ARC742B: Music

Week 2: Music, Language and Celebration

Dr R.L. Tavis Ashton Bell

MISSION VISION CORE VALUES

CHRIST is a nurturing ground for an individual’s Excellence and Service Faith in God | Moral Uprightness
holistic development to make effective contribution to Love of Fellow Beings
the society in a dynamic environment Social Responsibility | Pursuit of Excellence
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Outcomes of the Lesson

● Describe ways music is important to

humanity in prehistory

● Describe how music and language

evolve from the surrounding
environment

● Describe ways in which music helps

the development of language in infants

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Week 2 Timeline – Synchronous
Session

2:00 p.m. – 2:20 p.m. Revision of Reading

2:20 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Revision and Discussion
2:30 p.m. – 2:40 p.m. Breakout Session
2:40 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Discussions
3:10 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. Music and Language
3:40 p.m. – 3:50 p.m. Communicative Musicality
9:50 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Reviewing and concluding

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Revision of Anton Killin (2018):

The Origins of music – Evidence,
Theory and Prospects

Write your responses in the chat box:

● What was this paper about?
● What were the most interesting parts?
● What did you learn from this paper?

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Imagine…

● You are living in a time before any

developed society
● You are the last member of your tribe
after being attacked by a group of tigers
● You encounter a foreign tribe, who upon
seeing you feeble and helpless, take you
into their society
● Nobody can speak your language

● How do you explain your situation to

them?

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Imagine…

● They hold a gathering

● It is completely different to anything
you know, yet it seems formal
● You come to understand they are paying
respects to your tribe who passed

● Without understanding what they are

saying, how would you know the
intentions behind their actions?

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Imagine…

● They invite you to celebrate with them

● You hear their music playing
● They seem to be performing in some
sort of formal way…

● What do you do?

● How do you begin to understand this
new culture?
● How do you begin to understand their
language?

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Pop Quiz

Write your response in the chat box:

In what ways does music contribute to early civilization?

● A. Binds a community through common identity

● B. Expresses connections for early survival
● C. Adds colour and flavour to life experiences
● D. Helps communicate / coordinate hunting
● E. All the above

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Breakout Sessions

● How did the first spoken languages come to

exist?
● Which came first: music or language? How
and by what means?

You have five minutes to discuss in your group

and then one elected team leader will give
feedback of your discussions using the mic
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Discussions

● What did your group decide?

○ Question 1: How did the first spoken
languages come to exist?

○ Question 2: Which came first: music or

language? How and by what means?

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Music and Language

Is music a language, or is language a type of
music?

● Sound patterns organised in time. May pave

the way for understanding the rules of social
interaction. (Pitt, 2015)

● Spoken language is introduced to the child as

a vocal performance, and children attend to
its musical features first. Without the ability
to hear musically, it would be impossible to
learn to speak. (Brandt, et. al, 2012)

Where does music occur in language?

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Pop Quiz

Write your response in the chat box:

Music is a language of:

A. Interaction
B. Emotion
C. Culture
D. Cognition
E. Play
F. Representation and Symbol
G. All the above

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Communicative Musicality

● “Communicative Musicality” was first coined

by Colwyn Trevarthen (1999) and Stephen
Malloch (Trevarthen & Malloch, 2000)

● Book was written to define mother-baby

interaction – not what is typically thought of
as ‘music’ but an innate human ability to
appreciate and produce musically co-ordinated
‘narratives’ of expression and emotion.
(Malloch & Trevarthen, 2010, p. 4)

● Evident in mother-infant interactions that its

role is thought to be reinforcement of
emotional connectedness between the pair
(Dissanayake, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2010)

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Musicality
● Musicality can be defined as a natural,
spontaneously developing trait based on and
constrained by our biological and cognitive
system.

● Music [is] a social and cultural construct

based on that very musicality. Or simply put:
without musicality, no music
(Honing, 2012)
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Jessica Pitt (2014)

Musical-Social-
Learning Model

● Social
● Emotional
● Cognitive
● Cultural

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Pop Quiz

Write your response in the chat box:

Human brains use music at what age?

● A. Prenatal
● B. From birth
● C. Before 12 months
● D. 1-2 years old
● E. 2 + years old
● F. Depends on the individual

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Asynchronous Task: Creation of Infant Language
Game

Given the materials discussed in the synchronous session, students

are to pretend they are parents and create a musical game to play
with their child that helps them learn any basic materials of a
language.

In the forum that will be created directly after this session finishes;
students are to state the approximate age of their tiny human, state
what environmental aspects will be included, outline the rules of the
game, and what the desired outcomes should be. Students cannot
simply write the lyrics to a song; the game must be interactive.

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Thank you!

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