Music for Infants
Caregivers in every culture not only speak to their infant charges,they
sing to them (Trehub and Schellenberg 1995;Trehub and Trainor 1998).
The most ubiquitous song,the lullaby,is perceptually distinct from other
song genres.Thus,naive adult listeners can distinguish foreign lullabies
from nonlullabies with comparably slow tempo,even when the musical
culture is entirely unfamiliar (Trehub,Unyk,and Trainor 1993a).Struc-
tural simplicity or repetitiveness is one factor that prompts adults to label
a song as a lullaby;a preponderance of falling pitch contours is another
(Unyk et al.1992).Although reduplicated syllables such as loo-loo,lo-
lo,la-la,na-na,ne-ne,and do-doare common in lullabies across cultures
(Brakeley 1950;Cass-Beggs and Cass-Beggs 1969;Brown 1980),lullabies
are identifiable even when such verbal cues are obscured (Trehub,Unyk,
and Trainor 1993a).
Beyond a distinct repertoire of music for infants,which includes lulla-
bies and play songs (analogous to soothing and playful speech),is a dis-
tinct style of performance for infant audiences.When mothers sing the
same song in two contexts,once directly to their infant and once in the
infant’s absence,naive adult listeners can identify with near-perfect accu-
racy the version sung to an infant (Trehub,Unyk,and Trainor 1993b).
Even when parents (fathers as well as mothers) attempt to reproduce or
simulate their usual performance to infants,but with no infant present,
listeners can still distinguish the genuine or contextually appropriate
version from the simulation (Trehub et al.1997).It is likely that the
infant’s presence alters the caregiver’s emotional state,which,in turn,
affects the vocal musculature (Scherer 1986) and resulting voice quality
(Laver 1980;Fonagy 1981;Sundberg 1991;Tartter and Braun 1994).
In general,sung performances for infants involve higher pitch,slower
tempo,distinctive timbre,and perturbations in fundamental frequency
(jitter) and intensity (shimmer;Trainor,Schellenberg,and Hill 1997;
Trehub et al.1997;Trehub and Trainor 1998),all of which may reflect
heightened emotional expressiveness.High pitch has been associated
with happiness,affection,tenderness,and increased arousal (Fonagy and
Magdics 1963;Ekman,Friesen,and Scherer 1976;Ohala 1984),slow
tempo with tenderness and affection (Magdics 1963;Davitz 1964;Juslin
1997),and frequency and intensity perturbations with greater emotion-
ality (Bachorowski and Owren 1995).Vocal adjustments such as these
do not depend on the singer’s parental status but are evident as well in
songs sung by young children to their infant siblings (Trehub,Unyk,and
Henderson 1994).Although mothers generally produce more expressive
renditions of melody and lyrics than do fathers,parents,especially438 Sandra Trehub