The column on the right is a listing of various musical characteristics, mostly drawn from Cantometrics, but not all. In the map I treat these as analogous to genetic markers. All “haplogroups” beginning with the letter A represent styles or style variants originating in Africa and surviving more or less intact in other parts of the world to this day. All those beginning with “B” represent styles that appear to have originated as the result of the bottleneck event considered in Chapters Nine and Ten.
Root and Branches
At the lower left, you'll find X, the “root” of the tree, followed by some of the earlier branches. Since it is customary when designing genetic trees to root the tree in the lineage of the closest primate (usually the Chimpanzee), I've considered that possibility for music and discovered that in fact there might be some basis for rooting my tree in the “musical” culture of certain primates. This aspect is of course an extremely speculative, but also, I think, quite interesting, feature of the tree.
Moving upward and to the right, we find the human root of the tree, labeled “A1,” or “shouted hocket.” A more complete description of each style family (or musical “haplogroup”) is provided in the abbreviations located just below each label. The key to these abbreviations can be found in the rightmost column. Under “Shouted Hocket,” we find the following markers: Hk CV It Y N RT. Hk stands for “hocket,” which I’ve already defined as a musical procedure in which an idea, usually a brief motive, is broken up between two or more parts, often but not always dovetailed with one another.
CV stands for “continuous vocalizing,” i.e., the production of a continuous stream of sound, with no pauses and no coordination between breathing and any aspect of musical structure, e.g, phrasing. CV tends to sound like the musical equivalent of a run-on sentence. Where more than one performer is involved, the breathing is usually staggered and we hear no pauses. If there is only one performer, the musical flow is often interrupted by audible gasps for breath at arbitrary points in the melody.
“It” stands for the continual iteration of a single note. Y stands for yodel. N stands for the frequent use of “nonsense” vocables. Since in many cases we can't be sure if any given vocable has a meaning or not, Cantometrics defines “nonsense” largely in terms of repetition. (If the same vocable or set of vocables is regularly repeated it is coded as “nonsense” regardless of whether or not it might carry some meaning.) RT stands for “relaxed throat,” as opposed to TT, the tense throated vocalizing so characteristic of Middle Eastern and East Asiatic singing.
Shouted hocket is a type of highly interactive, "hooted" or "shouted" vocalizing, characterized by rapid alternations of single tones or very short phrases between two or more individuals or groups, found quite commonly among certain indigenous populations in Africa, New Guinea, Island Melanesia, the Americas and elsewhere. I think it could be important, first because of its worldwide distribution among so many peoples whose ancestry might well go back to the original “Out of Africa” migration; second, because it's easy to see how it could be the prototype for the more intricate varieties of contrapuntal hocket we find so often among the same groups; and third, because of its striking similarity to certain types of primate vocalization. (For more on shouted hocket, see Chapter Fifteen, "Before the Beginning").
If you follow the vertical line upward to the list of tribal groups at the top, you’ll find the groups for whom I have examples, either in the Cantometric database, or from additional listening experience (usually both), which vocalize in some version of the “shouted hocket” style. That style may not be the most important or most commonly found in those groups, but it is known to be at least present among all of them.
Let's now move up to the next branch of the tree, “A2. Interlocked Hocket.” You'll notice that one of the “Shouted Hocket” traits is missing: It, or iteration, which is characteristic only of the simplest type of hocket, which lacks any melodic structure. Instead, we have, in addition to all the other traits, some new ones: Int, for “interlock,” WI, for “wide intervals,” and P, for “polyphonic.”
CV stands for “continuous vocalizing,” i.e., the production of a continuous stream of sound, with no pauses and no coordination between breathing and any aspect of musical structure, e.g, phrasing. CV tends to sound like the musical equivalent of a run-on sentence. Where more than one performer is involved, the breathing is usually staggered and we hear no pauses. If there is only one performer, the musical flow is often interrupted by audible gasps for breath at arbitrary points in the melody.
“It” stands for the continual iteration of a single note. Y stands for yodel. N stands for the frequent use of “nonsense” vocables. Since in many cases we can't be sure if any given vocable has a meaning or not, Cantometrics defines “nonsense” largely in terms of repetition. (If the same vocable or set of vocables is regularly repeated it is coded as “nonsense” regardless of whether or not it might carry some meaning.) RT stands for “relaxed throat,” as opposed to TT, the tense throated vocalizing so characteristic of Middle Eastern and East Asiatic singing.
