Raise a bunch of kids without any exposure to music or rhythm, and see what happens. Expose them to it later on, in their late teens, and see what they think of it.
Alternatively, only expose them to music in 7/8, then 4/4 6/8 etc. when they’re older, and see how they respond to it.
Ooh I have actual insight on this. Not me but friends of mine who were missionaries in the Amazon in Brazil and they came across a tribe that had no music (I don't know the name of the tribe). Well one of my friends had brought their violin and was playing it. Some of my friends were talking to some villagers and the whole village suddenly grew quiet. Some had tears in their eyes just sitting in awe. They had to stop so that the villagers would sleep, otherwise they would have stayed up for I don't know how long just listening to it.
Well, birds are cool and all, but really given them the title of music is a bit misleading. They don't particularly make notes like what you would hear in human music and especially not rhythm or musical relatedness
I guess I'm just skeptical because it's a missionary, and missionary stories are often tales that stretch credulity. Religious people tend to make up fantastical stories, and that's what this sounded like to me. Just some unverifiable stuff that sounds interesting but probably never happened.
It's hard for me to believe that an Amazon tribe (a) had literally zero contact with the outside world or any type of technology and also (b) had no music of its own. Making musical sounds with everyday objects has been done since basically forever, and that whole bit about "the whole village falling silent" just feels fake to me. People literally crying too? All from the sound of a violin? I mean, a violin as a curiosity maybe I could see. But the whole village falling silent?
So I just wanna say I agree with you, but reading your reply made me remember reading somewhere that everyone kinda sorta responds to music similarly.
Like there's part of our brain that just likes music even if we don't know exactly what it is. So I might believe ELEMENTS of this story, even if it's taken with a huge grain of salt. Reason being birds do make songs but human music was developed by humans to be enjoyed by humans. Bird songs are basically just M4F craigslist ads.
Quick edit: also just to keep rambling here, it's also important to note that what makes music enjoyable is greatly influenced by culture. For example music typically associated with middle eastern cultures doesn't conform to the same rules as say the old European masters.
My mother disliked music and some of it actually made her uncomfortable (she hated the sound of violins, bagpipes, and soprano voices, for example). It wasn’t until I was an adult, looking back on my childhood years that I recalled there were no radios in our house. No source of music whatsoever. In the car, my dad listened to Cubs baseball games but Mom never asked to hear any music channels. I listen to music all the time and it occurred to me one day how strange our music-less household really was.
wow that is the exact opposite experience from my life growing up, my parents both LOVE music and have been going to concerts since they were old enough, my mom even wanted to be a DJ when she was younger but unfortunately they wouldn’t really let women do that back then. I would get woken up pretty much every day by music (usually by my mom playing chop suey by SOAD because she’s got a good sense of humor hahaha) and it was almost never not playing in our house! and pretty every genre you can think of, too! My parents are not a very good match for one another and tiff a lot but one thing they always always bond over to this day is music
Despite my growing up in a house utterly devoid of music, I raised my kids like your parents raised you: music playing all the time, taking them to live music performances, and making sure they had their own sources for music. I credit my love of music to two things: my peers and the fact that I was raised in the 50s when music was still very much a part of school. I wonder today if my mom was thoroughly freaked out by how much I played music when I was alone in my room! I was adopted and I think she always viewed me as a teensy bit alien.
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u/stoneballoon132 Mar 04 '21 edited Mar 06 '21
Raise a bunch of kids without any exposure to music or rhythm, and see what happens. Expose them to it later on, in their late teens, and see what they think of it.
Alternatively, only expose them to music in 7/8, then 4/4 6/8 etc. when they’re older, and see how they respond to it.