MUSICAL INHERITANCE
The whole problem of mental inheritance is in the air, both in the sense
that it is current and in the sense that it is relatively intangible.
The struggle is best illustrated in the current approaches to the
problem of inheritance of intelligence. In this the geneticist has not
got far from base, but much has been learned in regard to the nature of
the issues involved. In the field of music the geneticist has approached
the subject experimentally without understanding the musical life; and
the musician has approached the matter practically without being a
competent experimenter. The psychologist has certainly not done his duty
in clarifying the issues. The most pressing need at the present time is
for such clarification. This can not be the work of one man or one
generation, but must be achieved through co-operation of both sides in
order to clear the way for valid experimentation.
In order to indicate the character of the problem we are now facing, I
shall first venture to state some fundamental assumptions upon which
probably all competent investigators agree and, second, venture a little
way in the direction of identifying concepts of musical life which can
be dealt with experimentally.
ESSENTIAL PREMISES
The mechanism of heredity lies in a single germ cell carrying the
character-determining chromosomes which consist of organized chains of
genes. In the character and organization of these genes in the
fertilized cell we find the complete "blueprint" for the future
individual in so far as it is to be determined by heredity. In the
twenty-four pairs of chromosomes in the fertilized human germ cell we
find the long and diversified heritage of each parent represented
through the union of the sperm and the ovum. The selection and the
organization of the genes in these chromosomes adequately represent what
the future individual can be.
This genetic constitution is modified by the cytoplasm, the supporting
part of the cell which is its first environment, and further by the
entire embryonic environment. Any changes that take place after the
launching of this cell, whether before or after birth, are regarded as
environmental. In the embryonic life, this germinating cell develops by
processes of cell division and specialization into the complete human
organism ready to function more or less immediately after birth. This
heritage has fabulous resources in the form of possible facilities for
future development. As nature was prolific in the storing and
transmission of countless hereditary characters in the genetic
constitution, so the equipment of the child at birth is astonishingly
prolific in the provision it makes for diversified development of the
individual. Development from this stage on must, therefore, of necessity
take place through a process of selection and specialization in which
certain characters are given right of way and many are subordinated or
inhibited by conflicting interests, but the great mass remain relatively
latent or dormant. We may assume that superior musical talent is
determined in large part by superior musical heredity, and that inferior
musical talent or lack of talent may be determined in large part by a
correspondingly defective heredity.
The science of heredity in the strictest sense focuses upon the study of
the identification and organization of the genes in relation to the
determination of characters which shall appear in the genetic
constitution and determine future structures and functions of the
individual. When the geneticist deals with specific anatomical
structures, this relationship is traceable with comparative ease; but
when he comes to deal with more or less complicated physiological or
mental functions, the tracing of this relationship becomes rather
baffling on account of the complexity of the final product.
Turning then to the issues involved in the interpretation of musical
inheritance, we must face certain theoretical assumptions. One of them
is that a scientific study of musical heredity cannot be pursued on the
assumption that mind and body are two distinct entities, each inherited
independently. Nor can we hold the old doctrine of psychophysical
parallelism. All human genetics proceeds on the assumption that the
human individual is one psychophysical organism. Our musical experience,
observation and measurement will therefore represent views from the
mental side; our organic studies may be views of the same things from
the physical side.
Furthermore, musicality is not one specific human trait but an infinite
hierarchy of traits running through the entire gamut of the
psychophysical musical organism. To make any progress whatever, the
scientist must make the supreme sacrifice of attempting to deal only
with specific isolable factors apparently small and remote in
themselves. The situation is analogous to that of purely physical
features. It is generally admitted that the structure of the physical
organism is heritable. But when we show that the color of the eyes of
the fruit fly is heritable and that this inheritance takes place in a
very complicated way, as has been adequately shown, we have simply
identified parts of the structure and function of the genes in one
specific feature in the vastly complex physical organism, however
fundamental and characteristic this particular feature may be. This
analogy applies in principle to the genetic study of the musical life.
