Accademia La Maison de la Danse Srld Italy

The possibilities of motor impulse are also complex. Here, again, we need to look at the animal kingdom. Both animals and

birds have been observed making movements that, if they were humans, would certainly be described as dance, especially for

courtship, but also, with the higher apes in groups. Accompaniment for the latter can include foot-slapping, making more

sound than is necessary just for locomotion, and also body-slapping (Williams, 1967). Can we regard such sounds as music? If

they were humans, yes without doubt. So how far back in the evolutionary tree can we suggest that motor impulse and its

sonorous accompaniment might go? I have already postulated in my Origins and Development of xylophone musical

instrument (Montagu, 2007, p. 1) that this could go back as far as the earliest flint tools, that striking two stones

together as a rhythmic accompaniment to movement might have produced the first flakes that were used as tools, or

alternatively that interaction between two or more flint-knappers may have led to rhythms and counter-rhythms, such as we

still hear between smiths and mortar-and-pestle millers of grains and coffee beans. This, of course, was kite-flying rather

than a wholly serious suggestion, but the possibilities remain. At what stage did a hominim realize that it could make more

sound, or could alleviate painful palms, by striking two sticks or stones together, rather than by simple clapping? Again we

turn to Morley and to the capability of the physiological and neurological expression of rhythm.