The Descent of Man

produced during the season of courtship by
many insects, spiders, fishes, amphibians, and
birds; for unless the females were able to appreciate
such sounds and were excited or
charmed by them, the persevering efforts of the
males, and the complex structures often possessed
by them alone, would be useless; and this it
is impossible to believe.
Human song is generally admitted to be the
basis or origin of instrumental music. As neither
the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing
musical notes are faculties of the least use
to man in reference to his daily habits of life,
they must be ranked amongst the most mysterious
with which he is endowed. They are present,
though in a very rude condition, in men of
all races, even the most savage; but so different
is the taste of the several races, that our music
gives no pleasure to savages, and their music is
to us in most cases hideous and unmeaning. Dr.
Seemann, in some interesting remarks on this