Sing...it's natural!

HIGH NOTES

A while back, I was gifted a book called The Singing Neanderthal by British archaeologist Steven Mithen.

I started reading it but soon stopped. It wasn't boring but it was a tad academic (not my genre of preference) in placing music at the centre of the human condition and comparing its value to the essence of the spoken language. I nearly forgot about the book till I bumped into it once again and this time approached it in a more open-minded way.

Midway through the book now, I have been able to grasp that Mithen's objective is to go back as far as possible to unravel facts related to the innate nature of music, its evolution and also its relation to the evolution of language, thus placing it at the centre of human development.

I have yet to finish reading the book and so cannot comment wholeheartedly on it, but the idea that music plays an intrinsic role in the development of man is one that I can easily get used to. One has only to look at the various ways in which one is affected by music to know that music and humankind are not entirely separate.

From infancy on, humans are treated with doses of music to calm them when agitated "" this being long before they even understand even basic concepts. If that isn't reason enough to believe that music plays a vital role in our lives, think of how easily a young child can hum a tune without even training.

In many ways, it seems that music does play a vital role in our lives to an extent that is not completely acknowledged yet.

In the meanwhile, I came up with my own theory as to how musical taste and styles evolve as individuals themselves experience changes in life.

Regarding taste, for example, I remember a time when I looked upon all music outside of rock music with disdain. I thought pop music was crap, hip-hop was incomprehensible and jazz and Hindustani classical were just not for me.

I couldn't have imagined then that a few years later I might enjoy each of these styles of music in their own way. Likewise, a young teenage girl might have enjoyed listening to a popular boy band but as she grew into a young adult, also find that she enjoys listening to Schubert and R D Burman.

Also with musicians. The best example I can think of is The Beatles. When they released their first album, Please Please Me (1963), you could tell that they were young uncomplicated teens who wanted to make simple hit music that would appeal to people of their age group.

Fast forward to the release of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) and the opening notes of the album are enough to tell you that these four young men had come a long way from their youthful days.

They were wealthy young men now whose travels and experiences had matured them in more ways than one. They were in all probability wiser, wealthier and, above all, more complex individuals. And their music reflected all this.

Renowned linguist Steven Pinker referred to music as "auditory cheesecake" and something that humans invented merely as entertainment. But then how do you explain such things as music therapy? And would there even be a need for studies in biomusicology?

My point in all of this being that there's a better than good chance that music is connected to us in an intrinsic way. As we grow and mature, so do our musical inclinations.

And the proof is quite compelling and evident. I'm still trying to find an explanation to why most parents cannot listen to or tolerate their children's generation of music without cringing and proclaiming, "Noise!" But maybe that has more to do with the complex parent-child relationship.