The Power of Music

Throughout the ages wise men have discovered the powerful effects of music and conveyed this significance to their followers.

The Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino said that medicine heals the body, music the spirit and theology the soul.  He also warned that a man is not harmoniously formed who does not delight in harmony.  In his view, "music is given to us by God to subdue the body, temper the mind and render Him praise".

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato said that the music of the age reflects the state of the society and warned that certain kinds of music could lead to anarchy.  In is view the end of music is simply to engender love of beauty.  The 5th century Roman scholar and philosopher Boethius was of the opinion that music is related to us by nature and that it can either ennoble or debase our character.  He said that "nothing is more consistent with human nature than to be soothed by sweet modes and disturbed by their opposites".

Mozart cautioned against emotions being expressed to the point of exciting disgust.  He said that music - even in the most terrible situations - must never offend the ear and must please the listener.

More recently, the Eastern sage His Holiness Shantananda Saraswati said that "music has the power to give bliss because the vibrations emanating from rightly composed notes form certain patterns of particles which create bliss..."

When one considers these statements by men of great knowledge and understanding of the subtle and causal worlds in the light of much of the music that we hear these days, it is clear that something has gone wrong!

During the 1950s music sparked a revolution in society, causing a fundamental shift from adults to the youth, changing popular culture forever.  The 60s was a time of great upheaval, not only in popular culture, but also of birth control pills, recreational drugs, hippies, free love, women't lib, student demonstrations.  All of these landmark events were loudly and enthusiastically accompanied by a wide variety of popular music.

Here in South Africa, music also played a vital role during the years of the political struggles. No demonstration, march, meeting, funeral was complete without vigorous singing.  During the 1976 riots, when school children in Soweto revolted against Afrikaans as the language of instruction, a song by a white British band called Pink Floyd became the anthem for the students.  The song was called "Another Brick In the Wall (We Don't Need No Education)".

During the 80s a whole new generation of young, white musicians started to give voice to their opposition to the status quo.  Young men were starting to protest forced military service, being sent to the border to engage in a bush war against their beliefs, or sent to black townships to enforece petty laws.

One of the most extraordinary songs of defiance was written by a conscript describing his frustration and horror over the situation in the townships.  The song, called "Weeping", very daringly for that time, contained parts of "Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika", a beautiful hymn of praise entreating God to bless Africa, a song which had become closely identified with the Struggle, and was as a consequence banned from public performance, although it became an underground anthem of solidarity.

Returning to the wisdom of the ancients, Boethius said that music is so naturally a part of us that we cannot be without it.  He concludes that the power of the mind needs to be directed to  a fuller understanding of what is inherent in us.  So he did not believe that we should merely find pleasure in listening to music, but should develop a deeper knowledge of proportions, which is the essence of the effects of music on us.

The Octave

So what is it that makes music so powerful?  First of all, we need to know that all music is based on a set of 8 notes, the octave, which various cultures divided differently.  The ancient Greeks called this division of the 8ve modes, Hindus call them ragas, in Western music they are known as scales.

The Greek modes consisted of 8 tones, as does the Western scale; ragas divide the octave into 22 tones although not all are necessarily used in a piece of music; the Arabic scale contains 17 tones; the pentatonic scale consists of 6 tones and is widely used in Eastern music, as well as in Scottish folk songs.  The octave is a fascinating and interesting entity:  each note has a distinct quality.  For example, the 5th note has a very bright, active quality but the 4th is more restful. The 7th note has a restless, incomplete quality, the 3rd a calm but still inconclusive quality. Another interesting thing to note is that if the 8ve is begun and ended on any of the notes other than the 1st, the whole 8ve takes on the quality of enabling composers to convey most accurately a particular feeling or thought.

The ancient Greeks were well aware of the effects of the different modes.  Plato's Republic gives plenty of guidance as to the use of the modes:  gentle modes that are conducive of a good night's rest, different modes used in the mornings to remove the confusion of sleepiness, sweet music to delight infants instead of harsh sounds that would disturb them.  The morale and courage of soldiers were strengthened though the sounds of bright, empathic modes and the Bible contains many references to the sounding of trumpets in preparation for battle.  In short, in anceint times people understood that the structure of the body and soul consisted of musical harmony.

