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The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing Volume I: Development Frank A This article was downloaded by: 10.3.98.104 On: 24 Sep 2021 Access details: subscription number Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG, UK The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing Volume I: Development Frank A. Russo, Beatriz Ilari, Annabel J. Cohen An Evolutionary Perspective on the Human Capacity for Singing Publication details https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315163734-3 Nicholas Bannan Published online on: 09 Jun 2020 How to cite :- Nicholas Bannan. 09 Jun 2020, An Evolutionary Perspective on the Human Capacity for Singing from: The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume I: Development Routledge Accessed on: 24 Sep 2021 https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315163734-3 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR DOCUMENT Full terms and conditions of use: https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/legal-notices/terms This Document PDF may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproductions, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The publisher shall not be liable for an loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. 3 AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON THE HUMAN CAPACITY FOR SINGING Nicholas Bannan Introduction As ideas about evolution and the origins of the human species emerged during the 19th century, several commentators proposed the idea that the phenomenon of music is as universal and deserving of explanation as that of language. The musicality of speech and the inter- dependent development of music and language had already been debated by French Enlight- enment scholars in the 18th century, including the composer and music theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau and philosopher and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Thomas, 1995). Contempor- ary with the French Encyclopedists, advances in the sciences of geology and systematic botany and zoology provided a new landscape for considering the place of mankind in the cosmos, beginning with the distribution of our species across the planet. Perhaps influenced by his geologist brother Alexander’s speculations on global patterns in the natural world, Wilhelm von Humboldt discerned in his major 1836 work on the development of linguistic variability (von Humboldt, 1971) that humans are a singing species. The writings of both of the Hum- boldt brothers were known to Charles Darwin, whose publication of Descent of Man in 1871 set out and exemplified the theory of sexual selection through tracing the role of communica- tion between the male and female of conspecifics, from the interaction of, for example, snails and spiders via the birds and lower mammals to the primates and, finally, Homo sapiens (Bannan, 2017). Darwin’s conclusion was that language had its origins in a form of communi- cation that was pre-verbal and thus musical (Darwin, 1871, pp. 632–639). For the ensuing century, the consensus appeared to be that Darwin misunderstood music, and that his specula- tion could not compete with the Spenserian interpretation that music developed as a form of heightened speech: ‘In the beginning was the Word’; ‘Whereof we cannot speak, we should pass over in silence’ (Wittgenstein, 1922).1 An alternative tradition embracing Helmholtz, Nietzsche, and Jesperson (Bannan, 2012a) proposed a model whereby song presented the ana- tomical and neural preconditions essential to the production of language. This interpretation resurfaced in theories of singing teaching that linked the acoustic investigations of Manuel Garcia in the 19th century to German-born practitioners educated in a milieu influenced by Sachs and Hornbostel in early 20th-century Berlin, such as Hustler and Manén (Bannan, 39 Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 21:12 24 Sep 2021; For: 9781315163734, chapter3, 10.4324/9781315163734-3 Nicholas Bannan 2012b). Singing began to be viewed as instinctive, emotional, and physiologically efficient: as a behavior that grew out of infant responses to their environment in which ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny as maturation occurs and vocal learning accelerates. During the last 30 years, a new consensus has emerged based on research in several discip- lines that has accorded increased significance to explaining the evolutionary origins and pur- pose of music, and that has revisited Darwin’s speculation on musical behavior representing a bridge between animal communication and the development of language. Among an increasing and varied literature reviewed in Bannan (2012a, 2017), key contributions have been made by musicologists John Blacking (1974) and Nils Wallin (1991), archeologists Steven Mithen (2005) and Iain Morley (2013), and neurologists Terrence Deacon (1998) and Alan Harvey (2017). A shift in perspective regarding the nature of singing and its place in the development of culture has considerable implications for the practice of singing, its role in education and encul- turation, and the lifelong continuation of participation in the social behavior it represents. If, evo- lutionarily, music is ‘the most important thing we ever did’ (Cross, 1999), then it is not a luxury, nor a trait of which only the talented few are capable; nor is it a side-benefit of language. Singing can be viewed as the means by which musicality emerged as an instinctive and normal behavior, arising naturally in interpersonal communication from birth onwards, primed by auditory experi- ence in the womb, developed through spontaneous play, associated with both emotional and cognitive responses to the environment and within the processes of socialization that govern exchange with others. It is a genetically endowed, universal ability awaiting the release and prac- tised mastery that culture affords. Every human is, through song, capable of original, meaningful utterance. We will explore the consequences of this viewpoint for the practice of singing as we encoun- ter it today, acknowledging that poorly conceived educational and cultural assumptions represent a threat to the universal engagement in singing that an evolutionary model implies. As a consequence, we are forced to explain why so many people, including children, brought up in Western-style industrialized societies view themselves, or are described by others, as unable to sing (Ruddock, 2016). Among the features we will consider are: interpretation of the strategies employed in vocal education, including teaching people to sing who have been led to believe that they cannot; evidence for the physiological and psychological benefits of singing; and illustra- tion of the role of singing across the whole life-cycle, including its place in parenting, and in coping with conditions such as dementia. The Similarities and Differences between Speech and Song Darwinian evolutionary theory as its author initially conceived it presents a stark proposal: if an evolved phenomenon such as the peacock’s tail were to prove too costly to maintain – in render- ing the male of the species prone to a lessened capacity to avoid predators – then it will lead to eventual extinction. This has been the fate of more species than currently inhabit our planet, including several of our closest genetic relatives. The benefits of language for human survival are clear: as a system for the communication and storage of information, it permits planning for the future, recall of circumstances that inform such planning, and leadership that governs concerted action. For nomadic groups and urban dwellers alike, language confers advantages to hunting and gathering, the transmission of knowledge to the next generation, and to mutual protection, that are unique to the human species. Yet humans possess a complementary communication system with very different properties to language that exploits the same anatomical features to permit different forms of interaction: and which can appear by comparison imprecise, trivial, and costly. This is music, and it represents both song itself and the capacity for extension, beyond the body 40 Downloaded By: 10.3.98.104 At: 21:12 24 Sep 2021; For: 9781315163734, chapter3, 10.4324/9781315163734-3 An Evolutionary Perspective on Singing in which its expression first evolved, to the use of tools – musical instruments – that permit a wide range of pitched, rhythmic, and timbral complements to, and surrogates for, the act of singing. While both vocal and instrumental music are universal, the deep evolutionary origins of the ability to sing do not appear to confer the same advantages for precise communication and informed action as language. Why, then, has song survived? A comparison between the characteristic properties of song and speech illustrates both their independent features and the overlap between them: Speech tends to be: Wordless song tends to be: Serial (as in using a two-way Simultaneous (affording unison/ radio) harmony) Grammatically organized Rhythmically organized Referential Non-referential Prosodic Melodic Linear Repetitive Researchers have suggested that the modern forms of these modes of oral communication might have had a relatively recent common origin, a musi-language able to adapt to both roles
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