Touching a Chord!
This is a difficult topic to write home about, however I will try and touch upon a few vivid examples where ‘resonance’ is the essential element in certain facets of our lives.
One of my old friends had posed an inquiry as to whether melody of a song in a particular language when resembles one in another language can it be called inspiration? Let me let loose my trail of thoughts from this trigger!
When music is said to be an ‘Universal Language’ it actually does not mean the language part, much less so; rather it is the tune or the way it is being rendered by a musician. In ‘Sangeet Ratnakar’ by the 13th century musicologist Sarangadeva – who has extensively written on north Indian as well as south Indian style of classical music, said in his texts, “Geetang Vadyang tatha Nrityang trayang Sangeetamuchyate” to define that Sangeet or Music (the nearest English word in meaning) has three elements together viz. the singing, the instrument at play and dance. While accepting this definition even beyond the ‘classical’ genre one would notice that there is a basic element at work in all three, which is “vibration” – only that it is not any sort of vibration but an organized and structured one.
In physics classes during school years we had learnt about sound and resonance. The simplest explanation of resonance is that when something vibrates and makes or forces another object to vibrate in the same frequency – it is called resonance. From this physical science approach we can easily say that all three elements in “Sangeet” – the singing, the playing of instrument and the dance create certain vibration which reverberates specific part in a listener. As we get attracted to particular music – not withstanding the lyrics in it, though it enhances the “feel” factor through meaning in words understood through the brain -- it is essentially the “soothing” effect of the music that attracts us. This happens through resonance. The vibrations in certain organized frequencies in the music makes something inside us to ‘resonate’. Now what is this something inside us? Before coming to it, let me say something more about the elements in music. There are two things which effect us, either singularly or together: the tune (which is sung by a voice or played by an instrument) and the rhythm or the beat – be it a percussion instrument or be it an electronically crated beat. Both these tune and the beat together create certain frequency in vibration which in a way takes us into an “attraction” just like a magnetic field created around us. In extreme levels it takes us into a trance like state of being!
In the history of human civilization music always remained an integral part due to such magnetism that it creates, almost like an addiction. Different socio cultural regions get affected by either the tune or the beat or both. We observe that in most African and aboriginal music the rhythmic “beat” gets more importance. Whereas other cultures such as Middle eastern or Indian subcontinent the tune or way of playing or singing a tune might get more importance. However it also would depend as to what genre of music we are talking about – classical, folk, light classical such as Ghazal or a Mridangam (a percussion drum) recital for that matter. As far as the ‘sur’ (in Hindi and some other Indian languages) or ‘swar’ (in Sanskrit) or ‘note’ (in English) is concerned, it vibrates with certain frequency. There are several ‘swar’ or ‘notes’ in Indian as well as Western style music. Each of these musical note has a fixed frequency, for instance Sa: 240 Hertz, Re: 270 Hertz, Ga: 300 Hertz and so on in pure or “shudh” form. In the same way, for Do, Re, Me, Fa etc in Western style too has certain fixed frequencies. These frequencies when sung or played in certain organized order, they create an effect through resonance which is felt inside of us. Something inside our physical body gets affected by this vibration.
In my take, it is the “heart” (and could not be the brain) in human body which primarily gets this soothing feel. Which is why in different mood a person remains, gets attracted by a song or tune befitting to his mood at that point in time. The heart feels the music due to the resonance affected on it. One might have noticed how in a musical recital, particularly in Indian classical music performances, an external ambience is created in the concert hall through good smelling incense and soft lighting etc. to “create” a mood for the occasion. This is purposely done so that the audience’s heart gets tunes towards the recital and becomes more receptive for a maximizing effect through ‘resonance’.
My conviction that it is the heart and NOT the brain which reverberates and feels a melody is because even in worship of God through different means specially where music gets used as a tool sought to build a telepathic relation of some sort with the Creator by the created, it is through the heart and not the mind or the brain in our human body. The whole phenomenon of Bhaktivaad (reaching out to the Supernatural Being though devotion, attachment, faith or love) in God Realisation music gets an uppermost importance as a medium. Also many a times we observe that such devotional singing is done in groups, where resonance in fact gets better effected in the whole group as if all members in the commune becomes like one voice trying to reach out to the Eternal Being!
This is exemplified by various types of musical worship techniques. In addition to the Indian styles of Bhakti singing such as Bhajan (common style in Hindi), Borgeet (a style developed by Vaishnavite saint Sankardeva in Assam), Shabad Kirtan (developed by Bhai Mardana, one of the earliest follower of Guru Nanak Dev). In Christianity particularly the Catholic sect uses music as one of the means to reach out to the Almighty. Psalms and hymns in choir singing are done in Catholic churches in congregation. Early period of Christianity however did not have any record of such singing which is why other Christian groups calling themselves restorative churches completely forbid use of music in their Churches while some others do it only with human vocals without musical instruments. In Islam too there is no specific text in the Qur’an forbidding music as such, but due to the belief’s stress in maintaining a form of worship which is ‘complete submission’ to God without use of any sort of medium including music -- which is taken as a distraction from concentration in worship rather than being a helpful medium – the purists do not use it. However a branch from within Islam called Sufism takes the musical route which manifests in the Swirling Dervish in the middle east or the Zikir (a wrecked form from Dhikr in Arabic meaning “remembrance” – a devotional act in Islam). Similarly in Judaism Klezmer is lavishly sung in synagogues which find its origin from early Biblical era. Klezmer are full of melodious singing in group and are largely influenced by Romanian music. In orthodox Buddhism there is no place for music as it is seen as an earthly thing creating ‘moh’ or attachment to worldly existence rather than a search for pure state of Buddha. However in later periods the Buddhists started integrating “chants” – a form of musical deliberation for memorizing religious texts which many a times includes dance as well. This much would be enough to understand an intrinsic relation of various faiths which use ‘resonance’ as the primary tool to reach out to the Supernatural Being.
On a more earthly affair, a melodious song also effects a romantic or a broken heart very easily due to the resonance that effects it in that state of romance or sadness in the heart. It is often noticed that when a person falls in love he or she is easily attracted by soft melodious songs during that phase of being in love or yearning for love!
The melody in music is often built with ‘komal swar’ or flattened notes (in western style) which lend a lilting effect to the overall tune of a song. In the Indian style, music has been so over-encompassing that in the classical traditions the Ragas (particular combination of notes sung at specific times in a day or night for maximum resonance effect) are personified in imagination as some sort of spiritual personas as Raga (male) and Ragini (female)!
With this backdrop of a musical canvas I will now try to answer my friend’s query. If the melody of a song resembles another (irrespective of the language of the lyrics) it could be an inspired creation where the main tune is taken but twisted entirely to differentiate from the origin. Many of our musicians from ages have been doing it, which we call ‘inspiration’. As for some others who do exact copy of the origin in all its nuances, we must call is ‘perspiration’!
No comments:
Post a Comment