The Historical and Modern Role of Musicin Human Society, Parallels in theNatural World and Potential Effects onthe Music Industry

Wordcount: 3654Due date: 13/05/13

Music is an intrinsic part of human societies, and has been for millennia, even dating back to 35-40, 000 years ago, when humans were first starting to spread in to Europe. Evidence of this comes in the form of flutes made from bone and ivory

discovered in Germany. Today, music is everywhere – radio, television, the Internet, iPods, mobile phones and other portablemusic players. It is impossible to avoid, pervading as it does virtually every single facet of our lives.

But what is music? Why does it exist? Do animals have music?If animals have music, what consequences might this hold for the human music industry?

The Oxford Dictionary defines music thus:“[Noun] vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to

produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion: the art or science of

composing or performing music or a sound perceived as pleasantly harmonious.”

The problem with this definition of music being strictly ‘beautiful’ or ‘pleasantly harmonious ‘ is that there are lots ofartists (specifically, in the West) who create music that is deliberately unpleasant or inharmonious, such as Slipknot, Dying Fetus [sic] and Napalm Death.

The French composer Edgar Victor Achille Charles Varese (1883 – 1965) described music as “organised sound”; a mantra thathe very much lived up to in his compositions, for example the extensive use of percussion and mechanical objects such as air raid sirens as in “Ionisation”. Other pieces such as “Octandre” made heavy use of discord and atonality, whilst maintaining a feel andemotional depth that wouldn’t be out of place in a low-budget thriller movie of some kind.

Naturally, music is an extremely subjective thing, and it isimportant to bear in mind that different things invariably appealto different people. Individuals perceive music in different ways

and different tastes develop, which results in many different genres being pioneered and perpetuated.

Given it’s many forms, and the near-infinite range of ways of creating what one could call music, it is therefore no surprise that music is found in every single human society in every environment on the planet, from American suburbia to Amazonian jungles to African plains and beyond.

An indication of how music in general really is universal would be the exercise demonstrated by professional singer Bobby McFerrin at the 2009 World Science Festival in New York. He did this by indicating to the crowd that they should sing a particular note when he stands in a particular spot on the stage,moving around the stage to get the audience to produce different notes. The result was to prove that music is a completely social interaction that requires action on the part of both the performer and the audience, and that musicality is an intrinsic part of humanity, available on a molecular level to every individual across the globe.

Music was widespread amongst ancient human civilisations, for example the dynastic period of Ancient Egypt – from about 3100 BC onwards. Music percolated every level of society in Ancient Egypt; especially playing a huge role in religious worship to such an extent that the Egyptian gods Hathor and Bes were both directly linked to music.

Everything from simple clapping to complex arrangements using multiple instruments and tonalities could be found in Ancient Egypt, from chants that increased the productivity of

workers to lively tunes that could be heard during holiday processions and parties to solemn songs of worship in the temples.

It has been suggested that Egyptian music predominantly usedwhat would now roughly equate to a minor pentatonic scale using only full tone steps. This would result in a scale thus:

A – B – C# - D# - F - A

The last A of that scale is obviously not a tone up from F, but it can be reasonably assumed that Ancient Egyptian music madeuse of more than one octave, creating a tone-pattern template.Foreign contact during the period known in the Egyptian timeline as the New Kingdom (1550 – 1070 BC) will have brought new influences into Egyptian music, especially Asiatic principles of music theory, such as heptatonic scales, such as that of Indian music – the subgenres of Hindustani and Carnatic in Indian Classical, or Desi, the name given to Indian folk music.Both of subgenres of Indian classical music use segmented octavesof 12 notes each, out of which 7 notes are selected to create a heptatonic scale for a piece of music, usually denoted as follows:

Sa – Re – Ga – Ma – Pa – Dha – Ni – Sa(Hindustani)

Sa – Ri – Ga – Ma – Pa – Dha – Ni – Sa

(Carnatic)

These 7-note patterns are strikingly similar to the Western “Do – Re – Mi – Fa – Sol – La – Si – Do” pattern.

