturalism, evolution, cultural invention, adaptation, Mmusical universals, musical abilities, methodology of musicology, reductionism
Citation
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 8, 2009, str. 39-55