Well, if the other great apes are anything to go by, speech came first. Most primates (i.e. all the ones I've seen on tv) have some form of vocal communication, although nothing that can be described as "language". Singing as we know it is a combination of speech and music, and folk-song is a form of story-telling, with a kind of memory aid and teaching aid built in: rhythm, melody, formal structure and lots of repetition. Good communication requires lots of redundancy to ensure the message gets across even if bits of it get missed in the process; many trad. ballads have a lot of repetition, and the tunes are largely simple and shortish, coming round frequently.

The oldest known musical instruments are earth drums, I'm told (although there is a 24,000 year-old flute, according to Google). Maybe we've just always liked things that make a noise, but it seems it had to be a musical noise? I suppos we can only realy make educated (or ignorant!) guesses now; still, it's fun to see where informed specualtion could take us.

Steve






I've just read this through again, and I don't think my first argument stands up, after all. Illogical, Captain ...