The role of music in ancient India appears to have been ritualistic – even to the point of allotting certain times of theday at which certain scales (ragas) can be played: “The beauty of the

raga will not be marred by the time of the day it is sung. It is the psychological

association with the time that goes with the mood of the raga. The object of a raga is to

express a certain emotional mood and sentiment without any reference to time and

season. “

The oldest text to make reference to this custom is the NatyaShastra, a treatise written by Bharata some time between 200and 400BC. It is considered the authority and cornerstone of finearts in India, covering music, stagecraft, art and dance.

Having originally been ritualistic, Indian music has developed to become a globally accepted art form, a particularly ubiquitous and yet unique style of music that in the modern worldthat serves as accompaniment to Indian film/television and media (in the case of Indian folk music), religious worship and rituals, ceremonies, cultural programs by national institutions and social occasions (more so the dominance of Indian classical).

In juxtaposition to this, Ancient Greek music was essential to daily life – marriage and funeral rites, social occasions, state ceremonies and religious events. Music in Ancient Greece was so revered that there are records of awards being bestowed upon notable musicians, institutions of professional musicians

and monuments erected in honour of them.Music was also used as an accompaniment to everyday life: “A flute

player for instance would accompany the women with his music while they were

kneading, the workers during harvest, the oarsmen as well as the soldiers on their way

to battle.”

At the same time, Greek music seems to have been predominantly vocal with instrumental backing. The philosopher Plato considered music without any vocal performance to be of particularly bad taste, so whether or not this was the general consensus or just his individual opinion is unclear.

While music clearly played a huge social and economic role in Ancient Greece, there is little to no evidence of real harmonybeing used – all music seems to have been monophonic.

According to the text Harmonics by Aristoxenus, a pupil of Aristotle, the Greek system of music was based on the Perfect Fourth interval. The organisational unit known as a tetrachord was based on the root and the fourth, with two notes in between which were flexibly tuned. These tetrachords were then combined to create complete scales, giving rise to the term ‘modes’.

Even with the influence of the ancient societies, in the west music had belonged to religious worship for hundreds of years. As time went on, music began to expand in terms of the styles composed and where they were performed, and to what kind of audiences received them.

Music, in Western society especially, has become such an important part of modern life that numerous studies have been carried out on brain activity during the creation and perception

of music, most notably those of Elizabeth Margulis and Charles Limb.

The study done by Margulis in the 2007 showed that trained musicians brains are indeed wired differently from non-musicians,although this is only due to the intensive training that musicians typically go through early in their lives – this implies that the synaptic structure of the brain can be re-arranged through rigorous training and practice: “The fact that one

starts working with an instrument at a young age and continues doing so for many

years results in the precise configuration of brain activity needed to produce music,

including heightened activity in motor regions and auditory association areas.”

This study involved having 2 groups, one group consisting ofpianists and the other flautists. Each test subject was played a selection of music by J.S. Bach, strictly piano and flute pieces.It was observed that the patterns of activity exhibited by the brains of the pianists listening to piano pieces were the same patterns of activity observed in the brains of flautists listening to music composed for the flute.

Similarly, Charles Limb did a study on the brain activity ofjazz musicians during improvisation, with the use of an MRI scanner and a complex system that allowed the musicians to play akeyboard while lying prone inside the scanner. By first improvising on a C major scale, then improvising on a blues melody composed by Limb.

What was found was that, regardless of how simple or otherwise the task was, the mere process of improvisation resulted in the part of the brain that is responsible for self-

evaluation (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) shuts down completely, while the segment responsible for internal, goal-based thinking (the medial prefrontal cortex) is activated and working overtime. Surrounding this activity is a removal of inhibitions, so we can see that when a jazz musician is improvising, all sense of self-evaluation and inhibitions are removed, literally letting the music flow from their brain before they can even consciously recognize the ideas they’re performing.

What about the perception of music? What brain processes happen when you’re listening to, say a Bach chorale?

When you hear a piece of music, it’s the auditory cortex in thebrain that sorts out the pitches and volumes that you’re hearing.Rhythm is a whole other task entirely, with complex rhythms requiring lots of sections of the cerebral cortex and the cerebellum.

Other pieces of information such as tonality require the useof the prefrontal cortex, cerebellum and temporal lobe.

