The evolution of music

I will be speaking with Cafe Scientifique and Spirit of Play in Leeds tonight, 8pm at The Wardrobe, 3 St Peter’s Square.

From the poster:

“Making music is one of the weirdest things we do – and the more you think about it, the weirder music becomes. How can some compositions sound “happy”, while others “sad”? Why in the world should ordered collections of notes give us goose-bumps, or stir our hearts just like the feeling of love? How you can you explain the fact that we are undeniably drawn to gathering in dark nightclubs with complete strangers just to experience noises – or that we collectively spend more money on music than on pornography or prescription drugs every year?

And yet every human culture makes music – not all have writing, or agriculture, but all make music. Why? Could it be something that we evolved to do for a reason? Could it predate language, and might other hominids have been musical too? And could music even hold the key to what makes us human in the first place? Change the way you think about music – and science – with Guerilla Scientist Zoe Cormier”