Origins – investigations into biological human musical nature

Abstract

Lately NJMT has seen a surge of biological approaches to music, music therapy and related topics. Last year also brought the publication of a major collection of multidisciplinary essays collected under the umbrella called “biomusicology”. This text attempts to review the book, tie it to the NJMT articles, and comment on the recent biologising of musicology. This is seen as apart of a movement within many formerly exclusively social “sciences” or humanities, in which both evolutionary psychology and behavioural genetics fit. Many feelings of incompatibility and natural science imperialism may be evoked, though the message would seem to be that there is a greater return if one manages to combine the methods of investigation and experience from different approaches to our universe.