Origins of choral polyphony

Research Topics

The origin of vocal polyphony is the most important topic of my research. Virtually all other topics that I have been interested in over the last 30 years (the origins of human intelligence, language, speech, distribution of stuttering, dyslexia, evolution of human morphology and behaviour, human-big cat interaction, phenomenon of the battle trance, split personality and many other topics) came gradually into my research interests because of my research into the reasons and mechanisms of the human ability of choral singing. The full origins of human choral polyphony naturally include all these elements which stem from several scholarly spheres.

For further reading, you can see the complete version of my book “Who Asked the First Question”.

A smaller book on the same topic is “Why do People Sing?”.

If you wish to see a general review of my research topics and results in a short journal article form, you can read my 2015 article "A New Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of the Origins of Traditional Polyphony" written for the Serbian Ethnomusicological Journal.

[...] The article discusses a new model of the origins of choral singing in the context of human evolutionary history. Hominid interaction with predators is seen as a crucial force in the evolution of human morphology and behaviour. Group singing and dancing, with body painting and the use of masks, are perceived as critical elements of the strategy to deter predators and to put hominids into an altered state of consciousness. In this state, humans do not feel fear and pain and are ready to sacrifice their lives for the common goal. This psychological condition is still important to many human group activities, particularly in religion and the military. The mosaic distribution of polyphonic traditions is discussed in the context of the origins of language and articulated speech [... Continue reading]