different languages — recorded themselves singing and speaking their native languages. They found that in all 50+ cultures, the rhythms of songs and instrumental melodies were slower than those of speech. Additionally, the pitches were higher and more stable in both music and speech. These findings suggest that there are shared acoustic features of music and spoken language across different cultures, indicating potential evolutionary functions that have shaped both speech and song. This research highlights the universal aspects of music and language, while also acknowledging the cultural variations that exist within these shared features.
The researchers recruited individuals with expertise in ethnomusicology, music psychology, linguistics, and evolutionary biology from various regions such as Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific to participate in the study. They were asked to sing, play instruments, recite lyrics, and verbally describe songs, and the resulting audio samples were then analyzed for pitch, timbre, and rhythm.
The study, led by senior author Patrick Savage of Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, who is a psychologist and musicologist and performed ‘Scarborough Fair,’ found “strong evidence for cross-cultural regularities.”
Limor Raviv, co-author from MPI, commented on the study.The study included recordings of different cultural songs, including the Hebrew song ‘Yerushalayim Shel Zahav’ and the Italian song ‘Bella Ciao’, played on the saxophone by Andrea Ravignani from the MPI. The collection also included the Dutch songs ‘Hoor de wind waait’ and ‘Dikkertje Dap’. A three-minute video of researchers singing, speaking, and playing traditional instruments from their cultures can be viewed at https://youtu.be/a4eNNrdcfDM.
Savage speculates that the cross-cultural similarities in songs may be due to their predictably regular nature, which facilitates synchronization, unlike speech.The study by Yuto Ozaki, Adam Tierney, and their colleagues focuses on the connection between music and language. They believe that slow, regular, and predictable melodies help people to sing together in large groups, which has important implications for social bonding and synchronization. This research sheds light on the cultural and biological evolution of music and language, revealing how these two systems have shaped our humanity.
