who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

141989:Let me briefly introduce some of the new ideas that were not part of my book in‣ My new understanding of what is polyphony, underlying the socialand musical factors of this phenomenon;‣ A much more accurate picture of the distribution of traditionalpolyphony all over the world;‣ A new stratification of the big intercontinental polyphonicfamilies;‣ Discussion of the importance of the big migration processes in theformation of contemporary stratification of polyphonic traditions in different partsof the world;‣ Discussion of the possibilities and the methods of comparativestudies of traditional polyphony, and a suggestion of the particular importance ofthe set of stylistic features for comparative studies of polyphonic cultures;‣ Attempts to analyse the historical dynamics of the distribution ofdifferent polyphonic forms, and discussion on the elusive issue of the dating ofsome of the traditions of vocal polyphony;‣ Discussion of the scale systems in the context of the interaction ofthe polyphonic and monophonic cultures (tetrachordal, pentachordal and octavescales, and why is the interval of the fourth the only exception in music history tobe regarded as a consonance earlier and turned later into a dissonance);‣ Suggestion that social polyphony (group singing), or, according toDieter Christensen, “multisonance” (Christensen, 2003) is one of the strongest(and one of the most ancient) universals of human communication;‣ Based on the model “singing without listeners” social polyphonymust have been present in all early human societies (the remnants of thisphenomenon are evident in both polyphonic and monophonic cultures)‣ The primacy of the rhythm and synchronic bodily movements forthe initial forms of hominid and human group singing;‣ Suggestion of precisely coordinated group singing of our hominidsancestors being one of the survival strategies against the major predators inAfrica, and the role of bigger group size;‣ A new model of the origins of human choral singing, as the centralfeature of pre-linguistic communication;‣ The role of human choral singing in creating the rhythmic flow ofhuman communication and later language.‣ Full support to the relatively recent suggestions that choral singingwas one of the main communication mediums for the social cohesion and bondingof early human communities before the development of articulated speech;‣ The suggestion that, after the change of the communicationmedium from singing into articulated speech, choral singing lost its direct survivalvalue has been gradually marginalised and started disappearing over the centuriesand millennia. Multiple examples of the gradual disappearance of traditions ofpolyphonic singing in different cultures support this supposition;