Pitch Syntax as an Evolutionary Prelingual Innovation

Abstract

Pitch syntax is an important part of musical syntax. It is a complex hierarchical system that involves generative production and perception based on pitch. Because hierarchical systems are also present in language grammar, the processing of a pitch hierarchy is predominantly explained by the activity of cognitive mechanisms that are not solely specific to music. However, in contrast to the processing of language grammar, which is mainly cognitive in nature, the processing of pitch syntax includes subtle emotional sensations that are often described in terms of tension and resolution or instability and stability. This difference suggests that the very nature of pitch syntax may be evolutionarily older than grammar in language, and has served another adaptive function. The aim of this paper is to indicate that the recognition of pitch structure may be a separate ability, rather than merely being part of general syntactic processing. It is also proposed that pitch syntax has evolved as a specific tool for social bonding in which subtle emotions of tension and resolution are indications of mutual trust. From this perspective, it is considered that musical pitch started to act as a medium of communication by the means of spectral synchronization between the brains of hominins. Pitch syntax facilitated spectral synchronization between performers of a well-established, enduring, communal ritual and in this way increased social cohesion. This process led to the evolution of new cortico-subcortical pathways that enabled the implicit learning of pitch hierarchy and the intuitive use of pitch structure in music before language, as we know it now, began.

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music

“…Moreover -and this is perhaps the clincher in discussions of the evolutionary origins of music and language -the evidence discussed here suggests that brain structures primarily subserving music (strictly, those that might have subserved the prosodic dimensions of musilanguage and the capacity for rhythmic entrainment to a tactus) are, as has been implied here, phylogenetically older than those subserving language (see also point 8 of the list on page 138). This notion is supported by Podlipniak (2017bPodlipniak ( , 2020, who argues for the importance of tonal qualia -the emotional efferents of expectations bound up with statistically learned and motor-associated pitch hierarchies (see also §3.5.2 and §7.2.1) -in understanding human evolution. Presupposing the existence of pitch-centre recognition (Podlipniak, 2016), tonal qualia have their roots early in the hominin line, perhaps appearing after the origin of the fine vocal control of the larynx required to produce pitch, which may have occurred after c. 0.6 MYA (2017b, p. 40) (and which may thus have arisen in Homo erectus/Homo ergaster and/or Homo heidelbergensis).…”

The Role of Canalization and Plasticity in the Evolution of Musical Creativity

“…Human vocal learning is especially efficient as far as the speech and singing features are concerned ( Jackendoff and Lerdahl, 2006 ). The mental categories of words in speech and musical pitches and rhythms in music are mapped into conceptual meaning ( Bickerton, 2009 ) and preconceptual emotional ( Podlipniak, 2020 ) and kinetic impressions ( Grahn and Rowe, 2009 , 2013 ; Levitin et al, 2018 ), respectively. Although neuroimaging studies show that certain brain areas are involved in the processing of both language and music ( Fedorenko et al, 2009 ; Kunert et al, 2015 ) there are also neural structures that are activated when only one of these two phenomena is processed ( Rogalsky et al, 2011 ; Perruchet and Poulin-Charronnat, 2013 ; Norman-Haignere et al, 2015 ).…”

“…The fact that musical syntax is learned implicitly and spontaneously in childhood suggests the existence of developmental predispositions related to this task. It has been hypothesized that the ability to recognize pitch center ( Podlipniak, 2016 ), as well as to organize musical pitch in a syntactic way ( Podlipniak, 2020 ), evolved by the means of the Baldwin effect, which means that after cultural invention of pitch hierarchy it was overtaken by genetic control. Regardless of whether it is true or not, the fact that tonal organization of music is prevalent across musical cultures ( Mehr et al, 2019 ) strengthens the view that human proclivity to implicitly learn the rules of pitch distribution in music is a result of the process of canalization.…”

Kwestia pierwotności funkcji estetycznej muzyki w świetle znalezisk archeologicznych

“…Zdaniem niektórych zdolnością taką być może wykazywał się już Homo heidelbergensis (Morley, 2013). Biorąc pod uwagę, że kontrola wokalna nad częstotliwością tonu podstawowego (F o ) dźwięków o strukturze harmonicznej jest użyteczna jedynie, jeśli weźmiemy pod uwagę śpiew (Bannan, 2012;Podlipniak, 2016), początki muzyki mogą być o wiele starsze niż początki zastosowania instrumentów muzycznych. Wprawdzie intencjonalne operowanie częstotliwością wokalizacji ma też miejsce w mowie, szczególnie przy artykułowaniu słów w językach tonalnych, precyzja intonacyjna, do której konieczna jest wspomniana kontrola nad F o , ma jednak zastosowanie jedynie przy wokalizacji konkretnych interwałów, stanowiących podstawę wysokościowego systemu muzycznego.…”