Shouted hocket is a type of highly interactive, "hooted" or "shouted" vocalizing, characterized by rapid alternations of single tones or very short phrases between two or more individuals or groups, found quite commonly among certain indigenous populations in Africa, New Guinea, Island Melanesia, the Americas and elsewhere. I think it could be important, first because of its worldwide distribution among so many peoples whose ancestry might well go back to the original “Out of Africa” migration; second, because it's easy to see how it could be the prototype for the more intricate varieties of contrapuntal hocket we find so often among the same groups; and third, because of its striking similarity to certain types of primate vocalization. (For more on shouted hocket, see Chapter Fifteen, "Before the Beginning").
If you follow the vertical line upward to the list of tribal groups at the top, you’ll find the groups for whom I have examples, either in the Cantometric database, or from additional listening experience (usually both), which vocalize in some version of the “shouted hocket” style. That style may not be the most important or most commonly found in those groups, but it is known to be at least present among all of them.
Let's now move up to the next branch of the tree, “A2. Interlocked Hocket.” You'll notice that one of the “Shouted Hocket” traits is missing: It, or iteration, which is characteristic only of the simplest type of hocket, which lacks any melodic structure. Instead, we have, in addition to all the other traits, some new ones: Int, for “interlock,” WI, for “wide intervals,” and P, for “polyphonic.”
The Bottleneck Effect
Looking more generally at the tree as a whole, it's important to recognize that it is broken down into two different segments, the first labeled “Unaffected by Bottleneck,” the second “Affected by Bottleneck.” This fundamental break makes my tree very different from any other I'm aware of. We have a strong tendency to think of evolution in terms of gradual change, but there are very good reasons to see the evolution of early music in a different light.
Note, by the way, that all the African groups are located in the leftmost section, “Unaffected by Bottleneck.” There are no African groups in the rightmost section. In my view, this is an extremely important aspect of this tree. Note also that there are many non-African indigenous (or “folk”) groups along with the African ones listed at the top of the leftmost section. As I see it, the close connection of these groups with variants of Pygmy/Bushmen style (haplogroups A1 through A4) is possibly of great significance, as they most likely, as I see it, represent survivals from the musical practice of the original “Out of Africa” migrants.
Note, by the way, that all the African groups are located in the leftmost section, “Unaffected by Bottleneck.” There are no African groups in the rightmost section. In my view, this is an extremely important aspect of this tree. Note also that there are many non-African indigenous (or “folk”) groups along with the African ones listed at the top of the leftmost section. As I see it, the close connection of these groups with variants of Pygmy/Bushmen style (haplogroups A1 through A4) is possibly of great significance, as they most likely, as I see it, represent survivals from the musical practice of the original “Out of Africa” migrants.
Music from A to B
If we concentrate only on what could be called “superhaplogroup A,” i.e., all the categories labeled A1 through A6, on the left side of the display, we see a clear continuity from one branch to the other on the phylogenetic tree. In most cases each branch differs from the one immediately adjoining it by only one or two traits. Note that the symbol Y, for yodel, is in parenthesis for A3 and A4, meaning the trait is not always found there. This reflects the fact that yodeling can be commonly found among almost all Pygmy groups as well as many (though not all) Bushmen groups, but is only rarely associated with P/B style among other African groups, even among those peoples whose vocalizing is interlocked in a manner strikingly similar to Pygmy or Bushmen polyphony.
Note also that A5, Call and Response, associated with the Bantu “mainstream,” is located relatively high on the tree, reflecting estimates that the so-called Bantu groups genetically diverged from their P/B ancestors at some point roughly around 18,000 years ago. Another very important feature of the Bantu “mainstream” is the extraordinary development of instrumental music, but as the tree is limited to vocal styles, that isn't shown. What's implied by the tree is that P/B style can be regarded as prototypical for Bantu mainstream style, with polyphonic call and response seen as an outgrowth from hocketed interlock.
In and Out of Africa
Looking now to the far left column of the diagram, we see the phrase “Out of Africa,” with a horizontal line marking the approximate point in history where, hypothetically, the first band of “modern” humans left Africa for Asia. Everything below this point can be understood as representing the state of music prior to that event. It should also be noted that style families A1 through A4 were apparently spread to other parts of the world via the “Out of Africa” migration.
Again, instruments are not represented here, so it's important to recall that, in all likelihood, the first “Out of Africa” migrants were probably carrying sets of endblown pipes (unbound, but also possibly bound into panpipes), whistles, horns, trumpets, slit drums, stamping tubes, all performed in “P/B style,” i.e. with interlocked hocket; also endblown flutes, musical bows, harps and zithers, simple xylophones and simple membranophones (skin drums).
