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Music: Nature or nurture?
A question for the musicologists on here.
As humans, we respond to two characteristsics of music: Rhythm and melody. On hearing a piece of music, for the first time or otherwise, one instantly, and almost subconciously, recognises a rhythm regardless or whether such a rhythm is indicated blatantly by the instrumentation, and also a melody, usually quite short. These two charcteristics are what endear the music to us.
My question is the follwoing: Does this recognition of somthing appealing in music, rhythm and melody, originate from our exposure to music from an early, often pre-birth, age, or is it a feature of our physiology?