John Webb composer and animatuer

"When I watched young [African] Venda developing their bodies, their friendships, and their sensitivity in communal dancing, I could not help regretting the hundreds of afternoons I wasted on the rugby field and in boxing rings. But then I was brought up not to cooperate, but to compete. Even music was offered more as a competitive than a shared experience."– John Blacking, How Musical is Man?

"For older children and adults, musical behaviours can be interpreted as providing ways of interacting that - by virtue of their ambiguity or flexible significance - are likely to minimize social conflict. As a group of children play together musically, for each child the significance of their own and others' musical behaviour can be quite different and individual; yet the integrity for the overall interaction, and the pleasure gained, need not be compromised. Music's ambiguity allows for the exploration and rehearsal of skills in interacting with others, minimizing the risks of engaging in conflict or misunderstanding, risks that would be more likely were the medium linguistic with unambiguous reference." – Cross and Morley, in Communicative Musicality