The Origins of Music: Preface - Preface

that today many specialists of cognitive science speak of tonal music—

but they never say “tonal”—as a privileged field for the study of the func-

tions of the human brain.After mathematics and language,music

becomes the object of their preference.

Neurophysiological Cognitivism

All generative theories of human competence have an implicit reason-

ing that could become circular through a drift of psychologism or cog-

nitivism.Concerning the GTTM,the virtual circle is as follows:the

existence of an innate musical competence is postulated that allows the

listener to understand an infinite number of musical sentences.This com-

petence is construed in terms of a model based on the tonal system with

its hierarchical grouping structure.A listener’s understanding of music is

interpreted in these terms,and corresponding mental operations are

attributed to the listener that are taken to be the product of the compe-

tence we started out with.Nothing is easier to prove than the psycho-

logical reality of this tonal grammar:it is enough to apply experimental

paradigms well established in psycholinguistics to tonal music,which is

what most research in vogue today does.

This vicious cognitive circle can be broken in only two ways:either

prove not only the psychological reality of the GTTM (i.e.,its reduction

procedures) but the reality and the specificity of neural circuits corre-

sponding to this competence;or validate certain properties in the com-

prehension of atonal music.In both cases,the task is difficult and the

approach is unclear.

The Question of Psychological Reality

The first alternative is in the logic of gestalt theory itself,since it consists

of looking for certain physiological isomorphisms,or rather certain

physiological equivalences,in psychological systems of specialized com-

petencies.It helps to examine briefly one of these models,since it

demonstrates the epistemological risks involved.

According to the modularity model,the human cognitive system is

composed of physically separate subsystems,each one corresponding to

a specific body of knowledge or procedures.These subsystems are

autonomous and can be modified without important changes to the total

system.Such a modular system is more economical and efficient than

nonmodular,interdependent systems,and corresponds quite well to the

general hypothesis of cognitivism;that is,the existence of specific,bio-

logically determined,relatively independent competencies.In domains

of both pathology and human cognition we find confirmation of the

453 Innate Competencies in Musical Communication