12/25/2022 0 Comments Elements of music![]() ![]() To McDermott’s list I propose adding: amplitude contour of pulse instrument, prevalence of discrete single-frequency units (musical notes), varied pitches and rhythms in the melodies (prosody), the 200–900 Hz frequency range of melodic instruments, and continuity. ![]() ![]() McDermott (2008) identified several universal properties of music: pulse, hierarchal organization of scales (tonality), infant-directed song, dance, and meter. The prevalent sounds of the fetal environment are pulse, respiration, footfalls, and the mother’s voice. When these features are added together and compared to the construct of music it is reasonable to conclude that the part of our brains that is responsible for emotions retains information from and recognizes the sonic environment of the womb. The features of fetal development that make it possible for the fetus to hear sounds, remember (subconsciously) those sounds in adulthood, and respond to them emotionally have been demonstrated in studies that are cited below. These structures are primarily responsible for our emotions and are almost fully formed at birth ( Huang et al., 2006). ![]() The sounds heard by the fetus for four months before birth may permanently etch the foundations of music into the collection of brain structures that form what is commonly known as the limbic system. This outlines a proposal that there is a fetal origin of the fundamental building blocks of music. The proposition that the origin of the common elements of music may be found in the sonic environment of the womb is not inconsistent with a host of other valid premises and observations concerning the developments of the many culturally diverse languages of music. A variety of well-supported explanations for our enjoyment of music such as expectation, maternal and social bonding, and development of narrative through shared activity may be understood as parallel to and not contrary to the bases outlined below. The scope is restricted to the elements of music that may be traced to the sonic environment during fetal development it does not attempt to address the various expressions and uses of music or narrative expression such as those that are found in social connections, communicative support, kinetic synchrony, and motivation. This hypothesis is not intended to be complete nor exclusionary. Is there a correlation between the acoustic features of the common elements of music and the acoustic features of sounds that are present in the natural world? If so, is there a consistent and universal aspect of human development that would allow those sounds from the environment to be implanted as templates of recognition in the brains of peoples of diverse and widely separated cultures? Finally, if that common environment is prenatal, does the neurological development of the fetus allow for the absorption and retention of information from the womb? If the prenatal acoustic environment contains characteristic sounds that are the bases for some of the elements of music, then it should be possible to match, one-for-one, the sounds of the womb to those elements that can be found in the music of all cultures. It is reasonable to postulate that the characteristics of music that are common to the music of all cultures must have a common origin. This hypothesis is supported by a one-to-one matching of the universal features of music with the sounds of the womb: (1) all of the regularly heard sounds that are present in the fetal environment are represented in the music of every culture, and (2) all of the features of music that are present in the music of all cultures can be traced to the fetal environment. Taken together, these features and the similarities between the sounds of the womb and the elemental building blocks of music allow for a postulation that the fetal acoustic environment may provide the bases for the fundamental musical elements that are found in the music of all cultures. There are a number of features of prenatal development that allow for the formation of long-term memories of the sounds of the womb in the areas of the brain that are responsible for emotions. I describe features of music that are based on sounds that are present in the womb: tempo of pulse (pulse is understood as the regular, underlying beat that defines the meter), amplitude contour of pulse, meter, musical notes, melodic frequency range, continuity, syllabic contour, melodic rhythm, melodic accents, phrase length, and phrase contour. School of Music, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USAĪlthough the idea that pulse in music may be related to human pulse is ancient and has recently been promoted by researchers ( Parncutt, 2006 Snowdon and Teie, 2010), there has been no ordered delineation of the characteristics of music that are based on the sounds of the womb.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |