34 music degree zero

34. Music Degree Zero?

Could music have originated as a result of the same speciation event

that created what anthropologists call "Anatomically Modern Humans"

(AMH)? And was this a sudden or gradual process? I've been doing some

reading on an evolutionary theory called "Punctuated Equlibrium," as

formulated by Ernst Mayr, Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, that

makes a great deal of sense to me. According to this theory,

speciation is not a gradual process, as most evolutionists once

believed, but relatively sudden, the result of the marginalization and

drastic reduction in size of certain populations -- i.e., the sort of

bottlenecks that can lead to founder effects, the same sort of

mechanism the population geneticists are exploring with respect to

human history and what I've been considering as the most likely

explanation for the origin of certain musical style families. It

occurred to me that perhaps the best way to deal with the question of

musical origins was to consider human speciation in such terms and

work the musical evidence into that context -- but on second thought

I'm afraid such a discussion would be too speculative and take us too

far afield, so have decided to put it on the back burner, at least for

now.

Let's return instead to our most problematic question and try to deal

with it as simply and straightforwardly as possible: is there a basis

for thinking that any or all aspects of A1 might have originated in

some form of pre-homosapiens vocalizing, as exemplified in the

vocalizing of certain of our primate cousins today? I've already

discussed, in section 21, some of the clues I've been following,

primarily the "duetting" and "chorusing" of various species of apes,

notably bonobos, as described by Merker and de Waal, but also Siamang

gibbons, as their duetting has been carefully studied and some

excellent videos are available. Here again are the links to the

Siamang videos, to refresh your memory. And here's one more, an

excellent example of Siamang chorusing. Pay special attention to the

tendency of the animals to shout, or if you prefer "bark," back and

forth in a reasonably steady rhythm. Scientists in fields such as

primatology, paleontology, cognitive science and linguistics are

paying close attention to this sort of phenomenon, apparently quite

common among many different ape species, which is being carefully

studied for its possible relevance to the origins of both music and

speech. While all sorts of speculations are being proferred,

pertaining to the essential nature of both of these very distinctive

human accomplishments, considered in the abstract, in terms of

genetics, cognition, infant psychology, brain anatomy, linguistic

theory, etc., no one aside from myself appears to believe that

ethnomusicological research could have some relevance and might lead

to some insights in this area.

My own thinking in this regard has been profoundly influenced by the

research presented in my "Echoes" essay, where I was able to

demonstrate, to my satisfaction at least, that certain musical style

families can persist for tens of thousands of years essentially

unchanged. While some of the ideas presented in that essay are

admittedly speculative, that conclusion is, for me, rock solid, as the

evidence is truly overwhelming. And if that's the case, then it does

make sense to consider whether any of these families could possibly be

survivals from the earliest history of the human species.

I've zeroed in on what I call "shouted hocket" for several reasons:

first, because, as I argued in the essay, it has a "pedigree" taking

it all the way back to Africa well prior to the "Out of Africa"

migration; second, because, for many reasons also discussed in the

essay, "Pygmy/ Bushmen" interlock appears to be the earliest of all

musical style families, with shouted hocket representing P/B in its

simplest, most elemental form; third, because shouted hocket so

dramatically resembles exactly the sort of primate duetting and/or

chorusing that's been getting so much attention from so many

scientists interested in musical and linguistic origins.

What makes the connection even more compelling, however, is the

evidence I've been considering in the last few posts with respect to

A1a, the subfamily of A1 characterized by the sort of gutteral,

"panted" vocalizing involving rapid alternation of in- and out-

breaths verging on hyperventilation -- as exemplified by circumpolar

"throat-singing," the Bushmen Tcoqma ceremony and the ritualized

chanting of Maasai warriors. Many primates vocalize in a remarkably

similar manner, as exemplified by the so-called "pant-hoots" commonly

heard among both bonobos and chimps, but possibly also the very rapid

duetting and chorusing sequences I've been focusing on. According to a

recent article in the International Journal of Primatology, "Apes and

larger gibbons may be able to produce fast extended call sequences

without the risk of hyperventilating because they can re-breathe

exhaled air from their air sacs. Humans may have lost air sacs during

their evolutionary history because they are able to modify their

speech breathing patterns and so reduce any tendency to

hyperventilate." (The whole issue of the role of primate air sacs in

continuous vocalizing raises all sorts of interesting questions with

respect to possibly related issues in musical evolution, such as the

the role of certain instruments requiring recycling of the breath,

such as the didjeridoo, or instruments like the bagpipe, with air sacs

built in.)

On this basis, we could postulate a situation in the distant past

where a newly "speciated" band of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH)

were attempting to continue an older tradition involving some

combination of pant-hooting, duetting and chorusing that might have

sounded very much like A1a, only without air sacs, which would have

placed their vocalizing dangerously near the threshold of

hyperventilation, unconsciousness and trance. The only significant

difference between the vocalizing of their predecessors and the newly

minted AMH version would have been the need to work out some sort of

strategy for avoiding or at least delaying hyperventilation and its

effects, which does indeed seem to be an important feature of A1a.

However, the continual danger of falling into trance while vocalizing

in this manner might provide a clue to the common association of music

with trance and the origins of shamanism as well.

According to the above theory (admittedly highly speculative, but

nevertheless rather interesting I should think), style family A1, with

its two branches A1a and A1b, would represent not so much the origin