Is musical ability inherently an evaluation of intelligence? The concept of biological intelligence versus the ability and capacity to learn has often been challenged. This concept was especially perplexing during the Renaissance. It is not surprising that this question should arise in a time when individuality, creativity, and musicality was flourishing.
If it could be argued that a bird chirped due to its biology, logically shouldn’t human singing, then, also be a natural instinct? In this sense, music could be seen as a byproduct of human nature. Thus, the question of musical ability and its relationship to intelligence arises. David R. M. Irving explores this link between musicality and intelligence during the Renaissance in his essay, The Hearing of Humanity: Music, Voice, and Soul in Bartholme De Las Casas’ Philosophical Defence of Indigenous Americans. Irving extrapolates this conceptualization by analyzing the significance and implications of music during the Renaissance.
During the Renaissance, music played a principal role in religion as it held great spiritual value. Similar to sanctified religious texts, religious music was greatly venerated. According to Thomas Morley, music possessed “most strange effects in the hearer…for it will draw the auditor (and the speciallie the skillful auditor) into a devout and reverent consideration for Him for whose praise it was made”. [1] Through music, Europeans felt closer to God and believed that they felt His presence in them. Considering the strong effects of music in a religious society, it is no surprise that Europeans aspired to relate these feelings to cognition and intelligence.
Dominican friar Bartolomel de Las Casas advocated that the ability to learn music was representative of “rationality and ingenio (creative disposition or natural understanding)” [2] . As Irving explores, Las casas advocated for the humanity of the Indigenous people by analyzing and expanding the connection between music and the soul to include humanity. Las Casas demonstrates this connection between music and intelligence by emphasizing, “the rapid adoption and assimilation of music from Europe by Indigenous Americans as self-evident proof of common humanity and rationality, in performance, theory, and the making of instruments. [3]. Las Casas, by highlighting the fast integration of music into Indigenous society ultimately intends to emphasize the rationality and thus natural/biological intelligence of the Indigenous people. “…polyphony: compás, which combines the waving of the hand with the tactus, or pulse, of the music. Central to the performance of Renaissance polyphonic vocal compositions or the extemporization of improvised counterpoint, compás relates simultaneously to the hand, the heart, and the soul” [4]. Given the elevated status of music in Renaissance society it is not surprising that Las Casas would come to the conclusion that the Indigenous people possessed a natural intelligence based on their ability to absorb the tenets of European music.
If the concept of inherent intelligence and a predisposed capacity to learn were to surface in modern times, this notion would raise great conflict as it did in the Renaissance. Now, in the 21st century, many schools have integrated the idea of growth mindset into the curriculum. The concept is that with hard work, anyone can achieve anything. While this idea starkly contradicts that of a set biological intelligence, I believe it leads to a new idea that people can overcome biological instincts and boundaries.
Sources and Citations
[1] Morley, as cited in Freedman, Music in The Renaissance, 195
[2] Irving, The Hearing of Humanity: Music, Voice, and Soul in Bartholme de Las Casas’ Philosophical Defence of Indigenous Americans’, 17
[3] Ibid, 18
[4] Ibid, 33