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Newent Orchestral
Society Bill's Musical Notes, February, 2010 The Roots of Music I've been reading about the roots of music this month, trying to find out where music comes from in the dim distant past of human evolution, why we developed musical skills and what the point of them is. I haven't really found out but I've gathered a few bits of interesting information along the way. It seems that in our early evolution, when the human brain was developing, the areas of the brain used for processing language and music overlap and it's surmised that the two could have developed as a whole, music developing originally as an important part of communication skills. You can imagine, for example, that the sing-song pattern of speech, exaggerated say by the need to emphasise a point or to express a feeling, eventually developed into melody. Words spoken in a monotone clearly lack expression, but add some changes of intonation and the meaning they carry comes alive. This element of speech is called "prosody". Communication is often expressed physically - think of the continental habit of using the hands and arms during speech to convey or emphasise meaning. It's a short step from this to dance and to rhythm which is another important element of music, together with melody. The brain has developed in a way that encompasses all of this together, in an holistic fashion. Actually, I didn't read all of this particular book (The Singing Neanderthals by Steven Mithen) as it was a bit heavy going, but it sparked off some interesting trains of thought, such as how will this pan out in the future? Well, communication was probably the original function, but this has developed with time and evolution into the encouragement of mutual purpose and unification. Music is now used in bringing people together for common purpose; weddings and funerals spring to mind, church services (the church has always had a big say in the history of music), jingoistic crowd gatherings, national identity, the list goes on. The refinement of this social function of music has developed in recent centuries with the formalities of concert going and its rows of audience sitting enthralled by a shared concert experience. What's this to do with us, I hear you think? It's all part of why our music heritage is important, that is, it's not just the music that we are seeking through heritage to keep in view or preserve, but heritage makes real our links with the people of the past, what they achieved and how that has made us what we are today. Don't forget, too, that the music we make together today will be part of the heritage of generations to come. Bill Anderton, February, 2010 You can receive the Newent Orchestra's monthly email newsletter, including these "Musical Notes". Just ask to be added to our mailing list by emailing your request to info@newentorchestra.org Previous "Musical
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