ABSTRACT
Introduction: “All Theatre Starts with a Script”
In the introduction to this chapter I challenge the traditional notion that “all theatre starts with a script,” recalling experiences I had participating in panel discussions in Antwerp, Belgium, and recalling a paper I gave on the subject at the Bregenz Opera in 2000. This chapter focuses on the co-evolution of music and language, the areas of the brain that process both simultaneously, the areas of the brain that process each separately, and the magic music and language create when they work together to create song.
Brain Gains
We open the chapter about 700,000 years ago, moving forward quickly through the emergence of Homo heidelbergensis, the first evidence of ritual, and perhaps early examples of catharsis through music. We investigate genetic adaptations in this species that may have contributed to an advanced ability toward music, language and song. We consider the impact that global climate variations may have had on global populations, reducing the world’s Homo population to a small group in Africa about 70,000 years ago.
Fantastic Voyage
Having arrived at an anatomically modern human brain, we draw a distinction between genetic evolution and Lamarckian, or culturally transmitted evolutionary traits. We promise to stick as much as possible to strictly genetically acquired traits, while acknowledging the increasing difficulty of separating the two. We spend the rest of the section following the lengthy journey of sound from its entry in the ear all the way through the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe, and further processing in the neocortex. This leads us to a discussion of the critical similarities and differences in the anatomically modern brain between language and music.
Conclusion: Song = Music + Idea
In this conclusion we review various thoughts on the relationship between language and music, and summarize evolutionary, biological and neurological arguments we have made regarding the particular boundary that we and others have chosen to establish between music and language to help us better understand the unique contributions of music to theatre.
