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Last Tango in Paris opens with Marlon Brando standing under an elevated Paris Metro. As a train passes overhead he holds his ears and yells: “FUCKING GAAAHD!” Minus the urban setting, transported to some tropical jungle perhaps, this could have been mankind’s first utterance (or at least its meaning), even if God had not yet been invented. Brando’s cry into a postmodern wilderness , where vast unknowns have been internalized and turned against the human psyche, echoes Walt Whitman ’s “barbaric yawp.”1 The Bible says the world came into existence via the word and that word was “God” (John :). This word somehow became light, became life, became flesh, sound transformed into humans . . . Many cultures have similar sound-centered creation myths that we may have uttered into existence. Hindus believe the universe was darkly silent until some mysterious initial movement in the universe created the “Om” sound. When things move they vibrate, and vibration causes sound. Hindus believe that this ur-sound contains the frequencies of all other sounds, including language and music. In Sanskrit, “Nada Brahma” means “the world is sound.” John Coltrane chanted a song called “Om,” which he called the “first syllable, the primal word, the word of power.”2 “Om” is a metaphysical In the Beginning Was the Holler In the beginning was the voice. Voice is sounding breath, the audible sign of life. —Otto Jespersen People say that I’m hollering. Man, I feel like hollering. —Charles Mingus  concept of the mind finding harmony with a certain sound frequency. The Native American Hopi believe(d) the human form was created when the Spider Woman sang the “Song of Creation.” The Mayan Popul Vuh also believe the earliest humans came to life via the word. Inuits have a song that describes how humans became distinct from animals when they discovered singing. While folk music sings the history of mankind, the rise of art music (music as artistic expression) probably first arose during the height of Mesopotamian culture ( to  BC). The Mesopotamians “already considered music an art, and their writings mention both professional musicians and liturgical music.”3 Egyptians also developed their own musical culture in a similar timeframe ( BC). They believed their god “Thoth” (the tongue of Ra converting his will into speech) created the Universal “Om” symbol in Sanskrit, from the root nu, “to shout” world with a yell. Sound for sound’s sake, as in (art) music or music solely for its own pleasure, devoid of utility, sounds beyond the limited repertoire of the birds and bees, probably developed during this period. Ancient Greece was influenced by Egypt. The Greeks, who believed in the emotional value of music, often sang their poems and dramatic tragedies, believing emotion and elation could spontaneously become music and that ululation was an expression of joy. Homer’s Odyssey mentions ululations. Pythagoras, inventor of geometry, believed numbers were magical, which was manifested in the movement of the planets and reflected in the intervals of plucked strings. It led to the Pythagorean scale (probably already being used in Babylon,  BC). Meanwhile, Plato believed the universe was based on harmonic principles , the Pythagorean notion that numbers explained all interdependent harmonies within the universe of space and time—the Music of the Spheres.4 Harmony proved the existence of a higher being and the sound produced is supposedly so exquisite and rarefied that only extraordinary (music lover?) ears are able to hear it.5 Utility before God Before God needed to be invented there were people, and before there was language there was song, and before there was song there was utterance—the vocal chords comprising the first musical instrument. It was not an intelligible word, more like a baby’s gurgle, scream, grunt, or holler, an attempt to imitate or communicate with oneself or animals by imitating their calls or one’s surroundings (the howl of wind through trees).6 This was a gesture of inquiry and self-interestedness by which the call was already bending to personal desires.7 When New Yorkers call out to someone they may yell “yo” or “hey,” barkers in open-air markets use calls to bring irresistible bargains to the attention of passersby,8 and Dutch people call out “kookoo” to each other, as in “where are you” or “here I am,” which is, of course, onomatopoeically why the cuckoo bird is called the cuckoo. Humans, like Dr. Doolittle, attempted to learn animal languages to talk to the animals.9 Or...

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