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“I conclude that musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex.”
– Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
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The International Review of Music 
I think singing might have come about as a form of communication. This occurred to me while listening to some recordings of Baka pygmies. It might well preceded speech. We certainly could produce “singing” before we could ever made speech; apes can put sounds togeher that sound like the precusors of singing. I suspect rhythms–hitting things–came about for some other reason, I have no idea what. And the singing and rhythms weren’t brought together until much later in hominid evolution.
As far as its mating origin goes, I don’t see how it could work without singng first being used for communication, since bird mating songs need to be understood as communication in order to be understood. If the female does not have the ability to understand that the male is attempting to communicate with her via his song, it simply wouldn;’t work. The message could not be understood.
OK, enough of my pedantry for the night.
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Yes indeed!!!!
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