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

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

10.07.2015 Views

378• As human society becomes increasingly politicized, moral and religious normsplay an important part in musical life as well. Politicians discuss controlling musicaltastes of their citizens (e.g. Plato in Ancient Greece or communist ideologists in SovietUnion), they ban some types of music and try to fundamentally transform musical cultureof whole peoples (like in USSR), most religions control musical activity and ban earlier“barbaric” forms of music (like early Christianity), and some religions ban music almostcompletely as a sin (Islam). On the other hand, in some cases polyphonic singing maybecome a symbol of national identity and receive a strong political and social boost (likein Corsica, Bulgaria, Lithuania, or Georgia).To complete this historical reconstruction of the disappearance of the ancienttradition of polyphonic singing, I would suggest that different contemporary humanpopulations are in different stages of this process, mostly depending on the chronology ofthe origins of the articulated speech among their ancestors. Among East Asian, AustralianAboriginal and most of the Native American populations this process of losing thetradition of vocal polyphony is mostly completed, and there are no major traces of thetradition of vocal polyphony left (except still surviving tradition of group singing – socialpolyphony, mostly in antiphonal and responsorial forms). Among European, small part ofNative American and possibly Polynesian populations the process of disappearing ofpolyphonic traditions is going now. Sub-Saharan Africa seems to be the only regionwhere the process of the disappearance of vocal polyphony did not have a major impactso far (at least, actively).Conclusions: Any more queations?We reached the end of the part three, and this is the end of this book. Only thePostScript and Appendix are left. Postscript discusses the moral and ethical problemsconnected with the suggested model of the origins of human choral singing, intelligence,language and speech, and an appendix provides information about the special conferencesdedicated to traditional polyphony that has been held in different countries of the worldduring the last few decades.So here are the main conclusions:• The problem of the origins of choral polyphony is not a musicological problemonly. Origin of choral polyphony was an integral part of the evolutionary history ofhuman language, intelligence, and articulated speech, and should be only discussed inthis context.• Singing has long existed in animal kingdom, but group singing with a strictrhythmic organization seems to be characteristic of human singing only. The origins ofhuman polyphony were initially connected to the appearance of the metro-rhythmic unityamong the groups of hominids and it served the important role of the defense against the

379major African ground predators (and possibly the major factor for the confrontationalscavenging).• This rhythmical unity of the group and the feel of the united strength was amajor factor in hominid survival, allowing our ancestors to decrease the size of theirteeth, pushed them to increase the hominid group size, and lead to more complexinteractions between the group members and more demands on social intelligence.• Hypnotic influence of the precise and loud rhythm on human brain (still withus!) must be connected to the very long use of the primordial song-dance, consisting ofrhythmically precisely organized stomping and shouting/singing.• With the appearance of the mental ability to ask questions our ancestors“crossed the line” between the animal kingdom and humans. Human dialogical language,self-developing intelligence and mental cooperation were born. According to suggestedmodel, the ability to ask questions is the defining element of human cognition andlanguage. “Interrogo ergo Cogito” – “I ask questions, therefore I think”.• The ability to answer questions is evolutionarily much older than the ability toask questions. New research is needed to check whether apes are able to use their naturalcuriosity and ask questions. Apes are very good in understanding human questions andresponding to them, but so far no serious claim has been made on apes’ ability to askquestions.• According to our current knowledge, four groups of protolanguage users shouldbe divided into two very different groups: (1) those who cannot ask questions (apes andwolf children), and (2) those who can ask questions (children under two and pidginlanguage users). Asking questions seems to be a genetic ability, and early humaninteraction with parents and society is crucial for human babies to develop this geneticability.• The question (and accordingly, human intelligence) was born during the ancientpitch-based vocal communication, before the advance of articulated speech. Questionintonation is arguably the strongest linguistic universal among human languages and isthe oldest means to ask questions (both in phylogeny and ontogeny). Question-andanswersinging form is universal for human group (social) singing.• Different contemporary human groups communicate via pitch-only basedlanguage, but no human speech exists without pitch element (prosodic features). Pitchelement of tone languages, whistle and drum languages are the survivals of the archaicpitch-based system of referential communication.• Musical ear and good sense of rhythm was much more important for ourhominid and early human ancestors before the advance of articulated speech. After thelanguage became predominantly spoken, musical ear lost in survival value and was

378• As human society becomes increasingly politicized, moral and religious normsplay an important part in musical life as well. Politicians discuss controlling musicaltastes of <strong>the</strong>ir citizens (e.g. Plato in Ancient Greece or communist ideologists in SovietUnion), <strong>the</strong>y ban some types of music and try to fundamentally transform musical cultureof <strong>who</strong>le peoples (like in USSR), most religions control musical activity and ban earlier“barbaric” forms of music (like early Christianity), and some religions ban music almostcompletely as a sin (Islam). On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, in some cases polyphonic singing maybecome a symbol of national identity and receive a strong political and social boost (likein Corsica, Bulgaria, Lithuania, or Georgia).To complete this historical reconstruction of <strong>the</strong> disappearance of <strong>the</strong> ancienttradition of polyphonic singing, I would suggest that different contemporary humanpopulations are in different stages of this process, mostly depending on <strong>the</strong> chronology of<strong>the</strong> origins of <strong>the</strong> articulated speech among <strong>the</strong>ir ancestors. Among East Asian, AustralianAboriginal and most of <strong>the</strong> Native American populations this process of losing <strong>the</strong>tradition of vocal polyphony is mostly completed, and <strong>the</strong>re are no major traces of <strong>the</strong>tradition of vocal polyphony left (except still surviving tradition of group singing – socialpolyphony, mostly in antiphonal and responsorial forms). Among European, small part ofNative American and possibly Polynesian populations <strong>the</strong> process of disappearing ofpolyphonic traditions is going now. Sub-Saharan Africa seems to be <strong>the</strong> only regionwhere <strong>the</strong> process of <strong>the</strong> disappearance of vocal polyphony did not have a major impactso far (at least, actively).Conclusions: Any more queations?We reached <strong>the</strong> end of <strong>the</strong> part three, and this is <strong>the</strong> end of this book. Only <strong>the</strong>PostScript and Appendix are left. Postscript discusses <strong>the</strong> moral and ethical problemsconnected with <strong>the</strong> suggested model of <strong>the</strong> origins of human choral singing, intelligence,language and speech, and an appendix provides information about <strong>the</strong> special conferencesdedicated to traditional polyphony that has been held in different countries of <strong>the</strong> worldduring <strong>the</strong> last few decades.So here are <strong>the</strong> main conclusions:• The problem of <strong>the</strong> origins of choral polyphony is not a musicological problemonly. Origin of choral polyphony was an integral part of <strong>the</strong> evolutionary history ofhuman language, intelligence, and articulated speech, and should be only discussed inthis context.• Singing has long existed in animal kingdom, but group singing with a strictrhythmic organization seems to be characteristic of human singing only. The origins ofhuman polyphony were initially connected to <strong>the</strong> appearance of <strong>the</strong> metro-rhythmic unityamong <strong>the</strong> groups of hominids and it served <strong>the</strong> important role of <strong>the</strong> defense against <strong>the</strong>

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