The Origins of Music: Preface - Preface

to convey linguistic and paralinguistic meaning.Thus,the task of the

musilanguage model is to describe a system containing both rudimen-

tary referential and sound emotion properties such that it might be a rea-

sonable precursor for the evolution of both music and language,and such

that divergence from this precursor stage can be seen as an intensifica-

tion of emphasis rather than the creation of new worlds.

The Musilanguage Stage

The present section attempts to characterize the necessary properties of

the musilanguage stage,and later sections present a description of the

origins of this stage as well as the divergence process that led to the for-

mation of music and language.As will be seen shortly,development of

these ideas was inspired quite a bit by phonological theory in linguistics,

which has (surprisingly) played an even smaller a role in theories of lan-

guage origin than it has in theories of music origin.The idea that speech

and music are systems of expressively intoned sound is well accepted.

But what is often ignored is the extent to which intonational concerns

for melody,rhythm,and phrasing in speech strongly parallel those in

music,not just in a metaphorical sense but in a mechanistic sense.

Several properties of the musilanguage stage contribute to the shared

ancestral features of music and language.To facilitate discussion of a

complex topic,a summary of the argument will guide the reader.I

contend that at least three essential features of a musilanguage device

are necessary for it to qualify as a precursor and scaffold for both lan-

guage and music.

1.Lexical tone:use of pitch to convey semantic meaning.This involves

creation of a tonal system based on level tones (discrete pitch levels).

2.Combinatorial formation of small phrases:generation of phrases by

the combinatorial arrangement of unitary lexical-tonal elements.These

phrases are melodorhythmic as well as semantic structures.One source

of phrase melody is the sequential organization of the pitches con-

tributed by the elemental units.A second one consists of global melodic

formulas.

3.Expressive phrasing principles:use of local and global modulatory

devices to add expressive emphasis and emotive meaning to simple

phrases.Four general mechanisms of phrasing are envisioned that

modify the acoustic features of the phrase to create basic intonational

phrases.

Evolutionarily,this is seen as emerging through a two-step process in

figure 16.3,proceeding from a primary stage of single lexical-tonal units

279 The “Musilanguage”Model of Music