Contrary to the prevailing theories that music and language
are cognitively separate or that music
is a byproduct of language, theorists at Rice University’s Shepherd School of
Music and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) advocate that music
underlies the ability to acquire language.
“Spoken language is a special type of music,” said Anthony
Brandt, co-author of a theory paper published online this month in the journal
Frontiers in Cognitive Auditory Neuroscience. “Language is typically viewed as
fundamental to human intelligence, and music is often treated as being
dependent on or derived from language. But from a developmental perspective, we
argue that music comes first and language arises from music.”