.Music Music.

The book ends just as it began.With the sound of a voice.Perhaps it is

a lone voice emanating from a weeping island or perhaps it is the chorus

of all human beings reminding ourselves just how much we really do

share.As many myths about the origins of music tell us,what is impor-

tant about the sounds of these voices is that they move us:to elation,to

pride,to calm,to action,to tears,to new understanding.What is impor-

tant about these sounds is that they change us,that they tell us who we

are and give our lives some purpose.In Metamagical Themas,Douglas

Hofstader touches on this very point when,in paraphrasing the familiar

refrain,“We can only imagine what incredible pieces Chopin would have

composed had he lived longer”he says,“I cannot imagine who I would

be if I knew those pieces.”Who I would be.Music is very much about

who we are,as individuals,as societies,and even as a species.

But as a species of musical and musically conscious animals,we

wonder about all the other musical species that inhabit our world,and

ask ourselves where our music comes from.Did it come from the music

of the animals or did we just happen to have the same curious fate as

those singing creatures? This is something we need to know if we are to

understand why we are the way we are,and why music is the way it is.

Some say that music came from the gods,but where did the gods get it?

Did they simply imitate the sounds of animals? If that were the case,we

certainly would not have needed the gods for that.So perhaps what the

gods gave us was something more special,something more human,some-

thing that the animals could not have given us directly simply by filling

our world with song.

However it was that we came to have music,we found incredible uses

for it.In fact it became part of all our activities and helped define what

those activities were.It is hard to imagine who we would be if we did not

“know those pieces.”Theories proposed to explain the origins of music

differ not so much in the mechanisms they invoke as in the types of

musical expressions that they choose to focus on,because there is so

much to look at.Some talk about the tones of our voice when we talk

to babies,others about the tones and rhythms of our utterances in

general,others about wooing the girl or boy we desire,others about

making the work group more workable,yet others about strengthening

the bonds that hold people together.The real point is that music is so

ubiquitous and so important that human culture just would not be

human culture without it.This seems like a safe conclusion.And so we

have no choice but to listen to music;not simply to listen to music but

to listento music,to what it is telling us about ourselves.

27

Listening to Music