PUBLIC LECTURE: UWA Albany Skywest Public Lecture

Over the last fifteen years or so, an emerging consensus based upon research in a wide variety of disciplines has argued the need to revisit Darwin’s conjecture of 1871, that language may be descended from an extant musical medium of communication that development from animal calls, While humans are the only species to combine rhythm and melody, we also depend on both for musical interaction and the production and perception of singing in tune. Associate Professor Nicholas Bannan teaches music education at the University of Western Australia. A Winston Churchill Fellow in 1992, he achieved a doctorate on the evolutionary origins of the human singing voice. He co-edited The Reflective Conservatoire with George Odam, and a forthcoming book, Music, Language and Human Evolution.