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Discovery

A sense of music

Discovery

BBC

Science

4.31.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Music can make us feel happy and sad. It can compel us to move in time with it, or sing along to a melody. It taps into some integral sense of musicality that binds us together. But music is regimented, organised. That same 'sense' that lets us lean into Beethoven makes a bad note or a missed beat instantly recognisable. But does that same thing happen in the minds of animals? Can a monkey feel moved by Mozart? Will a bird bop to a beat?

Do animals share our 'Sense of Music'?

Charles Darwin himself thought that the basic building blocks of an appreciation for music were shared across the animal kingdom. But over decades of scientific investigation, evidence for this has been vanishingly rare.

Fresh from his revelation that animals' experience of time can be vastly different to our own, in the award-winning programme 'A Sense of Time', presenter Geoff Marsh delves once more into the minds of different species. This time he explores three key aspects of musicality: rhythm, melody and emotional sensitivity.

Geoff finds rhythm is lacking in our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. But it's abundantly clear in a dancing Cockatoo, and internet sensation, named Snowball. He speaks with scientists who have revealed that birds enjoy their own music, but may be listening for something completely different to melody. And Geoff listens to music composed for tamarin monkeys, that apparently they find remarkably relaxing, but which sets us on edge.

In 'A Sense of Music', discover what happens when music meets the animal mind.

Produced by Rory Galloway Presented by Geoff Marsh

Transcript

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0:00.0

Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.

0:03.6

My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts.

0:08.4

I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced

0:12.2

pundits and the biggest sport stars.

0:14.3

Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players'

0:18.5

mouths.

0:19.5

But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world.

0:24.9

What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to

0:28.8

dedicated sports fans across the UK.

0:31.0

So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.

0:38.3

I don't know about you, but music's really helped me through the past year and a half.

0:43.0

It has an incredible ability to move us that seems so central to the human experience.

0:49.6

And it doesn't just move us emotionally.

0:51.4

It commands us to move physically too.

0:56.9

Obviously, insert your generation's headbanger here.

0:59.9

Anyway, over the past year, I'd often take walks with some comfy headphones on and lose

1:07.5

myself in the park for an hour.

1:10.3

But another nice thing about the last year is that when I took my headphones off, the

1:14.0

world sounded a lot more like this.

1:17.0

Birds love a lockdown and I love their singing.

1:24.0

It has a similar ability to change my mood and it sounds through all the world like music.

1:31.6

It's not just birds, of course, that make beautiful sounds that we often perceive as

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