The origin of music

by Robert Fink

Among the first reviews of the "Origin of Music" (under its original title: "The Universality of Music") was published by the "Journal of Research in Music Education," Vol. 20, No. 3, (Autumn, 1972 p. 412), by Vada E. Butcher, professor of music at Howard University, Washington, D.C. Butcher wrote: "According to the author, this book proposes 'a complete theory of the laws and forces governing the origin and development of music.' Fink considers his theory unique in that he assigns equal weight to natural laws and cultural forces in explaining the phenomenon of music. He maintains that those elements common to the music of most societies of the world -- preference for the octave, fifth, and fourth; predominance of pentatonic and diatonic scales; and the distinction between noise and music -- all can be explained by acoustical principles." Butcher goes on to explain the core theory in Fink's book, which is that the pentatonic scale, the diatonic scale, major and minor, and the concept o