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 betweenscience and 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 biology. sicalsystems. mr-rsical fbrms, and n-ttsical l 5 Vol 4 (l) Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts A solutionto the first biologicalparadox about nrusic states that music's Neuroscientificstudies, and especially neuroimaging studies, have donc survivalvalue lies not at thelevel ofthe individualbut insteadat the level of much to shed light on the natureof the musicalbrain. Studiesover the last the group,and that music evolved as a cooperativedevice to supportgroup decadehave provided evidence for a roleofthe right superiortemporal lobe in survival.There is an abundanceofethnographic evidence in supportofthis melodicprocessing (Zatorre, Evans and Meyer, 1994; Zatorre and Belin, 2001 ), rolein all humancultures. Music evolved not principallyas a meansfor men the inferior part of Broca'sarea for both monophonicsinging and vocal har- to competewith one anotherfor ntatesbut, quitethe opposite,as a meansfor monization(Perry et al., 1999;Brown et al.,submitted), and the cerebellurn groupsofindividuals to cooperatewith oneanother for collectiveand coordi- andbasal ganglia for rhythmicprocessing (Penhune, Zatorre and Evans, I 998; natedaction. But don't be fooledinto thinkingthat this is somekind of fcel- Rao,Mayer and Harrington, 2001). In addition,playing and Iistening to mu- goodtheory of music.It isn't.Croup solidarity is a completelydouble-edged sic arestrong sources of positiveemotion for people.Music unquestionably sword.Music canbe just aseffective in bringingout people'smost ethnocen- stimulatesthe attentionaland reward systemsof the brain,as Nils Wallin so tric urgeto annihilateoutgroup members as it can in pron-rotinguniversal love amply discussedinBiomusicology. Studies from the Montrealneuroimaging andtolerance (Brown, 2000a).Music canpromote group warfare as much as group confirmedeveryone's deepest intuitions that nusic iisteningdoes in- groupwelfare. deedactivate parts of the "limbic" brain involved in emotionalprocessing, The Neural Paradox:Music's Neurocognitive Specificity areassuch as the parahippocampalgyrus and orbitofronialcortex (Blood et Darwin's analysisof musicality asone of the most "mysterious"faculties al.,1999;Blood and Zatone,200l). Finally,I haveargued elsewhere rhat with which humansare endowedis really a damnationof musicas a kind of language,far from being a scaffoldupon which musi,-developed, is truly a vestige.A similarview hasbeen echoed in more recenttimes by cognitive sisterfunction to music,and that the two co-evolvedfrom a common com- psychologists,who seemusic in equallymysterious terms. They arequick to municativeprecursor during the courseof humanevc lution (Brown, 2000b). suggestthat music is an ancillary add-on,not a primary cognitivefunction Evidencethat could lend supportto this speculativethesis is a demonstration like language(Pinker, 1997).Not only is music inessentialfor survivalin the of "neural parallelism"between music and language,in part reflectedin re- Darwiniansense but it seemsto be equallyirrelevant for cognitionin general. ciprocalhemispheric specialization (Brown, 2001; Brown et al., in prepara- In my opinion, the largepropaganda movement that has emergedin recent tion; seealso Zatone, Belin andPenhune, 2002). yearsdedicated to persuadingthe public thatmusic enhances intelligence has Studiesof the musicalbrain are stitl very much in their infancy.By com- only addedfuel to the fire that music is little more than a "support" for other parisonto studiesoflanguage processing,very little is known about the local- more significantcognitive capacities,like mathematicalreasoning. In any case, ization of musical function in the brain. However,a combinationof neuro- we ali know that peoplecan developpsychologicaliy with little intellectual logical and neuroimagingstudies give us groundsfor believing that a fair impairmentin the absenceof music.Music seemsto be inessentialfor human degreeof specificity for music existsin the brain, and that this specificity cognitivefunctioning. encompasses,at the very least,the uniquely-humanfeatures ofharmony and With this backdropin mind, the neuralparadox of musicbecomes a state- meter. ment aboutthe amazingneurocognitive specificity that hasbeen demonstrated The combined solution to the first two paradoxesis that music evolved as a for music over the courseofmore than one hundred yearsofresearch. Neuro- group cooperationand coordinationdevice, and that specific neural areasde- logicalstudies have documented numerous interesting brain lesions that lead voted to harmony and meter evolved in the human brain to mediate these to specific lossesof musical function while sparingother cognitive capacities, processeswhile maintainingtight links to the reward centersof the brain, and conversely,brain lesionsthat destroy much cognitive functioning but that thereby fostering group participation, interpersonalcohesion and social coor- preservemusic. The most spectacularexample of the latter phenomenonwas