Again, instruments are not represented here, so it's important to recall that, in all likelihood, the first “Out of Africa” migrants were probably carrying sets of endblown pipes (unbound, but also possibly bound into panpipes), whistles, horns, trumpets, slit drums, stamping tubes, all performed in “P/B style,” i.e. with interlocked hocket; also endblown flutes, musical bows, harps and zithers, simple xylophones and simple membranophones (skin drums).
Note the break between “haplogroup” A4 and the families just above it, to the right, i.e., B1, B2 and B3, all rooted at the same place, the thick horizontal line representing the “Bottleneck.” Note also that there is no solid line connecting any of the A families with any of the B families. What is represented here is a break in continuity. What could this mean? If “modern” humans originated in Africa, with one small group migrating from that continent to populate Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas with their descendents, then it’s only logical to assume their music would have migrated with them. According to this straightforward “Out of Africa” model, we would expect that either the original African style families would persist, or gradually evolve, or both. However, the expected continuities simply aren’t there.
For example, let’s consider style family B2, “Breathless Solo.” What is this style and why is it important? By “breathless” I refer to an unusual and highly characteristic feature of this type of vocalizing, in which a solo singer produces a continuous stream of notes as a sort of musical “run-on” sentence. Breathing often appears arbitrary in this style, i.e., not coordinated with the melodic structure. In many cases, the singer appears to be attempting to continue for as long as possible and then audibly gasps for breath with no apparent regard for where he or she is in the melody.
We called this style “breathless” because it doesn’t seem to take the singer’s need to breathe into account. This is radically different from what we would ordinarily expect, since the coordination of the breath with important syntactic junctures is a very much taken for granted aspect of both the musical and linguistic phrase in the great majority of cultures. Other distinctive features of this style are the use of nonsense vocables, wide intervals and a voice quality characterized by heavy glottalization.
“Breathless Solo” appears to be the dominant style for a very widespread family of so-called “Paleosiberian” reindeer-oriented hunting societies stretching across the length of northern Eurasia, from Scandinavia (the Saami Laplanders) through vast stretches of northern Russia and Siberia (Samoyed, Evenk, Yukaghir, Kamchatka, etc.) to the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido (the Ainu). As with the Pygmies and Bushmen of Africa, the very widespread distribution of such a distinctive musical style (not to mention lifestyle) over such a vast and difficult terrain, strongly suggests a common cultural root dating back, in all likelihood, to the upper paleolithic.
So how do we go from the mellifluous, flowing, highly integrated, interlocking, polyphonic style of A2 through A4 to the rather singsong, runon, monophonic vocalizing of the Paleosiberians represented by B2? If the Out of Africa model is correct, the Paleosiberians must share a common genetic root with the African migrants. Could something have happened during the long migration through the southern coast of Asia that might have suddenly caused such a drastic musical change among their ancestors? Yes, or at least that’s the theory.
That “something” would have been what I’ve been calling the “bottleneck,” i.e., a drastic reduction in population size that would have wiped out much if not all the genetic variation in a given population, with the possibility of an equally drastic alteration of its culture. There are several references in the genetic literature to a major population bottleneck thought to have occurred at some point between 30,000 and 130,000 years ago. As we’ve seen, Steven Oppenheimer is more specific, attributing such a bottleneck to the historically verified super-explosion of Mt. Toba, in Sumatra, roughly 72,000 years ago.
For example, let’s consider style family B2, “Breathless Solo.” What is this style and why is it important? By “breathless” I refer to an unusual and highly characteristic feature of this type of vocalizing, in which a solo singer produces a continuous stream of notes as a sort of musical “run-on” sentence. Breathing often appears arbitrary in this style, i.e., not coordinated with the melodic structure. In many cases, the singer appears to be attempting to continue for as long as possible and then audibly gasps for breath with no apparent regard for where he or she is in the melody.
We called this style “breathless” because it doesn’t seem to take the singer’s need to breathe into account. This is radically different from what we would ordinarily expect, since the coordination of the breath with important syntactic junctures is a very much taken for granted aspect of both the musical and linguistic phrase in the great majority of cultures. Other distinctive features of this style are the use of nonsense vocables, wide intervals and a voice quality characterized by heavy glottalization.
