|A tamarin rock star | (photographed by Ltshears at Wikimedia)
Our moods change when we hear music, but not all music affects
us the same way. Slow, soft, higher-pitched, melodic songs
soothe us; upbeat classical music makes us more alert and
active; and fast, harsh, lower-pitched, dissonant music can rev
us up and stress us out. Why would certain sounds affect us in
specific emotional ways? One possibility is because of an
overlap between how we perceive music and how we perceive human
voice. Across human languages, people talk to their babies in
slower, softer, higher-pitched voices than they speak to adults.
And when we’re angry, we belt out low-pitched growly tones. The
specific vocal attributes that we use in different emotional
contexts are specific to our species… So what makes us so
egocentric to think that other species might respond to our
music in the same ways that we do? |A serene tamarin ponders
where he placed | his smoking jacket (photographed by Michael
Gäbler at Wikimedia) Cotton-top tamarin