dination during music-relatedrituals. the Russiancomposer Vasaly Shebalin (1895-1963) who, after losingvirtu- The Cultural Paradox: Music's Lack of Autonomy at the SocialLevel ally all of his languagefunction following a stroke,was ableto composeone The solutionto the neuralparadox involved a demonstrationofthe cogni- of his most powerful musical works, the Fifth Symphony (op. 65), in this tive autonomyof musicfrom othercognitive functions. The culturalpuruio^ condition.But why shouldsuch specificity exist for a functionthat seemsso of music is, in starkcontrast to this, a statementabout music's lack of social irrelevantboth evolutionarily and cognitively? autonomy.Music neverseems to standalone; it is alwaysa part of other ac- The neural paradox becomeseven more intensewhen we considerthat tivities. This point will certainlyseem counterintuitive to peopleraised in music might not merely be a form of artistic expressionbut a way of thinking. Westernculture because the notion ofa "concert" is so ingrainedin our own The psychologist Howard Gardner, in his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The way ofthinting about music. In addition, ever sincethe 19thcentury the con- Theoryof Multiple Intelligences, classified music as one of only seven"intel- cept of "absolutemusic" musicfor its own sake,music devoidof external ligences"that characterizehuman cognition.Much cognitiveevidence sug- referentsor meanings- hasassumed a centralposition in Europeanmusico- geststhat music is a self-containedsyntactic systemakin to speech,invoiving logical thinking, and this has beenaccompanied by a strongrise ofpurely combinatorialgenerative principles and culture-specificcodes of meaning. instrumentalforms in Westemclassical music. However, it is essentialto real- But why shouldthere be sucha largeinvestment in neuraland cognitive space ize that the condition of Westemclassical music is quite removedfrom music's for a function whoseutility seemsso dubious? ancientroots. Concerts are a very recenthuman invention; the first musichall As before,I believethat an answerto this paradoxrequires us to consider was built only in the 171hcentury. In many culturesof the world, and most the adaptivevalue of music at a level higher than the individual.Accepting especiallyin tribal cultures,music is not performed for its own sake;there are the earlier argumentthat music evolved as a group-cooperationdevice allows no public concertsand thereis no listeningto music with a Walkmanin the us to recognize two specific "design features" that reflect a unique role for privacy of one'sbedroom. Music is inextricablyassociated with otheractivi- music in promoting group participation and synchronization,n amelyharmony ties, and most universallywith group ritual activities.In addition,music is andmeter.These are probably the two most human-specificand domain-spe- stronglyassociated with language,where it servesas a vehiclefor the trans- cific feafuresofmusic comparedto other forms of communication in animals missionofhistory ethicalcodes, and sacred texts. It is no accidentthat scrip- and other forms of cognition in humans, and they are in no way explained by turessuch as the Torahand the Qur'an arenever spokenbut only ever chanted. Darwin'scourtship hypothesis. Music is an important device for making words sacredand memorable, for Whereasspeech always involves an altemation of parts (i.e., you speak settingthem apartfrom our regularmanner ofspeaking abouteveryday things. then I respond,and so on), music very often involves a simultaneousblending It is for this reasonthat vocal music takesprecedence over instrumentalmusic ofparts. This is the basisfor such importantmusical featuresas polyphony, in mostcultures; it is an importantmeans of reinforcingcollective ideologies. homophonyand heterophony.The musical systemseems to be particularly How can music be so autonomousat the neurocognitive level and be so lack- well-designedto accommodateacoustic blending in a mannerthat is incon- ing in autonomyat the sociallevel? Let me add herethat my questioningof ceivablefor conversation,and this promotes collective participation in music. the socialautonomy of musicis not a descentinto eitherDarwin's skepticism But in addition,if onewatches the eveningnews on television,one never fails aboutthe utility ofmusic behavioror cognitivepsychologists' skepticism about to seethat when groups ofpeople chant slogansat a political rally, they invari- the cognitive autonomy of musical capacity,because the link that I propose ably do so in a metric fashion.While meteris neverused in face-to-facecon- below betweenmusic andculture is quitespecific in nature. versationit is the major meansby which peopleverbally expressthemselves I believethat the simplestsolution to this paradoxis to saythat musicco- in a collective fashion. Meter is a meansof coordinatingpeople. In group evolved with ritual during the course of human evolution: music and ritual rihrals, this coordination is found not only in verbal communicationbut, more were linked together from their inception. Rituals are