Preface to the Special Issue on Animal Music Perception.

Abstract

My aim within this workshop and special issue was to present the goals and challenges when using a comparative approach to study the biology of music (see Hoeschele, Merchant, Kikuchi, Hattori, & ten Cate, 2015). Comparative biomusicology is still a relatively new area of study, with only a handful of studies having occurred prior to the 2000s. In comparative biomusicology, we try to understand the evolution of music by considering the factors of our musical faculty that are relevant to other species. Because human musical systems have, of course, grown immensely because of cultural evolution, we focus on musicality rather than music itself. Musicality refers to the traits, or core abilities and behaviors, that constitute our natural ability to produce and perceive music. Are aspects of human musicality found in other species? Are they widespread? Or do they depend on specific phylogenetic or biological niche factors?