Chimpanzees

[ysabetwordsmith]

Chimpanzee groups drum with distinct rhythms

New research from a team of cognitive scientists and evolutionary biologists finds that chimpanzees drum rhythmically, using regular spacing between drum hits. Their results show that eastern and western chimpanzees -- two distinct subspecies -- drum with distinguishable rhythms. The researchers say these findings suggest that the building blocks of human musicality arose in a common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.

Yet another thing that humans used to consider unique to themselves that isn't.


Earlier studies showed that chimpanzees produce low-frequency sounds by drumming on buttress roots -- large, wide roots that grow above the soil. The researchers suggest that the chimps use these percussive patterns to send information over both long and short distances.

So now what we really need is a scientist and/or musician from a talking-drum culture to weigh in on this exploration with regard to what the chimpanzees might be saying.

Comments

[crunchysteve]

As a musician, you've only got look at how strongly opinionated people get about the favourite music and how some will even get into punchups (say punks v metalheads) over music, and those two arent even across a political divide (say like punks and skinheads) to understand how musicologists would dismiss "primitave thumping" as "unmusical." Musical differences have been used to diminish colonised culture the world over - even Jazz and Blues, both really rich and diverse traditions with very complex traditions get segrgated into "folk music" while orchestral and chamber music gets the "lofty" label, "art music." As if that were the only artful music.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's exactly why I want someone from a talking-drum culture to have a go at analyzing this. They'll think of things that most people won't.