specialgroup-wide be- importantly,in group singing,instrument playing, and dancing.Music is the haviorsthat are setapart from the more mundanebehaviors ofdaily living. ideal synchronizationdevice, and it is quite reasonableto assumethat it evolved They are characterizedby their formal natureand highly structuredorganiza- as a cooperativemechanism to coordinate action and promote cohesionat the tion. They servemany important functions for a group, including event mark- , - group level. I o ing, time marking. transmissionof group history and identity,planning and Bulletin of Psychologyand the Arts Vol4 (1) decision making, preparation for group action, social bonding, and conflict York: BasicBooks resolution.Music's role in ritual is quiteunique: music is a generalizedemo- Miller, G. S. (2000). Themating mind: How sexualselection shaped the evolu- tion of human nature. New York: Doubleday. tive manipulator that acts to reinforce and give emotional meaning to those Penhune,Y.B.,Zatone, R. J.,& Evans,A. C. (1998).Cerebellar contribution to (Brown, in press).Music is an enhancerof thingswith which it is associated motor timing: A PET study ofauditory andvisual rhythm reproduction.Jour- cultural objects, especially in the context of ritual events.Music's capacity to nal of Cognitive Neuroscience,I 0, 752-7 65. serve as an enhancerpermits it to act as a potent device for persuasion,and Perry,D. W.,Zatone,R. J.,Petrides, M., Alivisatos,B., Meyer,E., & Evans,A. this capacityis put to use as readily in televisioncommercials and political C. (1999). Localizationof cerebralactivity during simple singing. propagandaas it is in religiousrituals. Music's ability to enhance,persuade, NeuroReporl, I 0, 3979-3984. transform, motivate and move can be used for both socially-positive and so- Pinker, S. (1997). How the mind works. New York: Norton. (2001). cially-negative ends. It can support hate as much as tolerance,destruction as Rao, S. M., Mayer,A. R., & Harrington,D. L. The evolutionof brain activationduring temporal processing. Nature Neuros cience, 4, 3 17-323. much as healing.The important social consequenceof this is that music is Sober,E., & Wilson,D. S. (1998).Unto others: The evolution and psychologt politically featuresofany society,and this hasbeen one ofthe most controlled of unselfishbehavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. well documentedby the onslaughtof musicalpropaganda and musicalcen- Wallin, N. L. (1991). Biomusicologt. Neurophysiological,neuropsychological sorship in the 20thcentury and today. and evolutionary perspectiveson lhe origins and purposes of music. One way to understand music's role in ritual is by analogy to a similar Sfuyvesant,NY: PendragonPress. mechanism at the individual level: music is atype of reward system. lnthe Zatone,R. J., & Belin, P. (2001).Spectral and temporalprocessing in human sameway that neuroscientiststalk about neural reward systemsreinforcing auditory cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 11,946-953. individual behavior - for example those that underlie feeding, sex, drug ad- Zatone, R. J., Belin, P., & Penhune,V. B. (2002).Structure and functionof auditory cortex: Music and speech.Trends in Cognilive Sciences,6,37-46. diction and the like - we can think about music as type of social reward Zatone,R. J.,Evans,A. C., & Meyer,E. (1994).Neural mechanisms underlying group-ritual into individual necessities.This is systemthat makes behaviors melodicperception and memory for pitch.Journal ofNeuroscience,I 4,1908- consistentnot only with the ubiquitous associationofmusic to ritual activities 1919. in all human cultures but to the pleasurableand rewarding feelings that music evokeswhen people engagein such activities. Seeingmusic in this way forces StevenBrown to rethink the evolution of human ritual, which hasbeen traditionally explained ResearchImaging Center with reference to the emergenceof language. Music has clearly played an University of TexasHealth ScienceCenter essentialrole in this evolution,as it performsa function that languagedoes 7703 Floyd Curl Dr. MSC 6240 only inefficiently: group-level emotive manipulator and reward system. SanAntonio. Texas.78229-3900 Conclusion: Music Evolved as Ritual's Reward System In discussingthese three biological paradoxesabout music, a ratherunified view ofmusic evolution emerges,a view that revolves around group func- tion. Music's individual fitness costsare offset by group benefits, and there is little conflict between self-interestand music making, especiallywhere there are strict social norms regarding musical participation - such as in all tribal 6 P16cisto an integrated Absolute pitch: Review cultures. During the course of expansion of the hominid brain, new areas Daniel J. Levitin evolved to mediatethis human-specificfunction of music, and most espe- cially its unique design features of harmony and meter, features that foster McGill University group participation and interpersonalsynchronization. But music is a hedonic Absolute Pitch (AP) is generally defined as the ability either to identify the function as well, one