Musicking in Humans and Other Animals (in The Biology of Music: Interdisciplinary Insights, ed. Andrea Ravignani)

This chapter’s focus is on some provocative parallels between group music-making in humans, and acoustic communication in other animals, drawing on research in the fields of zoomusicology, biomusicology, and ethology. The authors use “musicking,” a conceptual framework widely adopted in musicology, as a lens through which to examine the dimensions of social dynamics, ritual, culture, enjoyment and play, and health and wellbeing. Musicking can involve producing, perceiving, and responding to the sounds of con- and heterospecifics. Using this framework in transdisciplinary contexts helps cast new light on the networks of similarities connecting social sound-making behaviors including the howling choruses of wolves, asynchronous choruses of humpback whales, coda exchanges of sperm whales, avian and primate duets, and song practice by songbirds.