Why do humans make music ?
by Hartmut Kaiser

Human beings are (almost) the only mammal species that possesses both speech and music.

By “almost” I mean: whales and dolphins communicate by sounds, wolves howl and singing birds know melodies. What speech is good for is very clear: we use it to communicate our thoughts to our fellow humans ( also in written form).

But why do humans need music ?

Every single human being, male or female, handicapped or nor, young or old, has a desire to sing and dance and to listen to music, just like everybody has a desire for food and drink, for sex and sleep. Mankind uses music to express and convey feelings and to develop a feeling of togetherness. Different social groups have their own songs that give them an identity: the socialists have the socialist international, soccer and football clubs have their songs, nations have anthems. Music may express sadness, love, loneliness, happiness and so on and so convey those feelings to other people. Some languages in Africa and the Chinese language have a melody to differ between meanings , thus the border between music/melody and speech only is not always clear. Music consists of rhythm and melody, dancing goes according to the rhythm and singing according to the melody.

Until the beginning of the 20th century music was closely linked with religion and church festivals, and our grandparents got to know their life/marriage partners not like contemporary people on the internet or in a discotheque, but at wedding parties with dancing and music or at religious music events like thanksgiving. Ever since the stone age the best dancers and singers were favoured by the opposite gender. The invention of the record and the gramophone made it possible for the first time to reach out to a wider audience and made possible the rise of world stars like the Beatles. The invention of the walkman made it possible to listen to music without sharing it with others. The internet enables amateurs to share music and music videos with a worldwide public and even to earn money with it.
What do scholars and professors tell us about the phenomenon “music”?

German professor of psychiatry Manfred Spitzer authored a book titled “music in the head”.
He has a physical-neurobiological approach and explains how music is being generated from physical oscillations in the network of neurons. He also tells about his favourite subjects “talent” and “learning” at the example of musicality and reports about music therapy-not surprising for a psychiatrist ! Human ethologists and nobel prize winners Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz did research about many subjects, including flirt, playing behaviour of toddlers and aggression and fighting in humans and animals, yet I wonder why they have published nothing about the subject “music”. It would be a great theme for biologists: Do songbirds, whales and dolphins possess music, and why do wolves howl ? Is it for finding a mate or to stabilize a group ? Maybe other citizen reporters know more about it or can provide literature .