which evolved as a type of collective reward system, chroma(pitch class)of an isolatedtone, using labelssuch as C,261 Hz, or making the execution of group actions into a cultural imperative. If I were to Do, or to reproduce a specified tone, e.g. by singing, or adjusting the fre- summarizethis overall view ofmusic, I would say it as follows: musicevolved quency of a variable tone generator, and to do so without reference to an as ritual's reward system,a type of socialneuromodulatory system and group- extemalstandard (Bachem,1937; Baggaley, 197 4;Ward,l999). Whensome- level adaptation(Brown, 2000a). one with AP hearsa car horn, they might say "That's E-flat!" In contrast,if Suchnovel insights into music's cultural functions come aboutonly through you play a tone from the piano and askpeople what you played,most cannot a biological view of music. Biomusicology is poisedto shednew light on tell you (unlessthey watchedyour hand). Peoplewith AP can reliably tell humansocial behavior, from its collectivenature to its emotivefoundations. you, "That was a D-sharp,"and somecan evendo the reverse.Ask them to Dedication: Shortly after this article was compleled, Nils Wallin died. produce a middle C (the centerkey on a piano keyboard), and they will sing or Nils was one of my greatest inspirations. I dedicatethis article to his memory. hum or whistle the pitch for you. Those with AP have memory for the actual References pitchesin songs,notjust the pitchesin relationto one another.In fact,when Blood,A. J., Zatorre,R. J., Bermudez,P., & Evans,A. C. (1999).Emotional most of them hear a song in a different key (and therefore with different responsesto pleasantand unpleasant music correlate with activityin paralimbic pitches),it soundswrong to them. brainregions. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 382-387. Identifying a tone in such a way can be thought ofaspasslve AP, and repro- Blood,A. J.,&Zatorre, R. J. (2001).Intensely pleasurable responses to music ducingthe specifiedtone canbe thoughtof asactive AP.Whether or not they conelatewith activity in brain regionsimplicated in rewardand emotion. possessAP, someindividuals are able to recognizewhether a familiarpiece is Proceedingsof the NationalAcademy of Sciences,9B, I 1818-l1823. played in the correctkey, and/orcan sing a familiar song in the correctkey. (2000a).Evolutionary models ofmusic: From sexual selection to group Brown,S. Note theparallel here between the active-and passive-AP described first: rec- selection.In F.Tonneau, & N. S. Thompson(Eds.) Perspectives in ethoktgy. piece is passive,and reproducinga musical l3: Behaviorevolution and culhtre (pp. 231-281). New York:Plenum Pub- ognizing the key of a musical lishers. piecein the conectkey is active. Becausesome people display these abilities Brown,S. (2000b).The "musilanguage"model of musicevolution. In N. L. only with respectto musical piecesand not individual tones,it is useful to Wallin,B. Merker,& S. Brown(Eds.) Ifte originsof music(pp.27 l-300). distinguishbetween piece-AP andtone-AP (Parncutt and Levitin, 2000). Cambridge,MA: MIT Press. Thereexist someconfusions and misconceptionsin the literaturethat ab- Brown,S. (2001).Are musicand languagehornologues'? [n R. Zatorre,& l. solutepitch involvesmore highly developed perceptualmechanisms, whereas Peretz(Eds.) The biologicolfoundations ofmusic (pp.372-314).New York: the preponderanceofevidence is thatabsolute pitch ability is an ability of NewYork Academy ol-Sciences. long term memoty and linguislic codirg (Deutsch,2002; Levitin, 1996). Brown,S. (ln press)."How doesmusic work?" Towards a musicalpragmatics. pitchhas somewhatinterchangeably In S. Brown, & U. Volgsten(Eds.) Music and manipulalion:On the social Further,thetermperfecl alsobeen used trsesand sociol controloJ music. with the term absolutepilcl in the literaturewhereas in fact, absolutepitch Brown,S., Merker, B., & Wallin,N. L. (2000).An introductionto evolutionary possessorsdo not perceivepitch any betterthan non-absolute pitch possess- musicology.ln N. L. Wallin, B. Merker,& S. Brown (Eds.) Iie origins of ors(Bachem, 1954; Burns & Campbell.1 994; Levitin, I 996).AP possessors music(pp.3-24). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. cantypically tune pitches to within 20-60cents oftarget frequencies (Rakowski Brown,S., Parsons. L. M., Martinez,M. J.,Hodges, D. A., & Fox,P. T. (Submir & Morawska-Biingeleq1987). In passivetasks, they regularlymake semitone ted).The song system ofthe humanbrain. errors(Lockhead & Byrd, l98l; Miyazaki, 1988),and arenot necessarily Brown,S., Parsons,L. M., Martinez,M. J., Hodges,D. A., & Fox, P.T. (ln betterthan other musicians at identityingoctave register (Miyazaki, t988; preparation).Music and language side by sidein thebrain. thereis nothing "perfect" Darwin,C. (187l). T'hedest'ent tf tnun,and selectionin relulion /o se'1.Lon- Rakowski& Morawska-Btingeler,1987). Clearly, don:J. Murray. aboutAP, it is simplythe ability to placeor producetones within nominal Gardner,H. (1981).Frontes oJ nind: Thetheor-t'o.f multipleirrle//igt'rrces. New I 7 catesories.