Authors: Anthony Brandt, Molly Gebrian and L. Robert Slevc
Publication: Frontiers in Psychology
Publication volume & issue: vol 3 no. 00327 Year: 2012
Link: http://www.frontiersin.org/Auditory_Cognitive_Neuroscience/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00327/full
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00327
From the abstract: “…we argue that it is more productive from a developmental perspective to describe spoken language as a special type of music. A review of existing studies presents a compelling case that musical hearing and ability is essential to language acquisition. In addition, we challenge the prevailing view that music cognition matures more slowly than language and is more difficult; instead, we argue that music learning matches the speed and effort of language acquisition. We conclude that music merits a central place in our understanding of human development.”
The full text of this article is available online. (via Anthropologist in the Attic http://tinyurl.com/8r8bwdz)
As I read this article, I kept thinking what Bernstein would have made of it, and thus I give you lecture 2 from his 1973 Harvard lectures, The Unanswered Question.
Mind Over Music 
Reblogged this on Musiker auf der Bühne.
I recently wrote a blog post on this article myself, and will be following it up with another later today. Personally, I think the core of the argument is sound, but they tie themselves in knots with a very broad definition of music that I think gives the wrong impression to people unfamiliar with the research. It’s certainly not what dear Lenny was talking about.