Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) defended an explanation of the origin of music distinct from Darwin’s. Spencer holds as a general physiological principle that any emotion produces movement. When movement involves the vocal tract, emotions result in vocalizations. Music derives from an exaggeration of the usual features of vocal emotional expression. Thus, “vocal music, and by consequence all music, is an idealization of the natural language of passion” (Spencer 1857 [2015: 29]). This view of music’s