Since the ability to create music is so clearly universal tohumans – individuals need only merely apply themselves and work hard to achieve the necessary neural restructuring to be made, although this is admittedly harder the further the individual gets into adulthood – then it stands to reason surely that at least some aspect of the animal kingdom has music in the same waythat humans do. I think that, given the historic role of music inhuman society, which is essentially to convey a message or emotion, it is entirely feasible that this happens within the animal kingdom.

This idea is not a new one, indeed it’s a field of science

all its’ own. Named Zoomusicology in 1983 by François B. Mache in his book Musique, Myth, Nature, there are numerous figures in the scientific community that are either directly working in the field or working in similar fields and contributing as and when they can.

Author Philip Ball openly derides the concept of Zoomusicology in his book The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We

Can’t Do Without It.

Ball references Darwin and the theory of Natural Selection, and muses that music-making could apply to Darwin’s parallel theory of Sexual Selection, whereby species or individuals don’t gain the advantage by living longer, but by being more promiscuous. This is certainly a feasible idea, however it assumes that the individuals of a species are permanently on the hunt for a new mate, which is simply not the case. Similarly, there isn’t much evidence of musicians in general (celebrity anecdotes and urban legends hardly count as scientific evidence) being more sexually successful.

This theme is continued before the concept of zoomusicology is dismantled in one fell swoop; “One key question is whether human music

has any connection to the ‘songs’ that some animals, from birds to whales, produce.

Some people might be happy to call these ‘songs’ music simply because they sound a bit

like it; and it hardly seems important to dissuade them, provided that we accept that

birdsong does not become music merely because Olivier Messiaen transcribed it as such

(and because countless earlier composers, including Beethoven, mimicked it

acoustically in their compositions).”

Here Ball denies the very foundation of the premise of

Zoomusicology: he denies that the noise animals should be considered music, on the basis that animals don’t consciously make lexically meaningful noises – they’re essentially pre-programmed behavioural responses to seasonal and hormonal changesand so on.

It’s at this juncture that I disagree wholeheartedly with Ball’s assertion – regardless of whether or not the noises of birds and whales are created via a conscious decision, the resultant sounds (to my mind at least) can be classified as musicby virtue of the fact that it is organised sound. Naturally a greatdeal of consideration would be taken to the fact that this is very much a matter of personal taste and one’s personal outlook on life, it is clearly unlikely that everyone who is involved with music (at any level) would agree with this summation. But let us consider the following.

In 2003 an article was produced by David Rothenberg entitled“You Make My Heart Sing” in which he documented his experiences of playing music to birds in the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Rothenberg and his friend Michael Pestel went in to the aviary early in the morning and began playing music with a combination of clarinets and saxophones and various homemade stringed instruments. What they noticed was that the phenomenon of having live musicians in the aviary produced definite reactions from the birds around them – a Palawan peacock pheasantand a Hyacinth macaw both paid attention to the musicians, while they elicited a response from an American crow. Admittedly this

was a relatively domesticated crow that had been trained to talk and the general consensus is that ‘talking’ birds don’t know whatthey’re saying, however one can’t help but romanticise the idea that talking birds come to understand exactly what they’re vocalising and the meaning behind it. Indeed, you never know for sure.

Moving to another room in the aviary, Rothenberg and Pestel begin playing again. This time they gain the attention of a bird known as the superb starling, which responded with a simple pentatonic melody, but did not expand further on this theme, merely repeating it.

The pair then came across the Indian shama thrush, a bird that they discovered is exceptionally talented at mimicking a musical idea then turning it around, changing it slightly in different ways, much in the same way jazz musicians might improvise over a simple blues riff.

Even more extraordinary was the response of the white-crested laughing thrush, which responded vigorously with melodiesand counter-melodies, deliberately changing the theoretical parameters of the music they were playing, almost as if two soloists were dueling at a jazz gig.

Going further, the linguistic complexities required for regional dialects have been discovered in a species of mammal that according to convention should be relatively simple – the hyrax, which is a small dog-sized creature living in colonies across Africa and the Middle East. The discovery of regional dialects in the hyrax indicates an innate ability to copy and

improvise on what the individual has heard and vocalised before, thereby a presence of mind in the individual and the ability to change things according to aesthetic taste.

