'Communicative Musicality' explores the intrinsic musical nature of human interaction. Groundbreaking studies have demonstrated that in mother/infant communication there exist noticeable patterns of timing, pulse, voice timbre, and gesture.This landmark book examines the nature of musical expression in human communication from infancy upwards1. Musicality: communicating the vitality and interests of life; PART 1 - THE ORIGINS AND PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF MUSICALITY; 2. Root, leaf, blossom, or bole: concerning the origin and adaptive function of music; 3. Music and how we became human: a view from cognitive semiotics - exploring imaginative hypotheses; 4. Ritual foundations of human uniqueness; 5. The evolution of music: theories, definitions and the nature of the evidence; 6. Tau in musical expression; 7. The neuroscience of emotion in music; 8. Brain, music and musicality: inferences from neuroimaging; PART 2 - MUSICALITY IN INFANCY; 9. Infant rhythms: expressions of musical companionship; 10. Voices of shared emotion and meaning: young infants and their mothers in Scotland and Japan; 11 'Music' and the 'action song' in infant development: an interpretation; 12. Early trios: patterns of sound and movement in the genesis of meaning between infants; 13. The effects of maternal depression on the 'musicality' of infant-directed speech and conversational engagement; 14. The improvised musicality of belonging: repetition and variation in mother-infant vocal interaction; PART 3 - MUSICALITY AND HEALING; 15. Music for children in zones of conflict and post-conflict: a bio-psycho-social paradigm; 16. Between communicative musicality and collaborative musicing: a perspective from community music therapy; 17. Supporting the development of mindfulness and meaning: clinical pathways in music therapy with a sexually abused child; 18. The human nature of dance: towards a theory of aesthetic community; 19. Therapeutic dialogues in music: nurturing musicality of communication in children with autistic spectrum disorder and Rett syndrome; PART 4 - MUSICALIT OF LEARNING IN CHILDHOOD; 20. Musicality in talk and listening: a key element in classroom discourse as an environment for learning; 21. Spontaneity in the