I will begin with a brief overview of cultural evolution in general, move to cultural evolution of music in particular, and then end by addressing some potential applications and criticisms.

This article reviews research in anthropology, eth-nomusicology, developmental and comparative psychol-ogy, neuropsychology, and neurophysiology that bears on questions concerning the origins …

dating from only 40,000 years ago, indicating that tonal music at least was well under way in our Paleolithic ancestors.4 Nonetheless, there is a wide range of other evidence to draw from in creating …

Examining the ‘evolutionary algorithm’ that drives biological and musical-cultural evolution, the book provides a distinctive commentary on how musicality and music can shed light on our understanding …

It discusses how musical instruments have transformed over centuries, from ancient African drums to modern electronic synthesizers, and how these transformations have influenced different musical …

The special issue of “The World of Music,” the journal of the International Music Council, (Vol. 22, No. 3, 1980), was dedicated to the discussion of the possibility to draw a general history of music, explore …

ic and Evolution Revisited The idea of musical origins was a source of fascination among continental thinkers in nineteenth- century Britain.1 With the advent of Victorian theories of evolution, theorists …