Similarly, it has been found that Sperm whales seem to have their own personal voices, as found by Shane Gero and Hal Whitehead in 2009. This was noticed when the researchers closely studied a small family of sperm whales in the Caribbean sea, who were found to all have different size skeletal structures, resulting in high frequency clicks that are produced by each individual but all minutely different in some way.

Even more interestingly, they seem to also have their own names, as discovered in preliminary research by biologist Luke Rendell et al. Subtle variations in the vocalisations mark out individuals. This research is still very much in it’s infancy, sothere is a lot of work to be done, but if sperm whales were indeed to have individual personalities it would mean that there could be a whole culture and rich levels of society to discover.

For many years it has been assumed that the construction of the human throat apparatus was unique to humans alone, whereby the larynx and vocal tract vibrate and resonate independently to enable human speech and other vocal patterns. This may not be true, as a study by Takeshi Nishimura shows that when placed in helium-filled environments, the Gibbon (in this particular instance a white-handed gibbon named Fuku-chan) produces vocalisations in a manner not too dissimilar to the way a human opera singer creates sound, utilising different parts of the anatomy in order to create sounds of varying pitch.

This information combined with further study of similar species could go some way toward illuminating more clearly the techniques by which animals create sound, which in turn could provide all kinds of inspiration for people like classical singers in the way they control their throat apparatus and synthesiser or audio plugin companies for modeling parameters to create new sounds (despite there already being a seemingly infinite number of ways of combining parameters and techniques tocreate new sounds).

The social implications of this kind of research are phenomenal – a multitude of aspects of life and ways of thinking yet to be discovered could have untold effects on human society as we know it.

As it is, human society (particularly in technologically advanced countries where the Internet is freely available) is evolving into a strange combination of isolation and omnipresent information exchange and communication, and this is something of a difficult transition to make.

It’s common to see satirical comments made on the image of four teenagers sat in a coffee shop, all of them staring intentlyat their smartphones.

While at first sight this might seem incredibly antisocial and indeed, rather pointless, one might concede that point if it were just one person out of a group engaging in this kind of behaviour. However if the four individuals in question are all participating, it could be argued that this is a perfectly social event, perhaps even more so when you consider

the fact that these people are most likely connected to the Internet, socializing with a world much wider than the people in front of them.

A good example of the benefits of this universal cyber-society is the development of the music sharing websites SoundCloud and BandCamp. It is on these websites that musicians of all kinds can produce their own music and upload them for peer-review or download.

A major advantage to these websites is that they uncover content that wouldn’t necessarily be discovered otherwise and create brand new and innovative ideas, combining multiple ideas from different sources as well as allowing real-time feedback to new and experienced content creators alike. For example, in early2013 an American dance company called Diablo Ballet created “[…]

the world’s 1st web ballet […]” by allowing people to take part by suggesting storyline ideas, emotions, themes or moves via Twitter.

An article on the Guardian news website brings the idea of crowd-sourced content creation to an open forum, using the DiabloBallet example as a talking point. One commenter has doubts that crowd-sourced content creation could be applied effectively to existing industries, expanded upon by the author in a reply comment: “would the royalties be dished out according the percentage of work each

collaborator had done? How would that be managed?”

Similarly actor Zach Braff started a crowdfunding (similar tocrowdsourcing, whereby participants donate money to campaigns andprojects) campaign on the website KickStarter to fund a new film.

He justifies his use of crowdfunding in this manner by stating that any donation, large or small, earns participants 18 months worth of content, an inside view into the creative process behindmaking a film. Regarding the question of financial reimbursement for those who participate in the crowd activity, he says: “I think

anyone who’s been keeping up knows that that’s around the corner… The whole idea of

Hollywood Stock Exchange was started with that in mind but they weren’t able to get it

passed […] but that doesn’t really matter. I think actually it’d attract more attention,

because you’d have this group who are investing in my KickStarter project, who want to

be involved and support me and like me, and they would do it in any event, they want to

do it because it’s exciting and part of something new. But then you’d also get people

might not even like me at all, but they’d buy the stock because they see it’s gonna be

successful.”

This is to me indicative of the attitude that has plagued themusic industry over the past 15 years or so – rather than adopting new business models to suit the changing nature of how people consume music (digital downloads overtook sales of physical CDs for the first time in 2011, accounting for over 50% of all music sales in the US that year) major record labels simply chose instead to try and choke the proliferation of digital music.

