Thursday, November 21, 2013

Evolution in Music, Genes, and Language

Music seems to coevolve with genes, whereas language evolves more quickly. Which only makes me wonder about how this affects the evolution of songs and poetry. Might this more ancientness of music be one of the things that stranges language when it's made more musical?

And why does music evolve more slowly, at the rate of genes? Might it be because music is so much more connected to our emotions, which equally evolve at a glacial pace? Language is liberated from pure emotivity, able to express in logical structures as well. And sentiments give rise to emotions and moral responses equally, suggesting music (and language) are connected to sentiments. Logos, pathos. ethos.

And music, then, brings language back to being more sentimental -- expressing emotions and moral content more strongly, bringing them back in balance with the logical content of language. And yet, one cannot escape the logic and reason inherent in language, even in poetry.

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