The crux of the difficulty lies in the identification of heritable
factors.
Again we must remember that the musical mind is first of all a normal
mind, a normal psychophysical organism ready to begin to function
immediately after birth. What we shall look for then in a psychophysical
organism is the presence of certain resources especially favorable or
especially unfavorable to the normal functioning of the musical mind. We
may assume that an average capacity present in the genetic constitution
may be adequate for musical purposes but that exceptionally gifted
persons require these traits in a correspondingly exceptional degree and
that exceptionally unmusical individuals lack essential elements. The
most wonderful thing is that a person can come into the world with a
musical constitution at all, but the problem of heredity centers around
individual differences, and these are more easily approachable than the
total function. As in genetic studies of the inheritance of color
blindness it has been possible to identify types, so in musical hearing
we may look forward to the identification of types of defect and types
of superiority deviating markedly from the normal.
Common observation and reasoning convince us without question that
musicality is inherited in some mysterious way and this follows also
from general considerations of current theories of biological
inheritance. But when it comes to the scientific determination of laws
of such inheritance, we face high barriers. Biological laws of
inheritance must be established in terms of the genes; a specific
biological structure or function must be related to gene organization.
Let us call this measurement of the first order. Such measurements are
most readily applied to anatomical structure and physiological function
in the neuro-muscular organism. This is notably clear in the anatomy and
physiology of the ear and its connections. It is equally applicable to
the anatomy and physiology of the vocal organs--the bellows, the
vibrators and the resonators for voice. It is conceivable, for example,
that the length, the mass, the mode of attachment, and the general
position and shape of the vocal cords and the mounting of the voice box
are heritable characters traceable to genes and referable to musicality
as the physical organs for voice.
We can also find relationships to the endocrines, which are in large
part the determinants of musical emotionality. Electro-physiology is now
giving great promise for the identification of functions in the ear and
the brain and its central connections and is establishing
interrelationships. Many of the laws of heredity established by
measurements of this order probably refer to fundamental biological
principles of inheritance in the psychophysical organism as a whole. By
a physiological analysis of the sensory, motor, and central factors
which operate most significantly in music, the systematist can set up a
respectable body of biological facts in regard to musical inheritance
which are antecedently probable in terms of the functions of genes and
result in the structure and function of the musical organism.
Since the medium of music is sound, we shall look first for an
exceptionally responsive or unresponsive ear, including not only the
physical ear but the central organs in the nervous system through which
it functions. This is basic for two reasons: First, because it
determines what stimulation from the world of sound shall enter into the
experience of the musical individual to a high degree; and second,
because the purely physiological receptivity or organic response to
sound acts upon and modifies the state of well-being or ill-being
according as the auditory impression is beneficent or noxious in so far
as its acts upon our circulation, metabolism, temperature and other
organic processes. Such well-being or ill-being is, of course, in part
the foundation for the feeling of musical pleasures and pains.
If we would gain a true and comprehensive insight into the nature and
extent of role of environment in musical life, we must start with some
established facts or reasonable assumptions of what is "given" for
environment to act upon. The heritage is the capital fund which the
environment invests or squanders. Only by knowing the hereditary
contributions can we appraise the environmental contributions. In the
study of the fruit fly, for example, the revelations of factors which
must be regarded as environmental are quite as significant and essential
as the revelations about the original organization of genes. The
determination of the limits of heredity is the best means for revealing
the functions and possibilities of environment. The music geneticist
will therefore learn fully as much about environmental influences as he
will about hereditary influences in studying heredity.
PSYCHOPHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS
The music geneticist can approach many significant aspects of the
subject through psychophysical experiments for which we now have fairly
standardized procedures. For the present purpose, we may call this
measurement of the second order as compared with the anatomical and
physiological measurements. It proceeds out of, and is a complement to,
the anatomical and physiological foundations and probably represents the
most fundamental approach from the psychological and musical points of
view. These measurements deal primarily with sensitivity and
discrimination on the sensory side and the corresponding processes on
the motor side. Among them we may recognize two levels: The simple or
elemental, in which a specific mental process is related to a relatively
specific organic basis; and the complex, which relates to co-operative
functions of the elemental capacities. Of the former we have four;
namely, the sense of pitch, the sense of loudness, the sense of time,
and the sense of timbre--each of which is correlated with a specific
attribute of the sound wave, which is the musical medium. We have basic
measurements of the hearing of rhythm, consonance, volume, and
sonance--all of which represent relatively complex patterns. Each of
these complex functions has a unitary character. Rhythm, for example, is
not merely time plus intensity; it possesses a unitary character.
Because of the difficulty of dealing with the complex patterns,
precedence should be given to the four elemental or basic capacities.
Excellence in these capacities contributes toward ear-mindedness, of
which the auditory image is the most specific characteristic; but at the
present time we have no adequate objective method for the measuring of
auditory imagery.
On the motor side we have corresponding measurements of speed and
accuracy in the motor control of each of these factors represented in
the sound wave; namely, frequency, amplitude, duration, and form.
The term elemental should be used with caution because we never
encounter a purely elemental state or process. Even in the very simplest
form they are merely more or less specific phases of the mental
organism; and at any level at which they are observable they probably
involve environmental accretions. It is the old story: We never
experience pure sensation but meaningful perception. Yet under the most
careful experimental control the identification of such specific
functions may be reasonably reliable and have considerable validity.
Adequate measurements of the sense of timbre are new and therefore have
not been employed extensively up to date. But the sense of pitch, the
sense of time, and the sense of loudness, together with the sense of
rhythm and immediate tonal memory, have been used extensively.
The significance of such measurements depends upon the rigidity of the
scientific technique and the selection of subjects for experiment.
Reliable measurements have been made on a variety of groups and for
different purposes more or less related to the problem of inheritance.
Studies have been made upon musically precocious children to determine
to what degree they were gifted in each of these capacities. All the
available blood relatives of six of the foremost musical families in
America and a number of such families in European countries have been
investigated. These capacities have been measured in selected virtuosi
in various fields of music. The measurements have been used for the
determination of qualifications for musical organizations and for the
analysis of admissions to music schools. Simplified forms of the
measurements have been made upon very young children in musical
families. Numerous cases of failure in musical education have been
investigated and often explained on the basis of presence or absence of
these basic capacities. Surveys have been made on groups representing
highly-privileged or under-privileged children in the matter of musical
facilities. Some of these measures are now a part of the standard tests
and measures administered in the public schools so that comparisons can
be made with blood relatives, and data are becoming cumulative for
scientific comparison of successive generations. Numerous racial studies
have been made on a large scale, comparing these capacities, for
example, in different degrees of race mixture--as in the transition from
pure blacks through mulattoes to whites in a large Negro community, or
the comparison of racial groups in Hawaii, the school children in
different European countries, Indians with whites, and distinctive races
and primitive peoples in different parts of the world.
From this large array of facts certain findings seem to be significant,
taking these measurements as a group. First, the sense of pitch, the
sense of loudness, and the sense of time reveal no distinctly
significant differences in racial groups, in culture-levels, or at
age-levels, when adequately measured. In many cases this holds also for
the sense of rhythm and tonal memory. This is probably indicative of the
fact that the basic capacities for hearing in individuals now living and
capable of being tested adequately are physiologically at the same
level. This conclusion is in harmony with the observation that these
capacities which function in music, function also in the vast varieties
of orientation through sound at all levels of man now living. It is also
analogous to what has been found in vision. Second, it develops that in
each and every one of the groups studied there are enormous individual
differences in each of these capacities and that the extent and
distribution of these differences do not differ significantly from what
we find in the public school children of the United States. Third, where
comparisons of capacity and achievement have been made reliably, it has
been found that those who have achieved distinction in music have these
capacities in a significantly corresponding degree; but much larger
numbers of those possessing superior capacity who have not been
discovered as musical, either by themselves or in their environment, are
revealed. This fact rules out many of the statistical studies of
heredity in terms of musical achievement. Fourth, these capacities
represent relatively independent factors in hearing. Fifth, marked
superiority or inferiority in these capacities is of predictive value
for musical achievement and guidance in education.