“Breathless Solo” appears to be the dominant style for a very widespread family of so-called “Paleosiberian” reindeer-oriented hunting societies stretching across the length of northern Eurasia, from Scandinavia (the Saami Laplanders) through vast stretches of northern Russia and Siberia (Samoyed, Evenk, Yukaghir, Kamchatka, etc.) to the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido (the Ainu). As with the Pygmies and Bushmen of Africa, the very widespread distribution of such a distinctive musical style (not to mention lifestyle) over such a vast and difficult terrain, strongly suggests a common cultural root dating back, in all likelihood, to the upper paleolithic.
So how do we go from the mellifluous, flowing, highly integrated, interlocking, polyphonic style of A2 through A4 to the rather singsong, runon, monophonic vocalizing of the Paleosiberians represented by B2? If the Out of Africa model is correct, the Paleosiberians must share a common genetic root with the African migrants. Could something have happened during the long migration through the southern coast of Asia that might have suddenly caused such a drastic musical change among their ancestors? Yes, or at least that’s the theory.
That “something” would have been what I’ve been calling the “bottleneck,” i.e., a drastic reduction in population size that would have wiped out much if not all the genetic variation in a given population, with the possibility of an equally drastic alteration of its culture. There are several references in the genetic literature to a major population bottleneck thought to have occurred at some point between 30,000 and 130,000 years ago. As we’ve seen, Steven Oppenheimer is more specific, attributing such a bottleneck to the historically verified super-explosion of Mt. Toba, in Sumatra, roughly 72,000 years ago.
Mapping Music History
The following maps represent an attempt to apply the musical “haplogroups” of my phylogenetic tree to a hypothetical recreation of the evolution of musical style consistent with the “Out of Africa” migration, as pictured by so much of the genetic research (to enlarge the image, right click and select "open link in new tab" -- if you then left click on the image in the new tab it should expand):
In the first little map, titled “Out of Africa,” all the arrows are red, representing the four variants of “Pygmy/Bushmen” style (A1 - 4 on the Phylogenetic Tree) that, as I see it, must have spread along with the original “out of Africa” migrants, following the southern route, all the way to southeast Asia, Sundaland and the Sahul (New Guinea and Australia), with some groups continuing north along the east Asiatic coast. Note the offshoot into northern Pakistan, as indicated by the arrow pointing directly upward, representing the possibility of a bifurcation of the migration path, with one group veering north along the Indus valley. I’ll have more to say on this presently.
While the arrows of the first map represent a continuous migration of groups vocalizing in P/B style (A1-4) along the entirety of the Indian Ocean coast, the second map, titled “Bottleneck Event,” is intended to depict the disruptive effects of a highly localized disaster that could have, among other things, eliminated all trace of the A haplogroups from most of Pakistan and all of India -- but, as indicated by the presence of A1-4 in southeast Asia, could have left much of the region to the east of the Indian border relatively unaffected.
Since Toba is the most likely “culprit,” I decided to represent it here – however, a Tsunami centered somewhere southeast of the tip of India might have had a very similar effect, as would a serious drought, or a catastrophic flood along the Indian coast. As I’ve argued, any of these events could have triggered one or several population bottlenecks in South Asia, but at least partly spared those who had already made it beyond the Indian border, to Myanmar, the Malay Peninsula, Southeast Asia and the Islands to the East of Sundaland. We can regard both a possible Tsunami and the Toba eruption as equivalent as far as their bottleneck producing effects are concerned.
Note the isolated presence of A3&4 in northern Pakistan, representing the possibility of an offshoot along the Indus River during the earliest phase of the migration. An isolated branch of the Out of Africa migrants based on the northern banks of the Indus might have been able to survive the effects of Toba with their African traditions more or less intact. Such a survival is almost necessary if we want to explain how certain elements of the “African signature” could have made it to Europe, where some very important P/B related traditions can still be found in refuge areas throughout that continent.
This hypothesis is supported by the fact that a great many tone languages are spoken in this region (Punjab and Kashmir Provinces), the only area in the entirety of the South Asiatic subcontinent where tone languages are commonly found. If the language spoken by HMP were tonal, then that would explain the presence of tone language in this area today, as an African survival. A3&4 are placed in parentheses because the presence of these musical “haplogroups” in this area at that time is purely hypothetical – hardly any trace of P/B remains anywhere in South Asia today.
