Comparative Musicology : Evolution, Universals, and the Science of the World's Music.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Savage, Patrick E.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (335 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2026.

Summary:

In this book, Patrick Savage, a leader in the resurgence of comparative musicology synthesises recent advances from musicology and related fields including psychology, linguistics, computer science, and evolutionary anthropology to outline ways to understand and compare all the world's music.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication page

Prologue

Contents

Detailed Contents

Foreword

Psyche Loui

Svanibor Pettan

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: Aims, Chapter Structure, and Key Definitions

1.1 Aims of the Book

1.2 Structure of the Book

1.3 Definitions of Key Terms

1.3.1 Music

1.3.2 Musicality

1.3.3 Science

1.3.4 (Comparative/ethno/historical/cognitive) musicology

1.3.5 Evolution

1.3.6 Universal

1.3.7 Western (/Global North/WEIRD [Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic])

References

2 Tutorial: Acoustic comparison within and between societies (and species)

2.1 Sing!

2.2 Listen!

2.3 Initial Subjective Impressions (``Vibes'')

2.3.1 Sound-meaning relationships

2.3.2 Sound-context relationships

2.3.3 Perceived similarities

2.4 (More) Objective Features

2.4.1 Western staff notation

2.4.2 Macro-feature classification (Cantometrics)

Visualising and comparing repertoires between societies

2.4.3 Automatic acoustic analysis via music information retrieval (MIR)

2.5 Global Comparison

2.6 Conclusions

3 History: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Comparative Musicology

3.1 Origins of Music, Origins of Musicology (1880s)

3.2 The Berlin School and Early Comparative Musicologists (1880s-1920s)

3.3 Folk Revival and Tune Family Research (1920s-50s)

3.4 Cantometrics (1950s-)

3.5 Transition from ``Comparative Musicology'' to ``Ethnomusicology'' (1950s-)

3.6 Rise of Music Cognition and Music Information Retrieval (1970s-)

3.7 Comparative Musicology in the 21st Century (2000s-)

3.7.1 Analytical Approaches to World Music

3.7.2 Steven Brown's ``New Comparative Musicology'' and My CompMusic Lab for Comparative and Computational Musicology

3.7.3 Music Perception Among the Tsiman and Beyond.

3.7.4 The ``Natural History of Song'' Project

3.8 On Racism, Decolonisation, Co-authorship, and ``Helicopter Research''

3.9 Conclusion: Colonialism, Technology, and Globalisation

4 Universals: Absolute, Statistical, and Non-Universal Aspects of Music Beyond the ``Universal Language'' Metaphor

4.1 Universals: Types and Definitions

4.2 Absolute Universals

4.2.1 Music, Like Language, Is Universal

4.3 Non-Universals

4.3.1 Music Is Not a ``Universal Language''

4.3.2 Music May Be αrto"E26BβγηµεθδζικλνξπρςστυφχψωϑϕϱεΓΔΘΛΞΠΣΥΦΨΩMore Universal Than Language

4.4 Statistical Universals

4.4.1 Brown &amp

Jordania's Seventy Hypothesised Musical Universals

4.4.2 Statistical Universals in the αrto"E26BβγηµεθδζικλνξπρςστυφχψωϑϕϱεΓΔΘΛΞΠΣΥΦΨΩGarland Encylopedia of World Music Audio Recordings

Features that did not meet criteria for ``statistical universals''

4.4.3 Form and Function In the αrto"E26BβγηµεθδζικλνξπρςστυφχψωϑϕϱεΓΔΘΛΞΠΣΥΦΨΩNatural History of Song

4.4.4 Cross-Cultural Music Cognition Experiments

4.4.5 Relationships Between Music and Speech

4.4.6 Relationships Between Human and Animal Song

Similarities in human/bird song contour

Differences in human/bird song ``scales''

4.5 Future Directions: Potential Universals Awaiting Testing

5 Evolution: Cultural and Biological Evolution of Music(ality), Language, and Animal Song

5.1 Definitions

5.1.1 ``Music'' vs. ``Musicality''

5.1.2 ``Evolution''

5.2 Cultural Evolution of Music

5.2.1 Microevolution

5.2.2 Macroevolution

5.3 Biological Evolution of Musicality

5.3.1 Adaptive Functions

``Auditory cheesecake''

``Transformative technology''

Sexual selection and mate choice

Individual survival and infant-directed song

Group survival, group cohesion, and group selection.

Unifying theories: bonding and signaling

5.3.2 Phylogenetic Hypotheses

Musical protolanguage

Songs vs. instrumental music

5.3.3 An Extended Social Bonding Hypothesis for the Evolution of Human Musicality and Language from Primate Vocalisation

5.3.4 Testing Hypotheses for the Evolution of Musicality with Cross-Species Data

6 Applications: Copyright, Music Therapy, Language Acquisition, Cultural Heritage, Social Bonding, AI, and Beyond

6.1 Music, Science, and Values

6.2 The ``Mozart effect'' as a Cautionary Example of Overhyping Music Science

6.3 Music Therapy/Medical Ethnomusicology

6.4 Language Therapy and 2nd Language Learning

6.5 Social Bonding and Cross-Cultural Understanding

6.6 Copyright

6.7 Music Education, Cultural Heritage, and Cultural Endangerment/Recovery

6.8 ``World''/``Fusion'' Music

6.9 Artificial Intelligence as Friend and (More Likely) Foe

6.10 Conclusions

7 Epilogue: ``Many Voices'' and the Future of Qualitative Comparative Musicology

Appendix: Companion audio/ tutorial/ data/ code availability statements

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-187230-X

0-19-257082-X

9780192570826

OCLC:

1570638306