On the motor side but little progress has been made. Principally because
the measurements are laborious, significant elements have not been
identified, and moderate motor capacities in speed and action are
adequate for most musical achievements. Daily observations reveal that
children may be slow and accurate, slow and erratic, fast and accurate,
or fast and erratic in various degrees and combinations. It would,
however, be of musical significance to discover to what extent and in
what manner these traits are inherited from generation to generation.
In view of these discoveries, it is evident that there is some material
available for technically rigid genetic interpretation in terms of
currently recognized principles of inheritance. All the records on the
six foremost musical families of America are available in the
confidential files of the Carnegie Institution, at Cold Spring Harbor.
Highly reliable measurements on all the students in the Eastman School
of Music for the last fifteen years are available. Various public
schools have vast cumulative data, and elaborate collections are being
worked upon in the Winderen Laboratory, at Oslo. But with the exception
of the Carnegie Institution and the Oslo collections, adequate
measurements of whole families are absent.
What is needed now is a thoroughly reliable series of measurements on
entire musical families and the interpretation of these by a thoroughly
competent geneticist in terms of established biological principles of
inheritance. It is especially important that both parties shall be
competent to take into account the numerous lessons which we have
learned from the extensive efforts that have been made in the attempt to
measure the inheritance of any mental trait, such as human intelligence.
In the human situation we cannot breed successive generations rapidly,
as in flies or mice, for experimental purposes. We must, therefore,
economize time and effort by taking the most readily available material.
For this purpose I have suggested three possible methods (_Psychology of
Music_, McGraw-Hill, 1938). The first is that we start with the highest
10 per cent and the lowest 10 per cent in an adequate sampling of
fifth-grade children in a school system and work back by making the same
measurements on the available blood relatives of these two groups. In
effective organization much time can be saved by making group
measurements in a co-operating community, such as a city ward. A second
procedure would be to secure an adequate sampling of musicians and
measure forward and backward to cover three generations in which the
matings of musical and unmusical parents could be traced. A third
procedure would be a systematic collection of measurements on school
children for a generation or more giving special attention to the
showing of blood relatives. We cannot, however, stress too strongly the
importance of having these measurements made throughout by an
experimenter thoroughly competent in this field and the equally thorough
biological treatment of data by scientists thoroughly competent in that
specific field. If a biologist wants to start the ball rolling from his
point of view, the records in the Eugenics Record office of the Carnegie
Institution furnish a fair and reliable sampling.
In proposing this conservative approach through psychophysical
measurements, I do not wish to belittle the insight, common knowledge
and theories of inheritance which have been obtained by observation and
statistics in terms of musicality as a whole--as in biography,
autobiography and letters of great musicians or in the study of musical
families. But we are confronted with the fact that these deal largely
with unanalyzed situations so completely covered by factors of
environment and training as to make them useless for strictly scientific
purposes. Nor would I belittle the significance of general traits, such
as musical intelligence, creative imagination and the artistic
temperament, or facilities for specific skills, such as sight reading,
and the memorizing of repertoires. We know a great deal about these and
unquestionably have the right to assume that they have an hereditary
basis. But scientific studies in heredity may be more properly
approached through the simpler and more elementary capacities.
