linuxaudio.org

On Wed, Sep 08, 2010 at 11:24:01PM +0100, Gwenhwyfaer wrote:

quoted text
> On 08/09/2010, Rustom Mody  wrote:

> > Cannot help noticing the irony that this comment is on this mailing list [?]

>

> What's ironic about it?

>

> > I believe that Darwin had great difficulty dealing with music in

> > evolutionary terms:

> > Not the original but what google produces: darwinism cant explain music

>

> O RLY?

>

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_musicology

Yeah, after I posted that, I realized I forgot to mention that understanding that humans are just apes with very dextrous hands is ESSENTIAL to being an effective musician. We are shamans. It's all about affecting people's emotions, which are mammalian and simian in origin.
I also often say to bandmates that our function in society is to preside, along with bartenders, over the Great American Mating Ritual. Alcohol + music + dancing = sex. We succeed to the degree that we help people get laid.
A book I'm reading now and find fascinating is "Sex at Dawn", about the origins of human sexuality and how agricultural and industrial civilization gets it so wrong. The authors don't mention this, but music and dance have long been an essential part of all kinds of social rituals-- not just the mating one.
-ken

_______________________________________________

Linux-audio-user mailing list

Linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org

http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user