Universal features of music around the world

Music festival 

Is music really a "universal language"? Two articles in the most recent issue of Science support the idea that music all around the globe shares important commonalities, despite many differences. Researchers led by Samuel Mehr at Harvard University have undertaken a large-scale analysis of music from cultures around the world. Cognitive biologists Tecumseh Fitch and Tudor Popescu of the University of Vienna suggest that human musicality unites all cultures across the planet.

The many musical styles of the world are so different, at least superficially, that music scholars are often sceptical that they have any important shared features. "Universality is a big word -- and a dangerous one," the great Leonard Bernstein once said. Indeed, in ethnomusicology, universality became something of a dirty word. But new research promises to once again revive the search for deep universal aspects of human musicality.

Samuel Mehr at Harvard University found that all cultures studied make music, and use similar kinds of music in similar contexts, with consistent features in each case. For example, dance music is fast and rhythmic, and lullabies soft and slow -- all around the world. Furthermore, all cultures showed tonality: building up a small subset of notes from some base note, just as in the Western diatonic scale. Healing songs tend to use fewer notes, and more closely spaced, than love songs. These and other findings indicate that there are indeed universal properties of music that likely reflect deeper commonalities of human cognition -- a fundamental "human musicality."

In a Science perspective piece in the same issue, University of Vienna researchers Tecumseh Fitch and Tudor Popescu comment on the implications. "Human musicality fundamentally rests on a small number of fixed pillars: hard-coded predispositions, afforded to us by the ancient physiological infrastructure of our shared biology. These 'musical pillars' are then 'seasoned' with the specifics of every individual culture, giving rise to the beautiful kaleidoscopic assortment that we find in world music," Tudor Popescu explains.

"This new research revives a fascinating field of study, pioneered by Carl Stumpf in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century, but that was tragically terminated by the Nazis in the 1930s," Fitch adds.

As humanity comes closer together, so does our wish to understand what it is that we all have in common -- in all aspects of behaviour and culture. The new research suggests that human musicality is one of these shared aspects of human cognition. "Just as European countries are said to be 'United In Diversity', so too the medley of human musicality unites all cultures across the planet," concludes Tudor Popes cu.

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Materials provided by University of Vienna. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Universal features of music around the world

Music festival

Is music really a "universal language"? Two articles in the most recent issue of Science support the idea that music all around the globe shares important commonalities, despite many differences. Researchers led by Samuel Mehr at Harvard University have undertaken a large-scale analysis of music from cultures around the world. Cognitive biologists Tecumseh Fitch and Tudor Popescu of the University of Vienna suggest that human musicality unites all cultures across the planet.

The many musical styles of the world are so different, at least superficially, that music scholars are often sceptical that they have any important shared features. "Universality is a big word -- and a dangerous one," the great Leonard Bernstein once said. Indeed, in ethnomusicology, universality became something of a dirty word. But new research promises to once again revive the search for deep universal aspects of human musicality.

Samuel Mehr at Harvard University found that all cultures studied make music, and use similar kinds of music in similar contexts, with consistent features in each case. For example, dance music is fast and rhythmic, and lullabies soft and slow -- all around the world. Furthermore, all cultures showed tonality: building up a small subset of notes from some base note, just as in the Western diatonic scale. Healing songs tend to use fewer notes, and more closely spaced, than love songs. These and other findings indicate that there are indeed universal properties of music that likely reflect deeper commonalities of human cognition -- a fundamental "human musicality."

In a Science perspective piece in the same issue, University of Vienna researchers Tecumseh Fitch and Tudor Popescu comment on the implications. "Human musicality fundamentally rests on a small number of fixed pillars: hard-coded predispositions, afforded to us by the ancient physiological infrastructure of our shared biology. These 'musical pillars' are then 'seasoned' with the specifics of every individual culture, giving rise to the beautiful kaleidoscopic assortment that we find in world music," Tudor Popescu explains.

"This new research revives a fascinating field of study, pioneered by Carl Stumpf in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century, but that was tragically terminated by the Nazis in the 1930s," Fitch adds.

As humanity comes closer together, so does our wish to understand what it is that we all have in common -- in all aspects of behaviour and culture. The new research suggests that human musicality is one of these shared aspects of human cognition. "Just as European countries are said to be 'United In Diversity', so too the medley of human musicality unites all cultures across the planet," concludes Tudor Popescu.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Vienna. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Smart people may learn music faster

Different brain regions

Why do some people learn music more quickly than others?

Intelligence could play a role, according to a Michigan State University study that investigated the early stages of learning to play piano.

Published in the journal Intelligence, the study may be the first to examine the relationship between intelligence, music aptitude and growth mindset in beginner pianists.

Growth mindset refers to whether students believe they can improve basic abilities, like piano ability.

"The strongest predictor of skill acquisition was intelligence, followed by music aptitude," said Alexander Burgoyne, a doctoral candidate in cognition and cognitive neuroscience. "By contrast, the correlation between growth mindset and piano performance was about as close to zero as possible."

In the study, 161 undergraduates were taught how to play "Happy Birthday" on the piano with the help of a video guide. After practice, the students performed the 25-note song multiple times. Three MSU graduate students judged the performances based on their melodic and rhythmic accuracy.

There were striking differences in the students' skill acquisition trajectories. Some learned quickly, earning perfect marks within six minutes of practice. Others performed poorly at first but improved substantially later. By comparison, some seemed to fade as if they had lost their motivation and others never figured it out, performing poorly throughout the study.

So why did some students fail while others succeeded?

To find out, the researchers gave the students tests of cognitive ability that measured things like problem-solving skills and processing speed, and tests of music aptitude that measured, for example, the ability to differentiate between similar rhythms. They also surveyed their growth mindset.

"The results were surprising, because people have claimed that mindset plays an important role when students are confronted with challenges, like trying to learn a new musical instrument," Burgoyne said. "And yet, it didn't predict skill acquisition."

That said, results will likely differ for those with greater skill.

"Our study examined one of the earliest stages of skill acquisition," Burgoyne said. "Early experiences can be formative, but I would caution against drawing conclusions about skilled musicians based on our study of beginners."

But applied generally, the study's findings may be helpful in education.

It follows a recent review of mindset research that found a weak relationship between growth mindset and academic achievement. Perhaps more concerning, that study found interventions designed to boost achievement by encouraging children to believe they can improve their basic abilities may be fruitless.

That is, when those interventions successfully altered students' mindsets, there wasn't a significant effect on academic achievement.

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Materials provided by Michigan State University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.