Klarinet Archive - Posting 000078.txt from 2002/09

From: w8wright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] "Music and the Mind"
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 14:49:08 -0400

A while back, Lelia Loban recommended "Music and the Mind" by Anthony
Storr (a psychologist).

Storr's opening thesis is that the earliest languages (such as ancient
Greek and earlier) began as inflected and rhythmic 'emotive sounds'
without a specific vocabulary, and they conveyed information by
'metaphor' --- that is, by simulation of human responses to pain,
hunger, arousal, etc --- and also by imitation of environmental sounds
that signalled consequences --- such as ferocious thunderstorms,
babbling brooks, plaintive animal calls, etc.

Using ancient Greek as an example, Storr says that ancient Greek
developed from metaphorical communication into a strongly inflected,
rhythmic language with 'objective definitions' for concatenated sounds
(words). But still, most ancient Greek's meaning was lost if the
stresses and pitches were omitted --- particularly where public
ceremonies and early 'law' were concerned.

Thus 'music' and 'language' (says Storr) were the same thing originally,
such that the earliest Greek did not have separate names for 'music' and
'language'. It was all the same thing --- oral communication.

Over the millenia, Storr says that music and language separated, with
pitch and rhythm being replaced by 'tone color', phonemes, etc. But
the 'ancient'=A0parts of our brain and nervous system still respond to
the earliest 'metaphorical', inflected, rhythmic communications.

Hence music and language spring from the same ancestor --- which may
account for the personal feelings that I have about their
interconnection.

FWIW.

I *do* recommend the book to those who are interested in such things,
and thanks to Lelia for citing it in the first place.

Cheers,
Bill

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D

My best guess is that music became possible because of some anatomical
invention that just happens to facilitate interactions between other,
older functions --- for example between some of the brain that does
planning for paths in space and some of the parts involved with
language, or story-like memory systems. @-----.] =A0 It might explain
why hearing certain kinds of sounds might come to give you the feeling
that you understood something, or give you the experience of being in
some other place.
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0---Marvin Minsky

---------------------------------------------------------------------