harmonic, and to metric rhythms. Surely these predispositions are consistent with a
biological basis for music, specifically, for the core abilities that underlie adult musical skill
in all cultures. As Cross^28 notes, evolution acts on the mind by shaping infant predisposi-
tions, and culture shapes the expression of those predispositions. In effect, music is part of
our nature as well as being part of our culture.
Mothers cater to infants’musical inclinations by singing regularly in the course of care-
giving and by adapting their singing style in ways that are congenial to infant listeners.
These ritualized vocal interactions may reflect caregivers’predisposition to share affect and
forge emotional ties by means of temporal synchrony.^142 Perhaps it is not surprising that
infants are predisposed to attend to and appreciate the species-typical vocalizations of their
primary caregiver. Is it surprising that they are also predisposed to attend to specific
structural features of music? Only if music is viewed in a narrow sense, as fully developed
musical systems of particular cultures. Viewed broadly, music embraces what all musical
systems have in common. In that sense, infants begin life as musical beings, being respon-
sive to the primitives or universals that are the foundation of music everywhere.
Acknowledgements
The preparation of this paper was assisted by grants from the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
of Canada.
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