Prologue

Congratulations and thank you for downloading or obtaining this book! I am paying Oxford University Press a lot of money1 so you can legally download it for free, so I hope you make the most of the knowledge it contains. This may sound odd, but please DON’T read it cover to cover—at least not at first. Instead, I suggest you try my tips for efficient academic reading summarised in Figure 0.1. Each chapter is designed to work as a stand-alone chapter (with its own abstract and reference list), so you are welcome to read them in any order or assign individual chapters in classes without expecting students to read the entire book. However, you may find the following order most efficient/rewarding: Read the table of contents, which shows titles for the book, individual chapters, and sub-sections within each chapter. ) Read the epigraphs (short opening quotes), which concisely capture key themes in the book in their original contexts. Read the short abstracts for the book as a whole and each individual chapter (available online). Read Chapter 1 (the shortest chapter at ~3000 words), which functions as a kind of extended abstract for the whole book. Skim the book, paying particular attention to the figures/tables, which are intended to represent key themes of that chapter. Try the interactive survey from Chapter 2 (https://tiny.cc/comp-mus-tutorial). This will give you a chance to listen to and analyse real examples of the kinds of musical (and non-musical) data and methods used in key comparative musicological studies that will be discussed in the other, more abstract chapters. At this point, if you haven’t already, I encourage you to quickly search beyond the book about any topics that caught your attention and/or the author(s). Normally, this might include searching for reviews/commentaries by other experts, but for this book I have conveniently arranged for two such experts—Psyche Loui (Society for Music Perception and Cognition President) and Svanibor Pettan (International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance Past President)—to write such commentaries as forewords. You might also want to quickly search online about me (http://patrickesavage.com), Psyche (https://www.psycheloui.com), Svanibor (https://www.ff.uni-lj.si/en/staff/svanibor-hubert-pettan), and/or other key comparative musicological researchers mentioned in the book (e.g., Figure 1.2). If you’re still interested, I then encourage you to work your way through the full Chapter 2 tutorial, followed by reading Chapters 3–6 and the Epilogue in order, unless you have particular reasons to read them out of order. Figure 0.1 uses the “I ain’t reading that” meme to capture the unfortunate reality that most people (including me) just don’t have time to read all of most books (Bloom, 2023). I do hope, though, that you might find my book interesting enough to read most of—especially if you want to do your own research in my lab or in the field of comparative musicology more generally! Finally, I encourage you to critically evaluate the book and think about how it could be better. I would love for you to email me ([email protected]) telling me: how convincing you found it what you liked how you thought it could be improved, and asking me any questions it raised Adaptation of my summary figure for efficiently reading/writing academic research (Savage, 2024) applied specifically to reading this book. Perhaps you have even been inspired to apply to join my lab and become a comparative musicologist yourself? If so, check out my lab website (http://compmusic.info) and lab manual linked from there for details of how to apply! This book also works well as a textbook to teach a course on comparative musicology or related topics (e.g., “Music and Evolution”). Table 0.1 shows a sample syllabus based on one I have used in my own teaching at Keio University. It is structured to integrate reading of primary research articles, accessible media, and audiovisual examples alongside the chapters. It is designed to optimise a balance between breadth and depth of material while keeping the volume of reading to levels manageable by students for whom English is not necessarily their native language. Sample syllabus using this book as a textbook alongside nineteen other reading/listening materials for a fourteen-week course (e.g., “Comparative Musicology” or “Music and Evolution”). Musical scales of various nations5 Cantometrics6 An open letter on racism in music studies7 Universality and diversity in human song15 What makes music universal16 Toward inclusive theories of the evolution of musicality17 Toward a productive evolutionary understanding of music18 Musical scales of various nations5 Cantometrics6 An open letter on racism in music studies7 Universality and diversity in human song15 What makes music universal16 Toward inclusive theories of the evolution of musicality17 Toward a productive evolutionary understanding of music18 Savage (2024) PsyArXiv Zimmer (2024) New York Times Yong (2018) The Atlantic Margulis, Wong, Turnbull, Kubit & McAuley (2022) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) Ellis (1885) Nature Lomax (1989) International Encyclopedia of Communication D. Brown (2020) My People Tell Stories Ozaki + 74 co-authors (2024) Science Advances Tierney, Russo & Patel (2011) PNAS Savage + 15 co-creators (2020) MUTEK JP keynote lecture/concert MacCallum, Mauch, Burt & Leroi (2012) PNAS MacCallum (2012) Soundcloud Cottier (2022) Discover Magazine Savage, Sakai, S. Brown & Currie (2015) PNAS Mehr + 18 co-authors (2019) Science Berger (2021) Nautilus Savage, Loui, Tarr, Schachner, Glowacki, Mithen & Fitch (2021) Behavioral & Brain Sciences Mehr, Krasnow, Bryant & Hagen (2021) Behavioral & Brain Sciences Honing & Cornelissen (2023) Music Matters Sample syllabus using this book as a textbook alongside nineteen other reading/listening materials for a fourteen-week course (e.g., “Comparative Musicology” or “Music and Evolution”). Musical scales of various nations5 Cantometrics6 An open letter on racism in music studies7 Universality and diversity in human song15 What makes music universal16 Toward inclusive theories of the evolution of musicality17 Toward a productive evolutionary understanding of music18 Musical scales of various nations5 Cantometrics6 An open letter on racism in music studies7 Universality and diversity in human song15 What makes music universal16 Toward inclusive theories of the evolution of musicality17 Toward a productive evolutionary understanding of music18 Savage (2024) PsyArXiv Zimmer (2024) New York Times Yong (2018) The Atlantic Margulis, Wong, Turnbull, Kubit & McAuley (2022) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) Ellis (1885) Nature Lomax (1989) International Encyclopedia of Communication D. Brown (2020) My People Tell Stories Ozaki + 74 co-authors (2024) Science Advances Tierney, Russo & Patel (2011) PNAS Savage + 15 co-creators (2020) MUTEK JP keynote lecture/concert MacCallum, Mauch, Burt & Leroi (2012) PNAS MacCallum (2012) Soundcloud Cottier (2022) Discover Magazine Savage, Sakai, S. Brown & Currie (2015) PNAS Mehr + 18 co-authors (2019) Science Berger (2021) Nautilus Savage, Loui, Tarr, Schachner, Glowacki, Mithen & Fitch (2021) Behavioral & Brain Sciences Mehr, Krasnow, Bryant & Hagen (2021) Behavioral & Brain Sciences Honing & Cornelissen (2023) Music Matters Most materials are available open access online. The syllabus includes space for things like student presentations of final projects (e.g., based on the song they sing/analyse in the Chapter 2 tutorial) and guest lectures. If you plan to use this book as a textbook, please don’t hesitate to email (psavage[at]keio.jp) to ask me about giving a guest lecture! However you plan to use this book, I wish you happy reading/teaching/listening/comparing!