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1.2.2 Evolution of Music May Predate Language Evolution
Studying vocalizations of non-human animals provides some clues about how and when music evolved in humans. For instance, some animals use vocalizations to signal alarm, some to signal discovery of a food source.
All birds with complex songs learn their songs from each other. But they don’t learn just any old tunes—they learn species-specific songs only. And, once learned, their songs change little. The fact that they learn songs at all, though, makes birds musically akin to humans, whales, and dolphins. (But that does not mean humans became musical by imitating birds!)
Oddly, some of our closest primate relatives, monkeys and chimpanzees, do not learn their vocalizations from each other. They’re born with an instinctive and limited repertoire of grunts and calls. Chimpanzees have about 30 calls. Even the charming vocal duetting of gibbons is not learned; it’s innate.
Animal calls and songs normally communicate an emotional state. So it’s possible that the musical vocalizations that humans evolved did not co-evolve with language, since language communicates mostly information. The evolution of music may predate language evolution, but it’s highly unlikely that language evolved before music.