Similarly, in classical Indian music, there are numerous raga designed for various purposes, so the ragas relate not only to moods, hours and seasons, but also to the heavens, the signs of the zodiac, planets, days of the week, elements, colours, sexes, temperaments and periods of human life, in short a comprehensive musical scheme for living.  In the Hindu tradition there is such a fine appreciation of the qualities of the various ragas, that to hear a morning raga at night is to cause great disturbance!

What is Music?

Another important thing to remember is that ALL sound is significant.  Sound creates, sound heals, sound destroys, sound is communication because sound is energy, vibration.  It is the special function of music to purify the heart and re-establish memory of our divine origin, so it is crucial that we expose ourselves to music which serves this purpose.

So what is music?  Well, we know that music is made up of a succession of sounds put together in various rhythmic patterns and at various pitches to produce a pleasing, harmonious effect on the ear.

But what is this sound that makes up music?  Sound is made up of vibrations, quivering at an even rate.  For example, the beating of a bee's wings causes the air around it to vibrate, thus producing a hum or buzz.

If one strikes a glass, a sound develops because the air around the glass has been put into vibration.  It isn't the glass that causes the sound; it's the air around it.  So it isn't the physical object which makes the sound, but the space in and around it which is filled with air, and of course, the shape and composition of the object affects the quality and character of the sound. This explains why certain musical instruments are highly prized above others.

All sound takes place in space, and space is unlimited.  The air is continually alive with the vibrations that constitute sound.  Scratching the head, touching the face, traffic, aircraft, tree leaves rustling outside.  All sounds, some near, some far, and some loud, some quiet - all are playing in the same air which is always the same, unlimited.

If we tune into the play of sound, we learn to move with greater care and reverence in the vast space in which sound takes place.  When walking, one becomes aware that a heavy or aggressive tread is destructive and should not be inflicted on the listening and conscious world.

We know how to step lightly so that the step is appropriate - that it is the right volume for the weight of the body and we also discover how light the body actually is!  So, having tuned in, we start moving naturally according to how things are and not how we think they should be. That is what music is, natural sound ... and nothing else.

So when we attend concerts we are really listening to transformers, and the way musicians perform is of vital importance in today's noisy, inharmonious world.

Why do we listen to music?  It can't be because we hate it!  No, we listen to music because we enjoy it.  And why do we enjoy it?  Does it make us happy, sad, does it make us tap our toes or burst into song and dance?  Does it trigger memories; does it excite or uplift us?

Music has an effect on us. This effect can be negative or positive.  Music has the power to provoke the full gamut of emotions in us:  from anger to peace, from misery to joy; from agitation to stillness, and so on.

The Effect of Music

The coarsest of music causes excitement and even aggression, causing damage not only to the physical body, but more importantly to the subtle body, which is easily disturbed by such sounds.  The finest music brings about harmony, peace and even bliss.

We often listen to music with half an ear.  If not actively engaged in other physical activities like driving, cooking, studying, etc., when ostensibly just listening to music, the mind is often engaged in judging the music or performance.  Here you are invited to practice a different kind of listening:  by not giving attention to the thoughts and feelings that arise, simply come deeply to rest and just listen.  Don't entertain ideas about whether the music is good or bad, or whether you like it or not, or indeed about the quality of the performance.  Just listen.  Listen to the whole ensemble at once, not just one aspect.  In this way we are able to know the composer and what he is saying.

Now, as to music and its effects, it is said that all music contains 3 fundamental elements in varying degrees.  These are movement, emotion and reason.  Some music expresses whether just to tap one's foot or one gets up and starts dancing.

The foundation of most pop music is rhythm and rhythm causes movement.  So that's why we can dance to most pop music, which combines strong elements of movement and emotion, as we heard in the earlier part of this talk about music during the Struggle.

Some music has a predominantly emotional component.  The composers of the Romantic era conveyed the full range of human emotions in their music.  The French composer Hector Berlioz fell in love very frequently and one of his great loves was an Irish Shakespearean actress.  He pursued her for many years, putting on concerts of his music, which was full of compelling moods, attractive and mesmerising to lure her.  Audiences loved his music, but the actress evaded these extravagant attentions!

