ABSTRACT
Musicality can be defined as a set of traits, based on and constrained by our cognitive and biological system, that allow humans to produce and relate to music, whether of one’s own or of a different culture. Ethnomusicology and cognitive psychology show the ubiquity of these traits in all humankind, across time and cultures, and their presence already from the earliest stages of (foetal) human life. Equally ubiquitous seem to be the emotional and social significance of music across all phases of human life, both historically and biologically. Musicality can be viewed on the one hand as one overall autonomous capacity, a stance confirmed by its selective presence or absence, preservation or loss. At the same time, it appears to incorporate multiple discrete components – reflecting perhaps the composite nature of music – as evidenced for instance in the neural separability of pitch- and time-processing in the brain. It is also shown to overlap partially with other functions, such as language. Differing values and priorities that dominate in different musical cultures and subcultures create multiple profiles of ‘musicality’; the notion of musical giftedness appears to be specific to Western European musical culture.
