Music

[AndaBien]

"t appears probable that the progenitors of man, either the males or females or both sexes, before acquiring the power of expressing their mutual love in articulate language, endeavored to charm each other with musical notes and rhythm."
—Charles DARWIN, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871

What a fascinating idea.

 

[tangomonkey]

Language was a late development...more primal means of communication would have existed before language. So I'm thinking...

Long before there was melody there was rhythm. Rhythm is fundamental, we dance to it and feel it deeply. Melody is an embellishment over the basic rhythmic pulse, complimenting or playing against it... That's how I feel it anyway....

 

[bordertangoman]

Language was a late development...more primal means of communication would have existed before language. So I'm thinking...

Long before there was melody there was rhythm. Rhythm is fundamental, we dance to it and feel it deeply. Melody is an embellishment over the basic rhythmic pulse, complimenting or playing against it... That's how I feel it anyway....

No the Blues came first.....

 

[pascal]

One of my tango teachers told us that music came first, and then the humanoïds started to move on the music. Not the opposite, with one dancing and then another caveman starting to sing in accordance with the moves of the dancer.

I remember a lady (pro dancer) being asked in a TV show if the good dancers were good lovers, and she said they were.

 

[opendoor]

Think the next quotation will not fit the intention of your thread, but I think the evolutionary impuls of music is also addressed and refined. May be rhythm was first, dancing will follow, and then comes... (dont know yet).

Ernst Bloch - The Principle of Hope (1938 ) vol1, p393:

Also what dances wants to become different and depart there.....

By the way, this dictum sounds in german as knotted as in english. I have already asked several dancers for a better translators, but they failed. This one is taken from the M.I.T. Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 1986 issue.

The german original:

Auch was tanzt, will anders werden und dahin abreisen...

 

[Steve Pastor]

Also, what dances will be different and then leave

(found a great translation site)