Music Tribes

By Van Penick

The Music Tribes theory of the origin of music delves into the ancient and mysterious social bond which brings us all together in "music tribes", big and small, tight and loose, all over the world. The component parts of music include melody, harmony and rhythm, but the plain, lowly steady beat is the oldest (by far), and it is the steady beat in which music's ineffable, magic, social bonding power resides.

Older than language, the steady beat is music's only universal component. It affects us today in many ways: are you amazed that every country in this world has its own national anthem? That church services, protest marches, commercials, malls and elevators have musical elements all anchored by the steady beat? That the most awe-inspiring musical instrument in the world is a drum?

Author Van Penick describes the physical and mental capacities our pre-homo sapiens ancestors needed to half-consciously invent the steady beat, and how the steady beat became indelibly associated with the positive, "together-good" emotions of evolutionarily successful tribe life.

With more than a hundred links to musical examples, Music Tribes gives us new and fascinating insights into the role music plays in cultures around the globe and makes informed predictions about changes to this most social of the arts arising from the isolating tendencies of pandemics and personal listening devices.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DXQFLSJK
• ISBN13: 9798311038768
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 356 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"