Canonic-Echoic Style
Moving to the third map, labeled “Aftermath,” the rise of style families B1, B2 and B3 is depicted, all presumably rooted in significant changes, biological, environmental, social and cultural, that could have left their mark on whatever individuals would have survived the disaster depicted in the second map. B1, or “canonic-echoic” style, is of special interest because, unlike B2 and B3, it appears to be derived from A4, “canonic interlock,” as indicated by the scored lines connecting the two “haplogroups” in the phylogenetic tree, and can be understood as a variant of P/B. Comparing the list of markers for A4 and B1, we see only one important difference, the presence of LC, “loose coordination.”
Unlike what we find so commonly in Africa, the voices in a typical B1 performance are not precisely synchronized rhythmically and can often drift rather freely in relation to one another. I’ve placed the “root” of B1 in the vicinity of Myanmar and Thailand since, as with P/B generally, it has not been found anywhere in India, Pakistan or the Middle East. Since I have never found any trace of B1 in Sub-Saharan Africa, it seems logical to see it as a “post-Toba” development -- but since it is so close in so many ways to P/B it must also be regarded as carrying the African signature. It seems likely, therefore, to have arisen among a population affected by the disaster, but just out of reach of its most devastating effects, thus most likely rooted in Myanmar or Thailand.
In the third map, we see B1 splitting off in three directions, one towards the Malay Peninsula, where it is currently found among certain “Negrito” groups; one towards New Guinea and Melanesia, where it is found among the Kaluli people of Bosavi, who, according to a memorable study by ethnomusicologist Steven Feld, call it “lift up over sounding,” as well as certain groups in island Melanesia, notably the ‘Are-Are people, whose panpipe music has been so carefully studied by Hugo Zemp. A third arrow points northward along the Pacific coast, from where, as indicated in the following map, we see it continuing all the way to Bering Strait and then, still following the Pacific coast, moving southward all the way to the jungles of South America.
“Breathless” Style and Shouted Hocket
I have already discussed B2, “Breathless Solo,” at some length above. What the map implies is that this style could have had its origin on the Indian subcontinent, rather than its current home, among the Paleosiberians and Saami of northern Eurasia. It’s placed in parenthesis because we currently find little evidence of it in India, or indeed anywhere in Asia south of Siberia (although a very interesting cylinder recording of Vedda singing, with a comparably “breathless” run-on quality, suggests that the style could have survived close to its original locale among these “Australoid” indigenes of Sri Lanka).
Could B2 be the result of some later event, possibly some other disaster, or the effects of the ice age? Possibly, but it would have had to be rooted very early on in human history to have made its way into the many widely separated and remote places where it’s found today. While B2 seems in many ways almost the opposite of any of the African A styles, there are some very interesting points in common, as indicated by the scored lines linking B2 with A2. The two styles are both characterized by yodel or yodel-like vocalizing (especially in the “joik” songs of Lapland, but also reflected in the heavy glottalization found throughout this style area), continuous vocalizing (interrupted by gasps for breath), wide intervals, and an emphasis on “nonsense” vocables. It is thus possible to see how B2 might have emerged directly from P/B, but in a post-disaster setting where communal life might have broken down and individuals could have been forced into isolation for long periods.
Note the presence of A1, “shouted hocket,” close to B2 in both southeast India (where both are enclosed in parentheses since neither is found in this region today) and the circum-polar region far to the north. In this case, A1 must be regarded not as a new, post-bottleneck development, but as a rare P/B survival which could have migrated northward with the same “proto-paleosiberian” population that eventually carried B2 into Siberia. This is my way of accounting for the presence of a fascinating variant of shouted hocket among certain Paleosiberian, Ainu and Inuit groups today, known as “throat singing.” While most recordings of circum-polar vocalizing available today are B2-style solos, the highly interactive throat singing tradition represents an important, though relatively rare, survival of the African signature in the far north, preserved almost exclusively by women.
The single arrow emanating westward from our parenthetical representation of A3&4 is intended to depict the migration of P/B-related vocalizing traditions from the upper Indus valley, somewhere in the vicinity of the Punjab region, into the Caucasus at a very early period (prior to 40,000 -50,000 years ago, according to archaeological estimates), during the first stages of the original settlement of Europe by descendants of HMP. While there is currently no trace of P/B in the Punjab today, the strong presence of the African signature in the Caucasus (especially western Georgia) and in so many remote enclaves scattered throughout Europe (see the expansion of A3&4 on the “Early Migrations” map) can be understood only if we infer that it must have originally been present in northern Pakistan and northwest India along with the people destined to become the first Europeans.
