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Biomusicology, and Three Biological Paradoxes About Music

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Biomusicology, and Three Biological Paradoxes About Music Bulletin of Psychologyand the Arts Vol4 (r) questfor Galton's G. J ournal of Pers onal ity and So c ia I P'sycho I o gy, 60, 607- world. 619. The biological approachto music has met many critics in musicology, Simonton,D. K. ( I 993a).Creative genius in music:Mozart andother compos- ethnomusicology,and evenmusic psychology.The point of this article is to perils ge- ers.ln P. F. Ostwald& L. S. Zegans(Ed.), Thepleasures and of demonstratethat biomusicology doesindeed offer greatpromise in illuminat- MostlyMozart (pp. 1-28).New York: InternationalUniversities Press. nius: ing featuresof music that arenot traditionallyaddressed by musicological, Simonton,D. K. ( I 993b).Esthdtique et cr6ativitden musiqueclassique: Ce que or cultural approaches.This articlewill discussthree biological lesordinateurs peuvent ddcrypter ?r partir des six premidresnotes. Bulletin de humanistic Psychologie,46, 476-483. paradoxesabout music, one associated with eachofthe threemajor branches Simonton,D. K. (1994).Computer content analysis of melodicstructure: Clas- ofbiomusicologyjust mentioned.The issuesraised by thesethree paradoxes sicalcomposers and their compositions.Psychology of Music,22,3l-43. are so fundamental to the nature of music that we could scarcely hope to Simonton,D. K. ( I 995).Drawing inferences from symphonicprograms: Musi- developa true understandingof musicwithout addressingthem. cal attributesversus listener attributions. Music Perception,12,307-322. The Evolutionary Paradox: Music's Apparent Lack of Survival Value D. K. (1997).Products, persons, and periods: Historiometric analy- Simonton, CharlesDarwin setdown the first biologicaltheory of music in a 10-page sesof compositionalcreativity. In D. Hargreaves& A. North (Eds.),Tle so- passage his l87l bookThe Descentof Man, and Selectionin Relationto cial psychologyof music(pp.107-122). New York: OxfordUniversity Press. of Simonton,D. K. (i998). Fickle fashionversus immortal fame: Transhistorical Sex. In doing so, he addressedwhat he saw as the fundamentalbiological assessmentsof creative productsin the opera house.Journal of Personality paradoxabout music: music has many costsfor the individualbut no obvious and Social Psychology, 75, 198-210. survival benefits."As neitherthe enjoymentnor the capacityof producing Simonton,D. K. (2000a).Creative development as acquired expertise: Theoreti- musical notesare facultiesofthe leastdirect use to man in referenceto his cal issuesand an empiricaltest.Developmental Review,20,283-318. ordinary habits in life, they must be rankedamongst the most mysteriouswith is the Simonton,D. K. (2000b).The music or the words? Or, how important which he is endowed," statedDarwin in a famouspassage. The kinds of costs librettofor an opera'saesthetic success? Empirical Studiesofthe Arts, 18, that evolutioniststalk about arenot thoseinvolved in purchasingconcert tick- 105-l l rJ. playersbut ratherthe investmentin time and energyrequired to Simonton,D. K. (2001). Emotion and compositionin classicalmusic: ets or CD Historiometricperspectives. In P.Juslin & J. Sloboda(Eds.), Music and emo- producemusic. In tribal cultures,rituals involving music and dancecan last tion: Theoryand resettrch (pp.205-222). New York:Oxfbrd University Press. for severaldays on end.Spending this amountoftime andenergy singing and Steck,L., & Machotka,P. ( I 975).Preference for musicalcomplexity: Efl'ects of dancingdoes nothing to help you find food or fight offpredators.Ifanything, context.Journal of Erperimental Psychologt: Human Perceptionand Per- it doesexactly the opposite:it consumesgreat amounts ofresources and an- formance-I 04. 170-114. nouncesyour presenceto potentialpredators. Vitz, P.C. (1964).Preferences for ratesofinformation presentedby sequences Darwin's solution to the evolutionaryparadox was to arguethat music tones.Journal of ExperimentalPsychology, 68, l'76-183. of evolved by "sexual selection"as a form of courtshipbehavior, akin to the vocal courtshipdisplays ofinsects, frogs, and birds. Darwin pointedout that DeanKeith Simonton many of theseanimal vocalizations were performed exclusively by the male Departmentof Psychology ofthe species,and that they tendedto be expressedprimarily during the breed- One ShieldsAvenue ing season.His basichypothesis was that musictoo evolvedby sexualselec- Universityof Califomia,Davis tion as a meansof "charming the oppositesex". This idea was revived and California956 1 6-8686. given all the accoutrementsof modembiological theorizing by Geoffrey Miller in his book The Mctting Mind: How Sexual Selection Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature (2000). However,there are critical problemswith Darwin's courlshiphypothesis 6 of music.The