Music and Genetics is the title of a new report released by researchers from Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. Pouring over studies involving identical twins and molecular biology, it endeavours to answer on an age-old question conclusively: is musical talent down to nature or nurture?
Finding the answer is much more complex than it might seem.
Maybe we’re born with it
The report first offers some simple observations that support a genetic predisposition for music. Its prevalence as a global phenomenon, common to all cultures and peoples, might point to music as something coded within our DNA rather than environmentally-dependent.
Musicians often are clustered in families – more than 50 consummate musicians across the 17th and 18th centuries shared Bach blood – though this shared familial environment makes it harder to pin this talent down to either nature or nurture.
There’s also a known link between genetic abnormalities and their impact on musical skills. For example, individuals with Williams syndrome may be...
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