14 May 2026
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Music isn’t something humans invented, it’s something we stumbled into, borrowing rhythm from insects, melody from birds, and gestures from apes.

Professor Michael Spitzer argues that what makes human music truly singular isn’t human genius, but our innate mortality.

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About Michael Spitzer:

Michael Spitzer is the author of The Musical Human and professor of music at the University of Liverpool, where he leads the department’s work on classical music. A music theorist and musicologist, he is an authority on Beethoven, with interests in aesthetics and critical theory, cognitive metaphor, and music and affect. He organized the International Conferences on Music and Emotion and the International Conference on Analyzing Popular Music and currently chairs the editorial board of Music Analysis Journal.

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