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This book provides arguments and evidence for the idea that our innate musical attributes, termed 'communicative musicality', underpin our social lives. Malloch and Trevarthen helpfully provide both an overall introduction to this concept, and an introduction to each section of this substantial book. Communicative musicality, the authors collectively suggest, is the innate capacity that allows humans to appreciate and produce music. We also use this capacity, they propose, to communicate with one another. Prompted by observations of rhythmic and pitch-based patterns in infant-mother communication, this concept is applied throughout the text to different exemplifications of communicative musicality in real life. The book is divided into five sections, each with a different approach to communicative musicality, and discusses issues ranging from the evolution of musicality to applications of communicative musicality in therapeutic, educational and performance contexts.
The seven chapters of the first section (The origins and psychobiology of musicality) are diverse. Chapters 2 to 5 consider the evolutionary aspects of music. In Chapter 2, Dissanayake considers the origin and adaptive functions of music through a neat structural analogy of the parts of a tree. She suggests that, rather than proto-musical communication being born of sexual attraction, it is primarily born of love, specifically the individual needs of mother and child. Dissanayake also highlights the comfort found by communities through musical interaction, which, she argues, stems from the same source of mother-infant interaction. Brandt (Chapter 3) also considers the communal role of music, and presents arguments to suggest that musical practice preceded the use of signs or symbols by humans. It is the combination of language and musicality, Brandt argues, that allows us to form narratives, and to consider and enjoy non-factual information. Both Dissanayake and Brandt mention the function of music in ceremonies, religious contexts or rituals; Merker (Chapter 4) extends this idea by considering the extent to which seemingly ordinary human actions constitute ritual behaviours. Merker suggests that the origins of language lie in a uniquely human propensity for cultural group rituals (or arbitrary repeated methods of doing things) and the use of vocal learning to transmit those rituals. Cross and Morley's account (Chapter 5) of theories concerning musical evolution is clear and insightful. They suggest that music...