For scientific purposes, we cannot, of course, mix basic measurements
and current ratings of musical achievement. There have been numerous
approaches to this subject from the musical-achievement point of view,
and these have furnished many suggestive leads and probably point to
unquestioned facts about the inheritance of musical talent. But the
science of genetics rightly rests upon and demands the isolation of
specific factors which can be measured; and for that purpose the musical
geneticist must, for the present, sacrifice many otherwise interesting
approaches from the point of view of rated achievement and be willing to
await the laying of foundations of rigidly conducted measurements which
can be described, interpreted, and verified.
THOUGHT REVIEW
General Principles
(1) The question is not whether or not musical ability _is_ inherited,
but _how_ it is inherited.
(2) The musical heritage through each parent is transmitted through a
single germ cell.
(3) The mechanism of musical heredity lies in the organization of the
genes in the twenty-four pairs of chromosomes found in this
fertilized germ cell.
(4) Scientific principles of musical inheritance can be established
only through experiment and measurement of specific capacities;
they cannot be derived from studies of musical achievement alone.
(5) We come into the world a fully-equipped organism which is evolved
from the germ cell before birth.
(6) This hereditary equipment is prolific in possibilities; at best,
the musical life can develop only through a small part of these
inherited resources.
(7) Defects in the inherited equipment set corresponding limits to
musical achievement.
(8) The scientific approach to the problem of musical inheritance can
be made through psychophysical measurements of musical capacities
with biological interpretation in terms of genes.
(9) There is a considerable body of general biological principles of
heredity which probably apply to the inheritance of musical
talent.
(10) Scientific study of the nature and the role of musical environment
must begin with knowledge of what is "given", the original
hereditary stock.
Consider These Questions
(1) What bad effects in education come from overemphasis of (a)
heredity, (b) environment?
(2) What educational advantages will accrue to the child from a sound
and balanced recognition of the role of (a) heredity, (b)
environment?
(3) What would be the advantage of knowing scientific laws of musical
inheritance?
(4) What is new to you in the author's proposal?
(5) Do you accept the author's theory of the relation between body and
mind?
(6) Why can we not derive laws of musical inheritance from statistical
studies of musical achievement?
Discuss These Situations
(1) A music teacher says "Give me a normal child and I will guarantee
to make him musical." What qualifications would you suggest?
(2) A teacher has measured a child's sense of pitch and found it
superior. Should she say "You are highly musical," or "You have a
superior sense of pitch?" What is the difference?
(3) An investigator has recently collected interesting material by
interviewing (a) thirty-six of the outstanding musicians of the
world, (b) the entire cast (thirty-six) of the Metropolitan Opera
Company, and (c) fifty selected graduate students in the Juilliard
School of Music, about their parents, and other blood relatives
and has attempted to interpret the findings in terms of genes.
Granting that his theory of genes is correct, what is it that
limits or invalidates the procedure?
(4) Long ago the author investigated the musical ability of three
children in a minister's family and found that the oldest daughter
rated very low on basic capacities and that she had not made
satisfactory progress in eight years of musical training. The
younger sister rated very high in musical capacities and had made
splendid progress with but a few lessons. The brother, the
youngest of the three, was like the younger sister. The minister
held that where the great Creator had made the children unequal,
it was his business to make them equal, and so he sent the eldest
daughter to the New England Conservatory of Music where she was
accepted and graduated and now holds a diploma, though, in her
community, a musical nonentity.
(5) Richard Bach Smith is a musical prodigy according to his mother.
At the age of five he plays, sings, composes, and is an
accomplished sight-reader. Is this heredity, environment, or both?
How would you order his musical education?
(6) Miss Jennie Lind Jones has a musical father and an unmusical
mother, lives in a fine musical environment, and has enjoyed
fourteen years of excellent training; but she "has no rhythm," her
piano phrasing is "cold", and her music is a "drudgery." What do
you predict for her? What would you have done for her?
(7) Subject for debate: Given both, resolved, that inherited talent is
a larger factor than musical education and environment in the
development of a great musician.