Song before speech: infant vocal expressions, attachment, and the ritornello

Abstract

ABSTRACT 

This paper takes a closer look at the musical dimensions of early infant vocal expressions (crying, cooing, and babbling) and their role in shaping secure attachment through the lens of Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the ritornello. Building on Bowlby’s attachment theory, which highlights the infant’s innate signalling behaviours and the caregiver’s responsive attunement, the discussion brings into focus how repeated vocal exchanges create a sonic ‘territory’ that cultivates a sense of emotional safety. Drawing on studies of mother–infant interactions, the paper examines how rhythmic and melodic qualities of cries and babbles elicit complementary parental responses, forming proto-conversations integral to a child’s emerging self-regulation. The theory of communicative musicality is brought into the discussion to show how these interactive ‘songs’ precede formal language yet convey complex affective states. Deleuze and Guattari’s refrains framework accentuates the creative, structuring power of repeated sound patterns in steadying early relational life. The paper also sketches implications for psychoanalytic work with children, illustrating how vocal refrains can help stabilise unprocessed experience in child psychotherapy. Bringing together insights from Kristeva, Trevarthen, and Stern, the paper asserts that the preverbal ‘song before speech’ establishes a foundation for later linguistic and psychosocial development.