entiremotivation behind Darwin's theory of sexualselection Biomusicology,and three biological paradoxesabout music was to explain so-calledsexual dimorphisms. Think about the peacock'sspec- StevenBrown tacular,multi-colored tail. This is a featureofpeacocks that is noticeablyab- UniversityofTexas Health Science Center sentin peahens.It is one ofa largenumber oftraits found in one sexbut not the other,traits such as singing in many singing species.Darwin proposed Biomusicologyis a new scientificdiscipline whose subject matter is the that sexually-dimorphictraits evolved to servea role in coudship,and this has evolutionaryorigins, brain mechanisms,and universal cultural properties of indeedbeen borne out for many suchanimal traits by behavioralecologists. musicand musical behavior. It is a syntheticdiscipline that sits at the interface The fundamentalproblem with Darwin's theory of music is that musicis between scienceand art, and between biology and culture. The term not a sexually-dimorphictrait a/ a//. With the exceptionof their higher-pitches just biomusicologywas coined by Nils Wallin in the title of his 1991book voices,women are ascapable as men ofproducing and perceiving music, Biomus ico Io gy. N europhysio logica l, Nettropsyc ho logica I ond Evolutio nary and girls developmusical competence in parallelto boys during childhood Perspective.son the Origins and Purposesof Music. Although there had been and adolescence.This alone shouldforce us to reject Darwin's solution on more than a centuryof researchinto the evolutionaryorigirrs, brain mecha- face value. Consistentwith this absenceof sexualdimorphisnt for musical nisms,and universalcultural properties of musicbefore 1991,Biomtrsicology capacityis the correspondingabsence of any specificrole lbr music-making wasthe birth of a new approachto music.In it, Wallin outlineda nelrrobio- in human courtshipin a mannerresembling such a role in insects,frogs, and logicaltheory ofmusic basedon theproperties ofthe centraland peripheral birds. auditorysystems, and most especially on their interactionwith the attentional Are thereother possible solutions to Darwin'sparadox'/ One which is much eurdreward systemsof the brain that mediatebehaviors important fbr sur- more in line with ethnomusicologicalresearch and theory is to saythat music vival.A centralfbcus of Wallin'sdiscussion was lateralization of functionin evolvedas a cooperativedevice to enhancegroup survival (Brown, 2000a). in the brainand the importanceof this phenomenonto the perceptionof musical By this "group selection"scenario, the individualfitness costs involved soundpatterns. In discussingthe evolutionary origins of mr.tsic,Wallin capi- rnakingmusic are ofliet by survival benefitsto the whole group, where the talizedon his upbringingin the Jiimtlandregion of Swedenby highlighting groupserves as a vehiclefor individualsurvival. As musicin traditionalcul- - therelevance of ancientanimal-herding calls - andmost especially the kdlning turesis associatedwith virtuallyevery function of collectiveimportance cer- to therrrigirrs ol rttttsicaltotntttttnicatiott. includinghunting, harvests, rainfall, births, deaths, marriages, religious these Biomusicologyis comprisedof threemain branches (see Brown, Merker emonies,healing, trance, and the like thenmusic's association with investtime andWallin, 2000).Et,olutionarv musicolog.r'deals with the evolutionaryori- activitiesand events could explain its survivaladvantages. People collec- ginsof mr-rsic,both in temrsof a contparativeapproach to vocal comr. unica- andenergy in makingmusic because it promotesactivities that snpport - tion in animalsand in termsof anevolutionary approach to theemergence of tive survival.It mustbe mentionedthat the conceptof"group selection" thanthe nrusic-makingin the hominid line. Neurutntttsicctlogvdeals with the neural predicatedon the ideathat natural selection can act a level higher since andcognitive nrechanisms of n-rusicalperception, production and emotion, as individualorganism hasbeen a pariahnotion in evolutionarybiology itrrecent years well aswith the developmentof rnusicalcapacity tiom the l'etalstage through the 1960'sbut thatit is makinga comebackwith a vengeance to discussthis to old age.Contpurcttive mrr.slcolr-rgl deals rvith the llnctiotls, uses,and con- (e.g.,Sober and Wilson, 1998). While I don't havethe space groupsc-lection is not trol mechanismsof music in all humancultures, inclLrding such consider- controversyhere (see Brown, 2000a),I believethat of musicin thehu- ationsas the contcxts and contents ofnlusic events,the advantages and costs only thesole theory capable of explainingthe emergence pieceofevidence fbr of musicn'raking tbr collectivesurvival, and the comparative t-eatures of mu- man speciesbut alsothat nrusic is probablythe strongest performancestyles throughor.rt the g.oup selectionin humanevolutionary
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