Let’s now turn to the fourth little map, representing some of the relatively early post-bottleneck migrations. We see B2 branching in opposite directions from some point in northern Asia, as far as Kamchatka and even Hokkaido in the East and northern Scandinavia (Lapland) in the West, representing the current range – for the most part -- of this style. The whole history of B2, along with that of the Paleosiberian reindeer people generally, is extremely uncertain, so what we see on the map must be taken with a huge grain of salt. Since reindeer were an important resource for humans in many parts of both Asia and Europe during the Paleolithic, even as far south as Spain, and the migrations of the “reindeer herder’s” ancestors before, during and after the most recent Ice Age is largely unknown, what we see on the map must be regarded as a gross oversimplification.
Let’s now turn to the fourth little map, representing some of the relatively early post-bottleneck migrations. We see B2 branching in opposite directions from some point in northern Asia, as far as Kamchatka and even Hokkaido in the East and northern Scandinavia (Lapland) in the West, representing the current range – for the most part -- of this style. The whole history of B2, along with that of the Paleosiberian reindeer people generally, is extremely uncertain, so what we see on the map must be taken with a huge grain of salt. Since reindeer were an important resource for humans in many parts of both Asia and Europe during the Paleolithic, even as far south as Spain, and the migrations of the “reindeer herder’s” ancestors before, during and after the most recent Ice Age is largely unknown, what we see on the map must be regarded as a gross oversimplification.
Somewhat less speculative, but nevertheless extremely hypothetical, is the possibility, as reflected in the phylogenetic tree, that B2, which may well have made its way into many regions of both Europe and Asia at various times, could have been prototypical for two important types of Eurasiatic solo vocalizing, B2a1, and B2a2. The phylogenetic tree shows a derivative of B2, “haplogroup” B2a, or “Phrased Solo,” an apparent development from the “breathless,” unphrased singsong of Paleosiberian singing to a type of melody organized according to what we now call “phrases,” i.e., syntactic elements articulated by breaths.
At least two branches of B2a survive today. B2a1, “Elaborate Solo,” is a type of highly embellished solo vocalizing characteristic of many Asiatic groups. The Eastern branch of this style, especially in China, Korea and Japan, is characterized by considerable glottal embellishment, possibly a clue to its origins in B2. The other branch, B2a2, is characterized by much less embellishment, lack of glottal emphasis, diatonic melody, and strophic (or verse) form of the type most closely associated with the European lyric song and ballad. This is a style that appears to have its origin in Central Asia, where strophic songs are still an important part of the bardic repertoire.
Social Unison
B3, “Social Unison,” is an especially important musical “superfamily,” characterized by a type of group vocalizing where all parts share the same rhythm, as in a typical Christian hymn, with no rhythmically independent parts and no leader-chorus antiphony. They may be singing either polyphonically (i.e. harmonizing) or in unison. It's easy to take this type of relatively simple group coordination for granted as a reasonable or logical way for any group to organize itself when singing together. It is, however, relatively rare in sub-Saharan Africa, and for that reason, it's unlikely that the Out of Africa migrants or their descendents were vocalizing in this manner at any time prior to the bottleneck. So when, and how -- and also why -- could such a practice have developed?
An interesting clue is provided by the Australian Aborigines, whose history on that continent, according to the fossil evidence, goes back at least 50,000, and very possibly over 60,000, years, not too long after the initial migration out of Africa. All indications, including the genetic research, point to their descent from the original African migrants, yet they have a very contrastive and distinctive physical morphology and a totally contrastive musical style. A clue to their origins could be the existence of so-called “Australoid” peoples in southern India, many of whom, such as the Vedda of Sri Lanka, bear a strong morphological resemblance to Australians.
An interesting clue is provided by the Australian Aborigines, whose history on that continent, according to the fossil evidence, goes back at least 50,000, and very possibly over 60,000, years, not too long after the initial migration out of Africa. All indications, including the genetic research, point to their descent from the original African migrants, yet they have a very contrastive and distinctive physical morphology and a totally contrastive musical style. A clue to their origins could be the existence of so-called “Australoid” peoples in southern India, many of whom, such as the Vedda of Sri Lanka, bear a strong morphological resemblance to Australians.
Geneticists Alan Redd and Mark Stoneking have reported genetic results that “link Aboriginal Australian populations with populations from the subcontinent of India,” whereas their findings “do not support a close relationship between Aboriginal Australian and PNG (Papua New Guinea) populations...” as many assumed would be the case. (Redd and Stoneking, “Peopling of the Sahul: mtDNA Variations in Aboriginal Australian and Papua New Guinean Populations,” in American Journal of Human Genetics, 65:808, 1999).
