Dissecting Frogs: the Rise of Music
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October 2009 | Vol. VIII No. 2 One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads Dissecting Frogs: The Rise of Music The Center for the Humanities Jazz arose as a powerfully original musical The difference between appreciating the comedic Advisory Board expression in early 20th century America. It be- timing of a thrown pie or slap to the head, and 2009–2010 came the dominant form of popular dance music intellectually connecting to a joke that makes you Nancy Berg in this country and even globally until roughly laugh depends on one’s awareness of structure, the Associate Professor of Asian and Near mid-century. From the late 1940s on, however, jazz symbolic grammar that informs humor rituals as Eastern Languages and Literatures Ken Botnick transformed itself from “popular” commercial music if they were a linguistic system. Similarly, know- Associate Professor of Art into marginalized “art” music. ing the social, musicological, Gene Dobbs Bradford Executive Director The validity of the arguments and historical context of a Jazz St. Louis regarding the “life” and so- piece of music or an entire Lingchei (Letty) Chen Associate Professor of Modern Chinese called “death” of jazz is the genre helps us understand Language and Literature theme of the current Andrew the creative genius behind Elizabeth Childs Associate Professor and Chair of W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer it, how a particular musician Department of Art History and Archaeology Seminar at Washington manipulated musical structure Mary-Jean Cowell University’s Center for the and captured the feeling of his Associate Professor of Performing Arts Phyllis Grossman Humanities: “How Deep is time, but it does not explain Retired Financial Executive the Ocean: The Rise and Fall the way that some music ma- Michael A. Kahn of Jazz.” The seminar includes nipulates our emotions. Think, Author and Partner Bryan Cave LLP Washington University faculty for example, of the way that Chris King and students as well as teach- military marches or national Editorial Director The St. Louis American Newspaper ers, writers, academics and anthems stir us emotionally, or Olivia Lahs-Gonzales Director musicians from across the the way a Vivaldi concerto in Sheldon Art Galleries country. The seminar started a large cathedral can trans- Paula Lupkin rd Assistant Professor of Architecture September 3 and will contin- port you from your seat on a Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts ue until May 2010, so there is hard wooden bench to a state Erin McGlothlin Associate Professor of German still time to attend (see http:// that is beyond weariness and Steven Meyer cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu). Morton published “Jelly Roll Blues” in discomfort. With music, how- Associate Professor of English 1915, the first jazz work in print. ever, even music with lyrics, Joe Pollack I have always appreciated the Film and Theater Critic for KWMU, understanding this persistence Writer history of music, but I used to Anne Posega feel that analyzing music was like analyzing humor of structure and design is only Head of Special Collections, Olin Library and that both could be compared to dissecting a one of the differences between appreciating and Qiu Xiaolong emotionally connecting. Novelist and Poet frog. It did not seem to be a very interesting exercise Henry Schvey and required, a priori, the death of the frog. I was There are numerous explanations of how and Professor of Drama Wang Ning at least partially mistaken, however. An analysis why music became integral to human life. Music Professor of English, Tsinghua University of a performance by The Three Stooges, where the in the form of birdcalls and other animals’ vocal- James Wertsch Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts and comedic emphasis is on fast physical action and izations, or of moving wind and water would have Sciences ridiculous situations, might kill the frog, but un- been familiar to our pre-human ancestors, and they Director of International and Area Studies Ex Officio derstanding the social context of a joke often makes probably copied and built on the sounds. From Zurab Karumidze the initial laughter a deeper intellectual experience. an evolutionary perspective, however, birdsong is Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia Edward S. Macias Provost & Exec VC for Academic Affairs Gary S. Wihl Dean of Arts & Sciences visit our blog site at http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/pubs/blog.htm editor’s notes continued property of the flute is missing one end and cannot be human brain, or played. Recent excavations at the early perhaps it was Neolithic site of Jiahu, located in Henan cobbled together province, China, however, have yielded from bits of pre- six complete bone flutes 7,000 to 9,000 existing machin- years old, which seem to be the earliest ery and then complete, playable, multi-note musical fine-tuned, or was instruments yet known. These flutes are a mutation that made from wing bones of red-crowned transformed peo- cranes and have from five to eight holes. ple’s perceptions (You can see and listen to them at http:// of the world. In www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/1999/bn- any case, it has lpr092299.html.) Tonal analyses reveal Bone flutes (7,000 to 9,000 years old) found in China. subsequently that the seven holes correspond to a tone been exploited by scale similar to the Western eight-note analogous, not homologous, to human evolution and made functional. People scale, suggesting that Jiahu flutists could song (our common ancestor, a Paleozoic may respond to music because many play more than single notes: They could reptile, did not have the vocal structure natural sounds stir up human emotions have produced what we would recognize to sing). Thus, the human ability for for perfectly good reasons. Think, for ex- as music. vocal learning has evolved indepen- ample, of the fear experienced at the clap Today we seem to have an infinite dently. Instrumental sound generation of thunder preceding a storm or the roar playlist of musical offerings. A few is rare among animals and appears to be of a lion if you are alone on the savan- clicks of the mouse command sounds limited to purely rhythmical elements nah, the relaxing feeling at the sound of of 9,000 year old Neolithic flutes. A pounded out on a chest or drummed on gently running water, or the protective few more clicks and we can hear the the ground or a resonating tree trunk emotions stirred by the crying of a child. Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s 1917 by our closest cousins, the African apes Sexually selected attributes commonly recording of “Livery Stable Blues,” the (chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas). rely on such pre-existing perceptual first jazz recording ever released; or a Thus, instrumental music in the form of biases. Thus, although we have no sure 1920s piece of classic jazz, “Song from a drumming among our closest primate way to know, music could have been Cotton Field” by Bessie Brown; or Duke relatives might be the source of the hu- built on emotions that originally arose in Ellington’s 1941 swing style “Take the man ability for drumming that is found response to natural sounds, but human A Train,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ in the musical cultures of virtually all cognitive evolution has taken this origin Jazz). In fact, the internet gives us access human societies. and expanded it a hundredfold. to a virtual history of recorded music, Music may have been an emergent There are some things we do know. and cheap electronic storage allows us to Although it is possible that instrumental store so much music that it would take Make a Gift to the music among humans is much older, months to hear it all. Yet, despite the the archaeological record we do have gigabytes of music on our i-Pods and Center for the Humanities begins with the discovery of a bone our ability to cast a musical net across oin other donors and supporters flute approximately 37,000 years old. the wide sea of recordings, we seem to to ensure that the Center for the The delicate flute, with five finger holes return to familiar tunes time after time, JHumanities can continue to fulfill apparently carved by stone tools, is the songs that speak to our emotional its mission. Help us continue to made from the wing bone of a vulture. centers. And the question remains: why make the humanities a part of public This flute might have provided the does certain music resonate with us like life and yours. Paleolithic version of a Vivaldi concerto a string quartet in a cathedral or a flute Send your check, payable to in a cathedral. Imagine experiencing in a cave? This is the Washington University, to: skillful playing of such a flute (perhaps frog that I would The Center for the Humanities accompanied by drumming on a hol- rather not dissect. c/o Shannon McAvoy Grass low piece of wood, or on stalactites and Washington University in St. Louis stalagmites) in a cave whose acoustical Campus Box 1202 Jian Leng One Brookings Drive properties would magnify the sound, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 and it is easy to appreciate how powerful Associate Director early music could be. Unfortunately, the Center for the Humanities book of the month by Gerald Early Review of should be taught. 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