Re: [asa] Music and Evolution

MessageIf we tune in to the creation around us, we can hear music everywhere. So-called "primitive" peoples imitate such sounds all the time.

This is on the right track. Everyday human experience is full of rhythm. I do a lot of hiking for recreation and exercise, and as I go along I often make up little "tunes" to accompany the rhythm of my walking. Music is just an elaboration on the rhythms and sounds of life. We enjoy hearing these elaborations if they're done well because they resonate with the rest of our experience. Why is so much modern music discordant and "disjointed"? Because modern urban life often is also. (Furthermore, earlier composers exhausted all harmonious possibilities.)

Don

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Robert Schneider<mailto:rjschn39@bellsouth.net>
  To: tandyland@earthlink.net<mailto:tandyland@earthlink.net> ; ASA List<mailto:asa@calvin.edu>
  Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 5:44 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] Music and Evolution

  It doesn't appear that Colson has any idea where music originated either. Invoking "imago dei" without developing a thesis doesn't explain anything, and in addition it conflates theology with science. Does Colson not think that one can have different levels of explanation for the same phenomenon? Simply dismissing an argument rhetorically doesn't refute it.

  If we tune in to the creation around us, we can hear music everywhere. So-called "primitive" peoples imitate such sounds all the time.

  Bob
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Jon Tandy<mailto:tandyland@earthlink.net>
    To: ASA List<mailto:asa@calvin.edu>
    Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 11:44 AM
    Subject: [asa] Music and Evolution

    Below is today's commentary from Chuck Colson, on the origins of music through presumed evolutionary explanations. Just curious what comments might be elicited on the subject.
    One good question might be whether music is truly a distinctly human characteristic or not (what about dogs which sometimes howl together when one starts -- are they making music in a sense? What about songbirds, etc. - can we say that they are not making music in a way that we humans define as music?)

    Jon Tandy

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Received on Wed Oct 11 10:13:44 2006