While the genetic picture remains complicated and controversial, with no one clear interpretation dominating, it is possible, nevertheless, to speculate that the Australian Aborigines may have originated in southern India as one small band of bottleneck survivors, some of whom remained in India while others eventually made their way to Australia. In other words, it looks as though their musical style could have resulted from the same genetic and cultural “bottleneck” that appears to have produced B1 and B2. Only in this case, the break with the original P/B style seems to have been more complete, as there is little the two would seem to have in common. Since it’s difficult to say when a group of Australoids from India might have begun their migration to Australia (assuming that’s what actually happened), and since there is no evidence of this style among any group currently living in South Asia, I enclosed B3 in parenthesis in map three.
While the genetic picture remains complicated and controversial, with no one clear interpretation dominating, it is possible, nevertheless, to speculate that the Australian Aborigines may have originated in southern India as one small band of bottleneck survivors, some of whom remained in India while others eventually made their way to Australia. In other words, it looks as though their musical style could have resulted from the same genetic and cultural “bottleneck” that appears to have produced B1 and B2. Only in this case, the break with the original P/B style seems to have been more complete, as there is little the two would seem to have in common. Since it’s difficult to say when a group of Australoids from India might have begun their migration to Australia (assuming that’s what actually happened), and since there is no evidence of this style among any group currently living in South Asia, I enclosed B3 in parenthesis in map three.
Style family B3 is subdivided into two main branches, B3a, “Unison Iterative One Beat” and B3b, “Polyphonic Iterative.” What both have in common is the “iterative” aspect, i.e., a tendency to reiterate the same note, often several times in a row, and especially at phrase endings. Since this type of melody is so distinctive and unusual, and since it is so often associated with social unison, it makes sense to treat all instances as stemming from the same root.
As indicated in the phylogenetic map, B3 subdivides into a polyphonic and a unison branch, conveniently separating the iterative social unison found so commonly in western Polynesia, predominantly polyphonic and open throated, from what I've called “Unison Iterative One-Beat,” a relatively harsh, tense-voiced unison style, often supported by a very simple one-beat accompaniment on drums or idiophones such as boomerangs, sticks or rattles. This is an approach to musical organization characteristic of two geographically very distant groups, Australian Aborigines and Native Americans. The two families, labeled B3a1 and B3a2, have a great deal in common, strongly suggesting that despite the truly enormous geographical distance, they could stem from a single root, which would have formed very early after the bottleneck event, most likely in or near India – though no trace of either style remains in the region today.
The most significant difference is a tendency for most Australian melodies to employ narrow intervals, while most Amerindian songs favor wide intervals. Despite the similarities I’ve noted, most examples of Australian aboriginal or native American singing have enough distinctive qualities to make them easily identifiable as independent traditions, even to the untrained ear. Nevertheless, there are enough commonalities to suggest the possibility of a common post-bottleneck root.
In the same map, we see B3 splitting off in two directions, one toward Australia, another pointed northeast, in the direction of Bering Strait. In the following map, “Later Migrations,” we see B3a1 spreading throughout the Americas, where it is currently the dominant style. The polyphonic variant, B3b is shown safely ensconced in Melanesia, from whence it has made its way eastward to the islands of western Polynesia, accompanied by a variant form, B3b1, in which iteration on single tones has been replaced by lyrical, mostly diatonic, melodies and harmonies of a type not too different from what we find today in Eastern Europe.
Indeed, on the same “Later Migrations” map we see a distant branch of the same style family (B3b1) centered in Russian Asia, spreading to northern, eastern and southern Europe, where we find types of traditional vocal polyphony surprisingly similar to certain Melanesian and Western Polynesian traditions. Whether there is a historical connection at work, or simply a case of convergent evolution, is at this point impossible to determine, but there are some striking points of similarity well worth further examination.
Europe, Old and New
The fourth map, “Early Migrations,” depicts A3&4 spreading the African Signature from the trans Caucasus into every corner of Europe, implying an association with the initial migrations into that continent by direct descendants of HMP. The following map reflects a much later migration into basically the same region by a very different group, post-bottleneck survivors out of Central Asia. This newer group of immigrants -- or invaders -- possibly a branch of the proto-Indoeuropean speaking “Kurgan” horse nomads posited by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, may have disseminated an essentially monophonic vocal style, closely wedded to poetic texts in verse, or “strophic” form, the basis of what has come to be known as the lyric song and ballad.
