Readership: A key text for scholars and students in archaeology, linguistics, music, anthropology, and psychology.
Edited by Nicholas Bannan, Assistant Professor, School of Music, University of Western Australia.
Nicholas Bannan is a composer and choral conductor. After studying at Clare College, Cambridge, he taught music both at school and university level while embarking on research into aspects of singing and creativity arising from his work in education. He has published articles and book chapters on the potential of singing in the care of patients with Alzheimer's, the evolution of the singing voice, and the role of creativity in musical learning. He taught at the University of Reading before taking up his current post at the University of Western Australia.
Note on the accompanying CD List of Contributors List of Figures Introduction 1: Nicholas Bannan: Music, Language and Human Evolution Perspectives from anthropology and archaeology 2: Robert A. Foley: Music and mosaics: the evolution of human abilities 3: The evolution of the human vocal tract: specialised for speecha 4: Clive Gamble: When the words dry up: music and material metaphors half a million years ago Perspectives on the evolutionary prerequisites for musical behaviour 5: Iain Morley: Hominid physiological evolution and the emergence of musical capacities 6: Tran Quang Hai & Nicholas Bannan : Vocal Traditions of The World: Towards an Evolutionary Account of Voice Production in Music 7: Pedro Espi-Sanchis & Nicholas Bannan: Found objects in the musical practices of hunter-gatherers: implications for the evolution of instrumental music Perspectives from social and cognitive psychology 8: Robin Dunbar: On the Evolutionary Function of Song and Dance 9: Bjorn Merker: The vocal learning constellation: imitation, ritual culture, encephalization Perspectives from musicology 10: Ian Cross: Music as an emergent exaptation 11: Johan Sundberg: Musicians performance prosody 12: Nicholas Bannan: Harmony and its role in human evolution
