This is the official Youtube Channel of the research group The Performances of Everyday Living at the University of Southern Denmark.

For more information please visit www.soundmusicresearch.org - the official website of the research group.

Film produced by Cynthia M. Grund & Johnny Harboe.

This seminar series is a forum for open discussions of ideas. The views and opinions expressed by the lecturer do not necessarily state or reflect those of the research group.

Speaker Bio:
Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard, PhD
Associate Professor
Center for Sound Communication
Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark

Abstract:
When listening to the rich and varied sound repertoire of animals, for example bird song, it is often compared to music. Yet, as far as we know, animal sound communication is completely different in the sense that it always seems to have a well-defined biological function – animals do not make sounds for fun, for sound communication has a cost, either directly or indirectly (increased risk of predation).
A similar biological role is harder to see for music. On the other hand, the ubiquity of music in the human species suggests that it originated early in our evolution and that it plays some biological role. Many such roles have been proposed, and I reviewed them in my paper ‘Music and the Origin of Speeches’ ten years ago (in JMM: The Journal of Music and Meaning 2, Spring 2004).
In this talk, I will give an updated view of the current status of the biological bases of music and the relation of music to animal sound communication.

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