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CHAPTER 23 · The Drive to Creativity

Darwin’s Dilemma: Evolutionary Roots of Musicality

J. Patrick Whelan, MD, PhD

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the intricate relationship between musicality and its evolutionary origins. Musicality, described as the ability and tendency to create and appreciate music, involves both the conscious and subconscious mental faculties. It further describes three dimensions of the musical experience: the remarkable capacity for musical and lyric memory, the emotional impact of music, and the phenomenon of involuntary music, such as humming without one's awareness. By tracing the roots of musicality to natural sounds encountered by early life forms, the author proposes a connection between the evolution of individual voice recognition, the co-evolution of spoken language, and their collective contribution to the origins of human musicality. The chapter further contextualizes their findings by discussing some of Charles Darwin's theories of music as a primitive brain function, Tecumseh Fitch's skepticism about the adaptationist view, and Steven Pinker's classification of music as a non-essential pleasure technology.

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Cite this chapter

Chapter references below omit unverified page ranges and chapter-specific DOIs.

APA

Whelan, J. P. (2026). Darwin’s Dilemma: Evolutionary Roots of Musicality. In P. L. Pearl & S. Arfaie (Eds.), Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge University Press.

AMA

Whelan JP. Darwin’s Dilemma: Evolutionary Roots of Musicality. In: Pearl PL, Arfaie S, eds. Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge University Press; 2026.

Vancouver

Whelan JP. Darwin’s Dilemma: Evolutionary Roots of Musicality. In: Pearl PL, Arfaie S, editors. Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2026.

Chicago

Whelan, J. Patrick. “Darwin’s Dilemma: Evolutionary Roots of Musicality.” In Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity, edited by Phillip L. Pearl and Saman Arfaie. Cambridge University Press, 2026.

BibTeX

@incollection{chapter23_2026,
  author = {Whelan, J Patrick},
  title = {Darwin’s Dilemma: Evolutionary Roots of Musicality},
  booktitle = {Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity},
  editor = {Pearl, Phillip L. and Arfaie, Saman},
  publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
  year = {2026}
}

Harvard

Whelan, J. P. (2026) “Darwin’s Dilemma: Evolutionary Roots of Musicality”, in Pearl, P.L. and Arfaie, S. (eds.) Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

J. Patrick Whelan

J. Patrick Whelan

MD, PhD

Professor of Pediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles; Lecturer on Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

University of California, Los Angeles · Harvard Medical School

Profile

J. Patrick Whelan is a rheumatologist, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Lecturer on Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He directs an interdisciplinary center for children with neuroimmune disorders and teaches Music and the Mind at Harvard, examining the evolutionary origins of musicality and auditory processing in developmental disorders and degenerative disease. He has also lectured for many years in the graduate virology curriculum at the University of Southern California. A Catholic bioethicist affiliated with the University of Southern California Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, he is also a past president of the Los Angeles Pediatric Society, helping organize its longstanding summer program for students aspiring to careers in pediatrics.

Scholarship & professional background

He studied biochemistry at Harvard University, earned his medical and doctoral degrees at Baylor College of Medicine, and completed rheumatology fellowship training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He practiced pediatric rheumatology at Massachusetts General Hospital for two decades. His clinical interests include rare vasculopathies and multidisciplinary care for neuropsychiatric syndromes in children, complementing his longstanding educational interests in music, the mind, and bioethics.

Selected work & perspectives

How Music Resonates in the BrainLeonard Bernstein and the Psychology of MusicTraining and clinical interests · UCLA Health