A classic example of this knee-jerk reaction to the changes in the consumption of music is the lawsuit filed against Napster in 1999 by a group of artists and major figures in the music industry, most notably the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Accused of multitudes of copyright infringements for allowing online peer-to-peer file sharing, Napster was

quickly shut down and rendered bankrupt. One of the major financial backers of Napster, a German bank named Bertelsmann wasa champion of the innovative new ways of sharing music, stating: “Napster has pointed the way for a new direction for music distribution, and we believe

it will form the basis of important and exciting new business models for the future of

the music industry.”

Bertelsmann ended up paying hundreds of millions of US Dollars to Warner Music Group, EMI, Universal Music Group and theNational Music Publishers Associate to settle the claims.

If the major record companies don’t cotton on to the innovations of the past couple of years or so and adapt their methods to properly take advantage of the new possibilities theirdays may be severely numbered: “I think if any sort of corporation tried to do

it, I imagine, people would go apeshit. I think it’s for people who… Will remain for

people who want to do personal projects without corporate involvement.”

Unfortunately forays into the future such as these are the domain of the independents, the small artists who create for the passion of simply creating, rather than looking to raise a profitmargin, those who are likely to take on board the discoveries of the animal world – the jazz nature of the white-crested laughing thrush, or the prog virtuoso abilities of whales to make and hearminute adjustments in timing.

CONCLUSIONThe question of zoomusicology blurs the dichotomy of the

nature/nurture argument. It is apparent that music, whether as auditory cheesecake or to serve a purpose, is an inherent part of

the very fabric of the world in which we live. Our skills with a guitar or singing opera are there already, they need only the right amount of training and dedication before we showcase our skills at the Wembley Stadium Arena or Sydney Opera House.

By studying the vocalisation techniques of other species, how and why they create those sounds, we can glean a wealth of information and inspiration for new genres and styles and a far greater insight into and understanding of the world we live in.

There is still much to learn. “Call the sounds of birdlife “music” and there’s a place for humanity within it. Call it

“language” and it’s all untranslatable, a foreign tongue with no one around to help us

understand.”

Appendix I YouTube Links

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ZtHrWiSAk (SlipKnot – People = S#!t)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXlCFBluTMY (SlipKnot - Surfacing

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mg4KHqRPw (Edgar Varese – Ionisation)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch? NR=1 & feature=endscreen & v=E8FcxVKIAwo (Edgar Varese – Octandre)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ne6tB2KiZuk & feature=player_embedded (World Science Festival 2009 – Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates The Power Of The Pentatonic Scale)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO_LV-yInc8 (Bobby McFerrin – I Can See Clearly Now (LIVE in Kaunas)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzOfHzaGZZE (World ScienceFestival 2009 - Notes & Neurons Part 1 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olI_1SgPEFU (World ScienceFestival 2009 – Notes & Neurons Part 2 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSOXXRoKIaw (World ScienceFestival 2009 – Notes & Neurons Part 3 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHQaWZU0Ppc (World Science Festival 2009 – Notes & Neurons Part 4 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaVqn_7yH98 (World Science Festival 2009 – Notes & Neurons Part 5 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUr6QrNMjzw (World Science Festival 2009 – Notes & Neurons Part 6 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBr0_AblZ9Q (World Science Festival 2009 – Notes & Neurons Part 7 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYMmJ3buO0I (World Science Festival 2009 – Notes & Neurons Part 8 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un_tV64DtI8 (World Science Festival 2009 – Notes & Neurons Part 9 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkFt65GZJog (World Science Festival – Notes & Neurons Part 10 of 10)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pd2sRrfoSE (Sharri Plaza– Ancient Egyptian Meditation Music)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoAoqT55Wos (Taj Mahal – Music of Ancient India)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?

feature=player_embedded & v=Sfk_VYogLCo (Gibbons on Helium Singing Like Opera Stars)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_9GTbuYHxE & list=UUB09ds0- gDIOEZc2SdOFVtw & index=1 (The Web Ballet – Flight Of The Dodo)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=j1LY3C0Rbr8 & feature=player_embedded (Zach Braff talks KickStarter & Responds To Critics)

