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Science / For the musically inclined
The basis of the theory of species-specific music was formed from ideas that were to be included in a series of lecture demonstrations that David was preparing on the subject of “how interpretation is able to enhance the listener’s appreciation for musical structure”. In the investigation of the subject, he uncovered a number of characteristics of music that seemed to be universal to human aesthetics and, significantly, tailored to human perception, emotional response, verbal communication, and environment. The first indications of universality became apparent when comparing the similar responses we have to musical and physical movements. The perfection of the celestial arch, the unsettling atmosphere of turbulence, and the attention demanded by directed/animal movement are a few examples of similar emotional responses to similar visual and musically represented movements. The examination also uncovered many similarities between the sonic characteristics of emotional vocalizations and modern musical instruments. The answers to the simple question: “Why does ____ sound good to us?” provide valuable insights into the subject of the development of musical instruments. After two years of research and deduction David felt that he had completed a comprehensive model of the pathways and elements of music. He had correlated each of the distinguishable characteristics of music, such as melodic contour and frequency range, onset and decay of primary pulses, etc. with a naturally occurring emotional response.
The scientific foundation of species-specific music rests on discoveries about the fundamental nature of music and about differences among mammalian species in the perception and processing of sound. All mammals are born with templates of sound in the brain that govern emotional response. Many of these templates come as “standard equipment” and are not always learned, as demonstrated by the observation of a monkey that had been raised in isolation reacting appropriately the first time it heard an alarm call from one of its own species. We humans are built similarly. If someone were to scream in your presence your heart rate would increase; there is no way for you to prevent it. You would not, however, respond similarly to the alarm call of a squirrel. Study of the parameters and characteristics of the natural tempos, developmental environment, and vocalizations of a given species gives us a basis for music that engenders appropriate responses from that species.
Research Results: Many previous experiments on animal response to music composed for humans (hereinafter, “human music”) have been conducted, but none of these studies had demonstrated significant responses. Very recently a study of the effect of human music on cotton-topped tamarin monkeys was conducted at Harvard. The tamarins showed a slight preference for Mozart over German “techno” music, but preferred silence to either. This study was consistent with the findings of all previous studies: animals are largely indifferent to human music.
We performed tests at the University of Wisconsin on the same species of tamarins. As with all previous studies, the tamarins showed a lack of interest in the human music. By contrast, the effect on them of the species-specific music composed by David Teie was remarkably clear and convincing. They displayed a marked increase of activity in response to the music that was designed to excite them, while the “tamarin ballad” music induced a significant calming. This calming effect was measured against the baseline of silence; they moved and vocalized less and orientated more toward the audio speakers during and immediately following the playing of the tamarin ballad.
Following are quotes from a research paper about these experiments that will soon be submitted for publication. The psychologist Charles Snowdon, who conducted the testing and authored these statements, is a highly respected but extremely cautious and skeptical scientist not normally given to making sweeping statements:
“Our predictions were supported. Music composed for tamarins had a much greater effect on the behavior of tamarins than music composed for humans. …tamarins displayed significant behavioral change only to the music that was specifically composed for them and were unaffected by human music.”
To the best of our knowledge, this marks the first time that an art form has been shown by scientific test and observation to engender the measurable appreciation of any species other than human.
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