What about Richard Wagner?  Highly skilled in the art of composition, Wagner used this skill to express his ego, just as other composers do, but in a different way.  Without doubt he had knowledge of a dark world, a sinister world, which he cleverly disguised to make it look beautiful and strong.  It is not a coincedence that Wagner's music was greatly admired by another man with knowledge of darkness, namely Adolf Hitler.

Another Romantic composer, Frederick Chopin, was a gentler soul, a poet of the piano.  He hardly wrote for instruments other than the piano and when he die, such instruments played a submissive role in the music.  The piano was his means of self expression, conveying thought and feelings which had not previously found expression in music, and that could not have been expressed through any other instruments.  In turn tender, happy, bold, dramatic, but whatever the mood, it is not merely a mood turned into sound by the composer.  It is a mood of Chopin, expressed through the piano, his other self.

Gregorian chant is the way of devotion, songs of praise and thanksgiving, coming straight from the heart.  The single most important thing to remember about Gregorian chant is that it is liturgical music, designed to embody the holy words of Christian scripture.  It is thus filled to overflowing with spirit, thus there is the mysterious sense of presence evoked by the chants, a quality that defies explanation.

The founder of the School of Philosophy was a most remarkable man called Leon McLaren.  Speaking about the powerfull effects of music, he said "you sing and people can't stop it - the words go right home.  Repeat singing these words and they go deeper each time until eventually the words resound in the heart.  Then love awakens - that's the power of music."

And so we come to the final element in music, namely reason.  Againg, a wide range of music is available to illustrate this aspect:  some music is extremely cerebral.  Some of the groundbreaking avant jazz of Miles Davis, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett are examples of this. Much of J.S. Bach's music is almost mathematical in it's precision.

The finest music combines the three elements of movement, emotion and reason in perfect balance and harmony.

Vivaldi is a fine example of this balance.  His music is robust, linking time, place and audiences together in the present.  His music tells us that he must have been clear minded, hard working, vivacious, flirtatious and contagious!

Venice during the Renaissance was larger than life.  The stunning canvasses of painters like Bellini and Tintoretto and the great festivals and processions lent a special grandeur to life in Venice and reflected in the lavish music of the era.  The music of Giovanni Gabrielli is considered the culmination of the music of the Renaissance.  His music expressed a renewal of faith in a colourful, bold and progressive style.  He discovered harmony and was a master of the magical effects of multi voiced composition, writing for 8 - 16 voices in different registers, interwoven in infinite variety, combining the elements of space and colour.  More than any other composer, Gabrielli is associated with the innovative technique of using separate choirs either of voices or instruments, or a combination of both, spaced apart in San Marco.  His music makes one think of choirs of angels.

And then there was Mozart.  The Mozart scholar and author H.C. Robbins Landau, says that "the Mozartian legacy is as good an excuse for mankind's existence as we shall ever encounter and is perhaps a still, small hope for our ultimate survival."

The great conductor Sir Georg Solti, said that Mozart makes you believe in God much more than going to church, because it cannot be by chance that such a phenomenon arrives in this world and then passes after 36 years, leaving behind such an unbounded number of unparalleled masterpieces.

What is so remarkable about Mozart?  The fact is that Mozart alone was a miniature Renaissance of the highest magnitude.  He was born at a time when there should have been another Renaissance which never took place, and so Mozart stood alone in the entire field of the arts.

He not only understood his instruments and their capabilities, the different qualities in each register of the instruments, but he also understood the effects of all the instrumetns and their qualities combined - and all this before writing down a single note!  This quite extraordinary skill combines to produce music that is articulate, refined, elegant, delicate, witty, spiritual, lively, peaceful - inshort, a perfect blend of movement, pure emotion and reason.  Quite simply, Mozart's music is a direct reflection of the beauty and glory of the Absolute.

In conclusion, another quote from Shri Shantananda Saraswati about music.  Very simply and succinctly he says that "if the music is pure, it will have an effect.  If it's not pure, it will also have an effect."

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