Appendix IIModes – Greek & Medieval

Modes that we know today in modern Western music are derivedfrom the standard Major scale used in most diatonic music we hear:

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – CC Ionian (Major) Mode

C – D – Eb - F – G – A – Bb – CC Dorian Mode

C – Db – Eb – F – G – Ab – Bb – CC Phrygian Mode

C – D – E – F# - G – A – B – CC Lydian Mode

C – D – E – F – G – A – Bb – CC Mixolydian Mode

C – D – Eb – F – G – Ab – Bb – CC Aeolian (Minor) Mode

C – Db – Eb – F – Gb – Ab – Bb – CC Locrian Mode

These modes each have their own individual ‘flavour’ or character, brought out by the slight variations that each one possesses in it’s tone/semitone pattern – for example the Phrygian

Mode is simply a minor scale but with the 2nd scale degree flattened as well as the 3rd, 6th and 7th, likewise the Mixolydian

Mode is a major scale with a flattened 7th scale degree. The fact that each mode has its’ own character was well-

noted by the Ancient Greeks, and is suspected that each one had an associated collection of musical ideas and motifs, used to create pieces and songs that were designed specifically to createand convey a certain idea or emotion.

The organisational system for music in Ancient Greece was based in the Perfect 4th interval, where any 4 (somewhat flexiblytuned) notes would be between the hypothetical Root and 4th, creating a unit called a tetrachord. These tetrachords would then

be combined in various ways to create different modes, a list of which can be found in the book Harmonia by Ptolemy, written in the 2nd Century AD:

E – F – G – A – B – C – D – EE Dorian

E – F# - G – A – B – C – D – EE Hypodorian

E – F# - G – A – B – C# - D – EE Phrygian

E – F# - G# - A – B – C# - D – EE Hypophrygian

E – F# - G# - A – B – C# - D# - EE Lydian

E – F# - G# - A# - B – C# - D# - EE Hypolydian

E – F – G – A – Bb – C – D – EE Mixolydian

The most common of these was the Dorian scale, which is similar to the modern minor (Aeolian) scale. The Greek Lydian scaleis also similar to the modern major (Ionian) scale.

As time wore on, medieval scholars and musicians misinterpreted or reinvented the organisational system of music into the modes used in liturgical singing. This involved the introduction of the modern concept of a tonic note, known at the time as a ‘final’, which served as a harmonic anchor. Those modesthat were inherited directly from Ancient Greek literature started their series of notes from the associated ‘final’, while plagal modes (i.e. ones that had been modified or are otherwise different from their Greek counterparts) started the sequence of notes a Perfect 4th below the final.

This resulted in the following modes being used through medieval times, with Ionian and Aeolian modes being added later. Anote underlined indicates where the ‘final’ of that mode is.

D – E – F – G – A – B – C - DD Dorian

A – B – C – D – E – F – G – AD Hypodorian

E – F – G – A – B – C – D – EE Phrygian

B – C – D – E – F – G – A – BE Hypophrygian

F – G – A – B – C – D – E – FF Lydian

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – CF Hypolydian

G – A – B – C – D – E – F – GG Mixolydian

D – E – F – G – A – B – C – DG Hypomixolydian

C – D – E – F – G – A – B - C C Ionian

A – B – C – D – E – F – G – AA Aeolian

Those modes have all evolved over time to become the modes that we know today.

In the 11th Century AD the Italian cleric Guido of Arezzo noticed that the first 6 phrases of the popular hymn “Ut Queant

Laxis” were each begun with the notes C, D, E, F, G, A. Those notes

belonged to the syllables Ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la. By adding a seventh syllable, ti, and replacing ut with do, you get the classical Do-re-

mi-fa-sol-la-ti taught to children in singing or piano lessons o get them to memorise the sound of the major scale.

