How important is music?

[Quijote]

Did music come before structured languages as a means of communication.
And is the study of music important in furthering our understanding of the human condition?

You like your questions, don't you Megan?
Here are the answers, please take note.
Question 1 : Yes, quite probably;
Question 2 : Yes, definitely.

[Quijote]

I think there have been studies suggesting this is the case, but it depends on how you define music [...]

Doesn't it.

[Quijote]

The study of music definitely shows human progression throughout the centuries. We can see how music was developed in conjunction with human development; how religion and secularism parallel musical evolution. Music is at the pinnacle of human art and reflects the direction of society as a whole.

Music as a reflection of human "development"? I am not at all convinced, my fellow half-Hispanic Brucknerian! Or maybe I am confusing the term "development" with "improvement"?

[Quijote]

Our Headmaster has obliquely warned us off the topic of Darwin (which Megan dangerously rasies). I will take it no further ...

[Quijote]

... Other than to say that the notion of musical Darwinism could (at an extreme aesthetic pinch) be applied to ...

[Quijote]

Satie? Obviously an evolutionary "Dodo". Ok, maybe not. Who then, pour l'amour de dieu?

[Quijote]

Or, dare I say, Bruckner? I am not at all sure where his musical "DNA" comes from. Sorrano, any ideas?

[Sorrano]

Music as a reflection of human "development"? I am not at all convinced, my fellow half-Hispanic Brucknerian! Or maybe I am confusing the term "development" with "improvement"?

Development was not the best word here as to develop indicates improvement, as you so put it. If I use the word progress that, too, would be misunderstood, except that I might mean it only in linear terms of change. My thoughts are that music and human evolution (de-evolution?) are parallel. Nice catch on the vocabulary, Philip!

[Quijote]

Linear change, yes, I like that much better; very eloquent, Sorrano.
Jolin, hombre, hablas bien inglés!

[Sorrano]

Or, dare I say, Bruckner? I am not at all sure where his musical "DNA" comes from. Sorrano, any ideas?

This might sound a bit silly, but I would suggest Bach.

[Quijote]

This might sound a bit silly, but I would suggest Bach.

An organist speaks ...

[Quijote]

Thus spoke an organist ...

[Preston]

Interesting Bernhard - Yes although it is generally thought that the harp first appeared in Mesopotamia around 3500BC, there are rock paintings of a harp like instrument in France from 15000BC.

There are claims that a hollow bear bone femur found in Slovenia in 1996 is a Neanderthal flute tuned to the modern diatonic scale dating from around 43,000 BC. The only problem is that Neanderthals were not previously considered capable of the technology to work bones, let alone the artistic capacity. Another flute, made from a swan's wing bone discovered in the Geissenklosterle Cave in Germany, is estimated at 36,000 years old.

Peter, your post got me thinking and I ended up discovering some fascinating, at least for me, information. UNBELIEVABLE!

Perhaps music dated back far more than is really known - perhaps 10's of millions of years? Perhaps, there were instruments that are completely different of anything today, or perhaps singing was the music, etc. - I don't know? But I do find it fascinating. Though either way "animals, etc." (which I do believe are sentient) have been making music for far longer than human beings!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus_afarensis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human

[Sorrano]

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!

[Preston]

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!

You must be a distant grandfather of mine?!