purpose of music

Without music, life would be a mistake,” said Friedrich Nietzsche. A century after the German philosopher made this famous assertion, different neuroscientists, musicologists, psychologists and anthropologists have proved that he was right. Based on the discovery of flutes made from bone, which were found in a cave in Germany and are the earliest recorded instruments so far, researchers estimate that music could be at least as old as Homo sapiens, who appeared about 200,000 years ago. But what is its function?

This question has tormented experts for centuries and there is still no conclusive answer. In the fifth century BC, Pythagoras proposed that music governed the harmony of the stars, whereas current scientific research—from the evolutionary and biological perspective—considers that music serves rather to govern the harmony between human beings.