Appendix IIICorrespondence With Dr. Dario Martinelli

Jamiebhall@gmail.com to Dario.martinelli@helsinki.fi15/10/12

Dear Dr. Martinelli,I am a British student of Commercial Music Technology, and I am writing my dissertation on the role of music in human society andparallels in other species, for example whales and chimpanzees. Initial research has taken me to the Zoomusicology website (http://www.zoosemiotics.helsinki.fi/zm/), where I've found that the entire field of Zoomusicology applies directly to questions and issues that I want to address.My basic premise is that all music in human society is designed to convey a message or story of some kind, and as such it might be possible to prove that music is not a trait exclusive to mankind - that in fact, many different species utilise it in muchthe same manner.Is there any research or resources that you may be able to help me with? Or any comments of your own that may be of use?To that end also I have been unable to find a copy of your first book, "How musical is a whale? Towards a theory of Zoomusicology."Any help whatsoever with my efforts will be greatly appreciated!Yours sincerely,Jamie Hall

Dario.martinelli@helsinki.fi to jamiebhall@gmail.com02/11/12

Dear Jamie (if I may),Thanks for your message, and sorry for this late reply: it's an awfully busy period for me.The zoomusicological research (and, therefore, bibliography) is constantly expanding, and by now it is possible to find many of them (unfortunately with different quality, as well). I shall just give you a few suggestions, that perhaps will help you to start your network of references:1) The "classic" in the field is "Music, Myth, Nature" by François-Bernard Mâche. (1992, Harwood University Press). That's where it all started, so to speak :)2) If you allow me, I can also suggest one book of mine, particularly since you were looking for "How musical is a whale" (which, unfortunately, is sold out). A more updated work of mine is "Of birds, whales and other musicians" (Scranton University Press, 2009), which you can find on Amazon. I would gladly send you a complimentary copy, but unfortunately the publisher gave mevery few of them, and all that's left is my personal copy, now.Anyway, should you have problems in finding that, too, I can always send you the .pdf of the final manuscript. Or I can just send it to you anyway, if you prefer an e-version of the book :) Let me know.3) For a more varied approach to the topic there is a "Dossier: Zoomusicology" that I edited for the journal TRANS: that you can find entirely on line at the link http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/p3/trans-12-2008I hope that, to start with, these references can be useful to youAll the bestDario

jamiebhall@gmail.com to Dario.martinelli@helsinki.fi09/11/12

Dario,Likewise apologies for a late response!Your initial suggestions are currently providing extremely useful, and for this I thank you! I have ordered both books online at Amazon, and will be getting my teeth into them at the earliest opportunity!I do have a number of questions for you, if you don't mind?Do you know anything about how François-Bernard Mâche first conceived the idea of Zoomusicology?How did you get in to the field of Zoomusicology yourself? 

What importance do you feel the study has for the human study of the biological world?What impact do you think that the field and all related research will have on the wider human society? Might it increase our ability to innovate new styles of music or new technologies based off sound-based animal communications?I am asking these questions under the full understanding that I might be able to find their answers within my network of research, but for the purposes of compiling a more comprehensive academic document, I thought it might be prudent to get some remarks straight from the horses mouth, as it were.If I come up with any more questions or issues I'll be sure to bein touch!Thank you very much,Jamie

Dario.martinelli@helsinki.fi to jamiebhall@gmail.com and others 20/03/13

Dear one and all,This is Dario Martinelli: we have all been in touch, in differenttimes and places, in relation to the work that each one of you isperforming within or about zoomusicology. I hope this message finds you all well.In our correspondance, I've been often telling you that sooner orlater it would be nice to gather all of us in a community of scholar interested in this subject.1.I think that a first, important step we shall all take is to havea web platform that represents all of us, in one way or another. Dr. Hollis Taylor, whom you find as CC of this message, is doing an excellent job to create this platform. It is a website called www.zoomusicology.com, and I think it should be considered the OFFICIAL website for zoomusicologists. Please, browse those pages, and in particular consider contributing to this one: http://www.zoomusicology.com/Zoomusicology/Zoomusicologists.html.It is a database of the active zoomusicologists around the world.Please, get in touch with Hollis, and send them a bionote (following any of the existing ones as a template), a link to your homepage (if you have one), and if you are working on some specific animal sound/species, a soundfile that represents that research.This way, we will start being more visible, and we will have somekind of headquarters for our activities.2.

