Come,wolf,bite this baby
He won’t sleep
(Colombo 1983:60)Dissanayake (1992) proposed a universal,biologically based disposi-
tion to “make things special,”a “drive”to embellish valued objects,
events,and states of being to set them apart from ordinary objects,
events,and states.From this perspective,songs could be considered
embellishments of human vocal communication or ritualized expressions
of love,hope,or complaint.In all likelihood,this type of behavior,by
ministering to the emotional needs of mother and infant,promotes rec-
iprocal affectional ties (Trehub and Trainor 1998).Consequences for Musical Structure
The proposed processing universals that were derived from infants’ per-
ceptual abilities have their counterparts in universals or near-universals
of musical structure.Indeed,examination of music from different regions
and historical periods reveals greater relative emphasis on global features
(e.g.,contour,rhythm) than on local details (e.g.,specific pitch levels and
durations);the prevalence of small-integer frequency ratios (2:1, 3 :2,
4 :3),unequal scale steps,and preferred rhythms;and existence of a special
genre of music for infants (e.g.,lullabies).These parallels between per-
ceptual processing predispositions and musical features across cultures
lend credence to Terhardt’s (1987) contention that composers intuitively
create patterns that build on universal principles of pattern perception.
In their own informal way,mothers intuitively create performances that
are remarkably well suited to the needs and abilities of their immature
audience,who reciprocate with age-appropriate gratitude.
Archeological evidence is responsible for raising further intriguing
questions about musical universals.One such example concerns an
ancient Sumerian love song from approximately 1400 b.c.that was
decoded from clay tablets found in the Middle East (Kilmer,Crocker,
and Brown 1976).Listeners at the song’s North American premiere did
not hear the exotic melody that they had anticipated;what they heard,
instead,sounded like an ordinary lullaby,hymn,or folk song (Forsburgh
1974;Schonberg 1974).This feeling of familiarity may have originated in
the apparent diatonicity of the underlying scale.Kilmer,Crocker,and
Brown (1976) remained confident about the precise pitch relations
between notes of the song,if not about its pitch level.Their claim of
small-integer frequency ratios in music from 1400 b.c.is consistent with
a biological basis for such ratios.
Another piece of archeological evidence concerns Ivan Turk’s discov-
ery of a Neanderthal “flute”(approximately 44,000 years old),whose441 Human Processing Predispositions