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The Gift of Song
Call this baseless speculation, but I should hope none of you expect anything different from me at this point…
But sometimes I think that singing actually evolved as a behavior for vocal communication before speech ever did.
Because when you can do it fully and un-self-consciously, it feels so much richer and fuller than simply speaking.
Conversely, people who are the best speakers have such musicality that it almost seems as though they are singing or chanting (think of someone with a hypnotic voice) when they are speaking…
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December 5th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
I’ve thought about this, too. Vico thought that speech originated with gesture, movement.
I’m inclined to agree with him. Maybe dance, song, speech?
December 5th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Who’s Vico? (The Master of Evil? No wait, that’s Vigo!)
Gesture, dance, song, absolutely! Which is why all of those things are so full of joy when you engage in them.
December 5th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Close!
Giambattista Vico. The first google link I found (didn’t read):
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico/
You might get a kick out of the New Science. I haven’t read it through. One of those pick up and randomly read for something outside your typical orbit kind of books. THough I do intend to read it someday.
He talks about the origin of speech, law, myths, you name it. Poetic thought of the ancients. Rails Descartes.
James Joyce and Marshall McLuhan were fans. There is nothing like him.
December 5th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
oh, and he talks about giants and the origin of cities.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:26 am
A few years ago I sang in a choir. We did some pieces based on religious texts. I have to say that I had some almost incomprehensibly moving experiences doing that. Being part of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and Walton’s ‘Belshazzars Feast’ in particular was mind-expanding almost beyond description.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:34 am
I think it pretty much goes without saying. In fact, if you pay attention to ordinary speech (at least in indo-european languages) you will find that a lot of communication happens with tone and rhythm, beyond just the words.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
I may have thrown this at you before, but check out ‘The Singing Neanderthals’ by Steven Mithen. He theorizes that song and speech have a common ancestor, a musical form of verbal communication in early hominids. The idea is far from baseless speculation…
December 6th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
This is a meme epidemic. I was just discussing this exact issue with a friend before logging on to read this post… talking about Terrence McKenna and the way he just entrances you through all the senses. It kind of goes along with something I’ve had my mind on lately: expressing oneself truthfully. The body is always communicating its truth, even when the voice lies. But magical things happen when the body and mind are in harmony. Practicing singing develops this (and many other things).
December 6th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Yeah, holy crap is singing in a choir ever fun! I know exactly what you mean about singing religious music. Those guys were really onto something. I am wondering if whether a number of those old school composers and artists and whatnot hadn’t tapped into the “Bible Mysteries” and this was the source of their super-human abilities. If that’s true, it’s not impossible that they would have encoded into their work signals which would arouse those energies in other people!
Gyrus - I hadn’t seen that before. Thanks for the recommendation!
December 6th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Wow, I have been thinking about this as well but not in so many words! Thank you for propelling me onward with it