Also, please start thinking about writing a scholarly essay whereyou illustrate the nature, methodology and contents of your own research. I am planning to publish an essay collection with the working title "Zoomusicology and zoomusicologists" where all our activities get some exposure also at publishing level. Hollis doesn't know yet, so this shall come as a surprise, but I would be honoured if she agreed to be my co-editor in this enterprise :))) It is a long-term project, anyway, because for now there is only my idea to do it, and nothing else. But it is very feasible., and we can think of publishing the book in 2014 or 2015.3.In general, my hope is that the community will be soon able to walk with its own legs. It would be a good thing in general, and in particular when it comes to me. As some of you know already, my current position as full professor at the University of Kaunastakes most of my time, unfortunately in topics that are differentfrom zoomusicology. I don't want to abandon the field, by all means, but most of the time I won't be able to be in the thick ofthe action. And I think that this applies to most of us: we all have things to do, so the more the COMMUNITY, as such, is strong and autonomous, the less we need "central" figures.

All the best to all of you.Please, let me know what you think, by using the "Reply to all" function (so we all become aware of each other's views)Thank you

Jamiebhall@gmail.com to Dario.martinelli@helsinki.fi and others 22/03/13

Greetings Dario and other luminaries of the field,To give you all some background I'm a British undergraduate student studying Music Technology, and I'm currently in the middle of writing an essay on the historical role of music in human society, and any parallels in the animal kingdom, the idea that animals have music as well. If any of you are wondering how a student of Music Technology comes to write about zoomusicology,let's just say I've gotten good at interpreting assignment briefs!In response to the email;1. The web platform of zoomusicology.com is a wonderful resource,has proven invaluable to me so far and will no doubt prove invaluable to others studying the field, either under- or post-graduate.2. If anyone is interested in reading my work once it has been submitted please feel free to let me know and I will gladly forward you a copy. Feedback would also be much appreciated, I'm

not always sure whether I've quite got the process of academic writing right!3. I like the idea of a community of zoomusicologists - although how could we implement that so active discussions can take place for people to read, digest and weigh in on? A forum affiliated with zoomusicology.com? Perhaps a Facebook Group? Just a couple of ideas for you all there :)I look forward to speaking to all of you at some point or another,Jamie

Dario.martinelli@helsinki.fi to jamiebhall@gmail.com and others23/03/13

Dear all,Thank you Hollis, Jamie and Marcello for your replies. And welcome to a new entry, Giovanni De Petro (with whom, according to his email address, I seem to share a common passion for Clash :)))So, some comments:1) For an interesting coincidence, the day after I wrote all of you my message, Giovanni wrote, introducing himself and letting me know that he is also interested in zoomusicology. I remain a secular and materialist person, but these coincidences certainly challenge my believes :))))Anyway, dear Giovanni, as you can see, you wrote in a time when we are exactly trying to form a zoomusicologists' community. So, please, read carefully this message and particularly the one I copy-and-paste below, and feel very free and welcome to participate and make your own suggestions. 2) Hollis, thank you so much for agreeing to co-edit this book I have in mind. And of course, thank you for running this website, which is really very important for the community.3) Jamie, thank you also for your reply. Your idea about the Facebook group is great, and it's exactly the type of thing that we need: new ideas, coming from fresh human resources like yourself. If you feel like becoming the creator and coordinator of this FB group, it would be just great. Other zoomusicologists,who were not included in this list because they have been active already for a while, are on Facebook as well. I can give you their names, whenever you wish.4) Marcello, I understand your position. I included you in the mailing list as a person "interested in zoomusicology", just to check whether you would want to be further involved. I'm now writing to your new address (and I invite everybody to update their list), but if - at any point - you want to be removed from this communication, you just have to tell us. No problem

whatsoever, and in fact we are all grateful that a scholar of your calibre became interested in this subject.  So, Giovanni, here is the mail I sent three days ago to everybody. Welcome! :)

Jamiebhall@gmail.com to Dario.martinelli@helsinki.fi and others23/03/13

Hiya guys, the link for the Facebook group is as followshttp://www.facebook.com/groups/493150904065740/You'll find my personal profile on that group under the name 'Gilligan Hall'. I'm open to any and all suggestions as to what we can do with this group, and feel free to share with it anyone you think may be interested.Cheers,Jamie

Up until the time of writing, Dr. Martinelli has not responded further.

The communiqué from 20/03/13 onwards was part of a group discussion with multiple participants – to the end of keeping this as succinct as possible I have omitted responses from other people.