Animals, music, and communicating consciousness
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2022 6:55 am
I have a weakness for YouTube videos where humans play music for animals. It started a couple of years ago with a man playing accordion for a heard of cows. For some reason I loved the almost surreal juxtaposition of the rather martial accordion music with the organic herd behavior of the cows.
Then there was a video of a blind elephant listening to classical piano in the jungle. The same pianist played for an agitated bull elephant, music to tame the savage beast.
I like a parrot who plays the lead on Sultans of Swing. Today I saw a woman play violin for whales. You could argue that humpback whale songs are as least as musical.
On land, sea and air, humans send out music and animals respond. Out of apes came man, and out of man came music. One of the biggest advantages humans have over apes and chimps is our highly developed ability to modulate vocally. Out of this comes speech, used to communicate abstract thought. Music is born out of the same physical ability, but animals react very differently to people talking and people playing music. The modulated sounds of music communicate no abstract thought. It is the assembly of a series of pleasing tones over space and time. And you don't have consciousness capable of abstract thought to get it.
Watching animals respond to music is crossing a bridge into the consciousness of the non-human world.
Then there was a video of a blind elephant listening to classical piano in the jungle. The same pianist played for an agitated bull elephant, music to tame the savage beast.
I like a parrot who plays the lead on Sultans of Swing. Today I saw a woman play violin for whales. You could argue that humpback whale songs are as least as musical.
On land, sea and air, humans send out music and animals respond. Out of apes came man, and out of man came music. One of the biggest advantages humans have over apes and chimps is our highly developed ability to modulate vocally. Out of this comes speech, used to communicate abstract thought. Music is born out of the same physical ability, but animals react very differently to people talking and people playing music. The modulated sounds of music communicate no abstract thought. It is the assembly of a series of pleasing tones over space and time. And you don't have consciousness capable of abstract thought to get it.
Watching animals respond to music is crossing a bridge into the consciousness of the non-human world.