Where does music come from?(theatlantic.com)

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/09/where-does-music-come-from/63160/

1 comments

As a habitual tapper of things and singer of nonsensical syllables, I agree with the conjecture that music originates with the sound of people moving, but it also originates in everything we hear as we sit still and listen to other things move. And like spoken language (I think), as the music we produce grows from its roots, it is influenced by out exposure to cultural artifacts, including other music.

An interesting area for inspection is the spectrum between organic music, technical music, abstract music, and emotional music. Is the original music we produce from simply moving tied to an emotional experience? At what point do we begin understanding music as a language that can exist in absence of physical experience? It'll be a cool book if it delves into these kind of questions.