Born to be musical… or maybe not!

One feature that defines us all as humans is our impressive musical ability. No other species shows such a rich musical activity as humans do. Although some birds have a quite original musical language, however, their overall musical activity has a low-level of complexity and is dictated by pure instinct. On the other hand, humans compose very articulated music, perform it, and of course enjoy it. What’s more, humans are moved by music and are able to map simple acoustic signals into emotions, words and memories.

All these processes are amazing, but really complex as well. Therefore, the question of whether or not music is a kind of built-in human feature arises. Indeed, some people believe that our music ability is directly embedded in our genes. Others think that music is the result of cultural pressure. Both points of view have strengths and weaknesses. The intellectual fight between the two perspectives has a long history and is just another example of the never-ending nature versus nurture debate.

Let’s delve into some implications of the hypothesis of music as a natural trait first.

• Music has universals shared by all humans. Indeed, musical scales, the octave, and  a small amount of tones within a scale (typically between 5 and 7) are all examples of musical universals.
• Music is a product of evolution. Music can be seen as an evolutionary advantage that improves the chance of survival of individuals who developed musical traits. How? Probably, increasing the chance of mating.
• The human brain processes music in specific musical modules. This idea directly opposes to the claim that music is processed by the same brain modules of natural language. Fortunately, we already have experimental evidences that support this hypothesis.

Now, let’s discover the main implications of the hypothesis of music as a cultural trait.

• Music entirely depends on society. Music is but one of a number of activities which rely on society such as literature, art, political organization. Particularly, music is based on the exchange of information between the members of a society. The society develops a musical tradition, which undergoes a continuous process of evolution and refinement.
• Different musical environments produce radically different musical outputs. Since there aren’t music universals, music develops different paths in different cultures. As a consequence, all the rules of music as well as the music compositions only relies on the here and now.
• Music is an artificial human construction. Music is an artefact comparable to other artefacts such as hammers, cars or tables. The comparison might sound a bit unorthodox at first, however, all these items share a common characteristic. They are all produced by humans and are not directly coded inside us.

Which of the two approaches is correct? Of course, there’s no absolute answer to this question. However, I suggest that we consider the two approaches complementary rather than contradictory. Since in medio stat virtus, we can say that a mixed approach would be best. There are strong evidences of music as a natural trait, but a simple innatist approach to music would ignore all the cultural pressures which every human experiences during her life.

As a consequence, we can think of music as a double layered phenomenon. The first layer is the natural level, which is shared by all humans. The second layer is the cultural level, which is built upon the natural level. While the natural layer is  culture-independent, the cultural layer is related to the society we live in and the stimuli we are exposed to. Hopefully, this mixed approach could help solving the eternal nature versus nurture musical debate shading some light on the understanding of music.