SPEECH AND MUSIC: ACOUSTICS, SIGNALS AND THE RELATION BETWEEN THEM

The codings of speech and music are different and in some ways complementary. The voice operates on acoustical principles distinctly different from those of (other) musical instruments. This paper explains how and poses the question: are the different codings the result of the different acoustics, or vice versa? What if the instruments came first? This paper develops the conjecture that the pitch stability of notes so important in Western (and other) music may have come first, not from older, unaccompanied song, but from imitation of or performing with musical instruments. 1