This second population, far more successful than the first, appears to have defeated and marginalized the original Europeans (“Old Europe”), whose P/B-based, polyphonic vocal traditions (A3&4) can still be found in remote refuge areas. The solo-oriented strophic ballad form, possibly originating with the proto-Indo-European horse nomads of Central Asia, has become the norm for traditional folk singers in just about every European country. Since the latter style shows signs of being an offshoot from the much older B2, and a counterpart to the equally solo-oriented but far more elaborate, predominantly Asiatic B2a1, I’ve categorized it as a sister clade, B2a2.
The last map in the series summarizes the distribution of all the haplogroups discussed above, according to where they can now be found – and by “now” I’m referring to field reports and recordings collected mostly during the 19th and 20th Centuries, since many of these traditions have, very sadly, been lost in recent years. Note the presence of B2, principally associated with Paleosiberian peoples, in two isolated parts of South America, where “breathless” vocalizing has been noted among the Ona of Tierra del Fuego and the Guahibo of Venezuela. Whether these are simply anomalies or might have some broader historical significance is at this time very difficult to say.
What’s Been Left Out
My musical tree and the maps derived from it admittedly represent a somewhat subjective, hypothetical view of musical evolution and early human migrations. And some important musical practices have been omitted, largely because of difficulties in assigning them to particular traditions. For example, leader-chorus antiphony, sometimes referred to as “call and response,” is commonly found in a great many musical traditions, both indigenous and modern. Since African call and response seems so clearly an offshoot from P/B, I included the two major African variants (A5 and A6) in the tree.
However, we also find less distinctive types of leader-chorus response all over the place, Europe, the Middle East, India, China, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, etc. The practice is so common and so simple that it’s more easily explained, in my view, as the result of independent invention than archaic survival.
However, we also find less distinctive types of leader-chorus response all over the place, Europe, the Middle East, India, China, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, etc. The practice is so common and so simple that it’s more easily explained, in my view, as the result of independent invention than archaic survival.
One of the most common types of polyphonic vocalizing worldwide is drone polyphony, where some voices hold or reiterate a single note while others sing a melodic part against it. Various types of drone polyphony can be found widely distributed, usually in refuge areas, in both Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as Island Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Polynesia. Since the practice is so widespread, I’ve found it almost impossible to assign it a particular root, though its almost total absence from Africa suggests that it’s likely to be a post-bottleneck phenomenon.
An especially distinctive type of drone polyphony, popularly associated with Bulgaria, is paralleled by roughly similar traditions to be found in many more or less remote enclaves of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Greece. This can be considered a true style area, rather than simply a region of drone polyphony, as it involves several highly idiosyncratic features in addition to drone.
Most prominent is the stress on extreme dissonances, based on major and minor seconds, and sometimes even smaller intervals, characteristically emphasized and often sustained, generating acoustic “beats” that can produce a powerfully resonant bodily vibration, in which the singers clearly take pleasure. Other characteristics of this very distinctive style include extreme glottalization (possibly related to yodel), tremulo, free rhythm, extreme volume, and a characteristic upward glissando “glide” prominent especially at phrase endings.
Most prominent is the stress on extreme dissonances, based on major and minor seconds, and sometimes even smaller intervals, characteristically emphasized and often sustained, generating acoustic “beats” that can produce a powerfully resonant bodily vibration, in which the singers clearly take pleasure. Other characteristics of this very distinctive style include extreme glottalization (possibly related to yodel), tremulo, free rhythm, extreme volume, and a characteristic upward glissando “glide” prominent especially at phrase endings.
So what’s the problem? Couldn't such a style, so clearly localized largely in one region of Europe (the Balkans) have developed as an offshoot of certain other types of polyphony in one particular corner of southeastern Europe and spread from there? Yes, I suppose it could have. The problem is that essentially the same style of singing can be found in totally different parts of the world, most notably on the island of Flores, in Indonesia; but also Manus and Fiji, in addition to other groups in Melanesia; Taiwan; the Afghan province of Nuristan; and even inTibet.
It’s possible that the bottleneck I’ve been pointing to could have led to the development of this style, perhaps among a group of Toba survivors in India, followed by a three-way split, with one group migrating northward to Afghanistan and Tibet, one eventually finding its way to the Balkans, and a third to Indonesia and Oceania. But it's very difficult to understand why there are such huge gaps in its distribution, and for this reason I was unable to include it in my musical tree.
