Animal
Songs
A animal ‘‘song’’ can be
defined simply as complex, learned vocalization. Almost coincidentally, this
definition of ‘‘song’’ (based on findings in ethology) also applies to humans,
with one caveat – that music lacks composite, propositional meaning – necessary
only to distinguish it from spoken language. [...] Learning can obviously be
verified experimentally (e.g., Marler, 1970b; Owren, Dieter, Seyfarth, &
Cheney, 1993). The term ‘‘complexity’’ may seem slippery, but other reasonable
possibilities (e.g., “generativity”, Marler, 2000) are quite difficult to
measure objectively, while complexity can be quantified by various metrics
(minimum description length is particularly attractive, e.g. Pressing, 1998; Rissanen,
1997; Weng et al., 1999). Thus, no aesthetic criteria or matters of taste need
enter into this definition, and it rejects nothing by fiat: if the complex
36-syllable vocalizations of the Madagascan frog Boophis (Narins, Lewis, &
McClelland, 2000) were shown to be learned, this would constitute “frog song”.
---- W. T. Fitch (2006)
.
While the notion of “frog song” needs
more careful consideration, we have found a similar vocalizing behavior of the human
and male frogs. Many people sing in the bathroom because the acoustics make
them feel like the voice is stronger and richer. Male Mientien tree frogs
Kurixalus idiootocus frequently perch and call in roadside concrete drainages –
miniature urban canyons. In an indoor experiment using a replica of a concrete
drain, males preferred one particular type of call perch that facilitated call
transmission (Tan, Tsai, Lin, & Lin, 2014).
The musician wren or organ
wren (Cyphorhinus arada) is a species of wren named for its elaborate song. However,
its song is not especially complex (compared to mockingbird, for example). I
think the songs of the musician wren are characterized by scale-like pitch
structure and octave equivalence.
Figure 1. Excerpt of a musician
wren’s song. The dot lines indicate the note pairs that may manifest octave
equivalence in the “music scale”.
[to be
continued]
REFERENCES
Doolittle, E.L., Gingras, B., Endres, D.M., & Fitch,
W.T. (2014). Overtone-based pitch selection in hermit thrush song: Unexpected
convergence with scale construction in human music. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 111, 16616–16621.
Tan,
W.H., Tsai, C.G., Lin, C.,
& Lin, Y.K. (2014). Urban canyon effect:
storm drains enhance call characteristics of the Mientien tree frog.
Journal of Zoology 294(2): 77-84.
[reports: Nature,
bioforum.tw]
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