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Music is an important part of our lives. We connect and interact with it daily and use it as a way of projecting our self-identities to the people around us. The music we enjoy – whether it’s country or classical, rock n’ roll or rap – reflects who we are.
But where did music, at its core, first come from? It’s a puzzling question that may not have a definitive answer. One leading researcher, however, has proposed that the key to understanding the origin of music is nestled snug in the loving bond between mother and child.
In a lecture at the University of Melbourne, Richard Parncutt, an Australian-born professor of systematic musicology, endorsed the idea that music originally spawned from ‘motherese’ – the playful voices mothers adopt when speaking to infants and toddlers.
As the theory goes, increased human brain sizes caused by evolutionary changes occurring between one and 2,000,000 years ago resulted in earlier births, more fragile infants and a critical need for stronger relationships between mothers and their newborn babies.
According to Parncutt, who is based at the University of Graz in Austria, ‘motherese’ arose as a way to strengthen this maternal bond and to help ensure an infant’s survival.
“If babies were born earlier it is clear they would need better care in order to survive ... this would involve the baby communicating its state and needs more clearly to the mother,” says Parncutt.
“All that makes it very likely that motherese evolved as an evolutionary adaptation in response to this development. To that story we can add a large amount of modern empirical evidence for the musical nature of motherese and for the musical abilities of infants,” he adds.
Although it may sound cute – even nonsensical – on the surface, ‘motherese’ is actually a sophisticated form of communication. According to Parncutt it contains structural musical elements such as rhythm and melody, and codes that babies and mothers can understand.
It also contains cross-cultural similarities with regard to the physical gestures and movements it incorporates – an important consideration when examining the origin of music.
“The sonic-gestural vocabulary tells both mother and infant about the current physical and emotional state of the other, as well as the current state of play between them,” says Parncutt.
“Here, emotions such as surprise and disappointment are learned for the first time in a social and musical context. It is about survival in that it motivates the mother to care for the infant and gives her information about the infant’s needs.” For example, mothers will be able to understand when their babies are tired or hungry, he explains.
Another important element of the ‘motherese’ dialogue is its prenatal origins. A foetus begins hearing nearly four months before birth, during which time it regularly hears its mother’s voice, footsteps, heartbeat, and digestive sounds – all of which provide information to the baby about its mother’s emotional state.
Evolution of Music
I've just finished writing Sex, Genes & Rock 'n' Roll (available in June from New South books) in which I pay some close attention to the role of music in mate choice and mating. As Camille Paglia says "it's all about lust, and being aroused by lust". I would love to write a feature for Cosmos on the links between music and sex - and why so many Rock stars die at 27.
Rob Brooks
www.robbrooks.net