New book on the evolution of music ‘a valuable resource’
How music has evolved in our species and why it has such a significant presence in our lives is the subject of a new book written by an expert in music theory and analysis at the University of Huddersfield.
The book is titled 'Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music' by Dr Steven Jan, a Reader in the Department of Music and Design Arts in the University's School of Arts and Humanities and published by Open Book Publishers who consider the book to be “a valuable resource for anyone interested in the relationships between music and evolutionary thought”.
Consisting of seven chapters, with several music examples, figures and definitions of terms, the book has been made as accessible as possible by being an Open Access title available to read and download for free or to purchase in all available print and ebook formats.
The book, seven years in the making for Dr Jan, examines the ‘evolutionary algorithm’ that drives biological and music-cultural evolution and provides a distinctive commentary on how musicality and music can shed light on our understanding of Darwin’s famous theory, and vice-versa.
In the book he guides the reader through key evolutionary ideas and the development of human musicality, before exploring cultural evolution, the use of evolutionary ideas in musical scholarship, animal vocalisations as forms of music, music generated through technology (including AI), and the nature of consciousness as an evolutionary phenomenon.
The book is described by the publisher as “a unique examination of how evolutionary thought intersects with music. Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music is essential to our understanding of how and why music arose in our species and why it is such a significant presence in our lives”.
Over 800 pages in length, Dr Jan’s inspiration to write the book came after attending a conference entitled ‘Music and Evolutionary Thought’ in 2007, after which the original plan of the organisers to publish a collection of papers based on the research discussed at the conference was never realised.
“This tempted me into writing a book that would attempt to cover quite a lot of the territory that the conference explored,” explained Dr Jan, who added that this new book is, in effect, a prequel to an earlier book he wrote in 2007 entitled, ‘The Memetics of Music: A Neo-Darwinian View of Musical Structure and Culture’.
“Writing a book is of course a learning process,” he said, “particularly when you are carrying out multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research, as in this book. You have to acquire knowledge from several areas you've not explored in detail before.
“I needed to draw several quite disparate areas together, so have had to educate myself as I’ve gone along. One of the most significant problems with writing about this subject is that it is so wide-ranging. I don't think anybody has previously attempted to synthesise as many aspects of human musicality in the light of evolution in one single volume in the way I have,” he added.