On Art - Addresses and Writings

On Music

"A music spoke transcending mortal speech." Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book r, Canto 3.

The Veda speaks of the universe as a song of seven Chhandas-rhythms. A rhythm is a pattern of harmonious vibrations of consciousness; repetition of seven fundamental rhythms maintains the universe,—each rhythm corresponding to a plane of being. The delight which is the basis of all creation throws itself out in the form of this grand universal symphony.

Tagore in his Sādhanā writes: "Music is the highest of the arts because the singer has everything he requires within him. His idea and his expression are brother and sister; very often they are born as twins. In music the heart reveals itself immediately; it suffers not from any barrier of an alien material."

And then he expounds the Vedic idea : "This world^song is never for a moment separated from its singer. It is his joy itself taking neverending form."

But ours is not a world of harmony-much less of joy. In the very first chapter of The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo says : "All problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony." In the material world there is only "ordered, rhythmic slumber," not apparent harmony. Life is a dynamism full of disharmony and conflict. Man, the mental being, as an individual, is a divided being, the various parts of his being-the intellect, emotions, passions, desires-are in constant conflict. To bring about harmony within oneself and express it in life is the problem of the individual. To achieve harmony in collective life is the problem of human culture.

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The instruments of nature in man are not able to achieve this harmony. It is only by bringing forward the Soul, the psychic being, that real and lasting harmony can be established. Sri Aurobindo says: "Harmony is the natural rule of the Spirit, it is the inherent law and spontaneous consequence of unity in multiplicity" The Life Divine (p. 922).

Music is one of the arts that can help us in realising this harmony, as it is capable of bringing down the vibrations of the deeper Soul, or the Higher Self,—though, most often, the music that we hear comes from the vital plane. Outwardly, music is the harmony of sound vibrations, which corresponds to some vibration of consciousness. "Music too," says Sri Aurobindo, "is an essentially spiritual art and has always been associated with religious feeling and an inner life. But, here too, we have turned it into something independent and self-sufficient, a mushroom art." This turning away of music from its original aim and function has tended, perhaps, to a great advance in technique, and a widening of its range. But all true art must ultimately be for the spiritual development of man.

Music has an obviously soothing effect on animals and men; diseases have been known to be cured by music. A biologist of the Annamalai University has shown that music helps the growth of plants and increases the yield. Many people experience a lifting of the consciousness to a higher level by the power of music. Music tends to bring down some harmony from the higher planes and establish it here in life. At its highest it brings Eternity in fleeting Time.

While describing the growth of Savitri Sri Aurobindo refers to this art as follows :

Music brought down celestial yearnings, song Held the merged heart absorbed in rapturous depths, Linking the human with the cosmic cry.

Savitri, Book IV, Canto 2

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It expresses clearly the various functions of music: I. To bring to man's heart aspirations that are really projections from Above; 2. to merge the heart in delight, 3. to link the cry of man with that of the cosmos.

In ancient times, both in the East and in the West, music was connected with religion. And even to-day, perhaps, the most soul-stirring music in the West is to be heard in the church. Though I am not conversant with the technique of European music, I found it possible to enter into the spirit of European music. At King's College chapel at Cambridge, I had occasion to hear organ-music while a minister was practising for his choir-service. Though the music was informal, it was for me an unforgettable experience. The beautiful vault of the chapel has a noble height and the organ is fixed exactly in the middle of the chapel. It is a very big instrument played with the help of the electric current. At first the music seemed to rise from the earth and reach heaven; then, after some time, it seemed as if the music was coming down on earth from heaven, the harmonious notes were almost flooding the earth atmosphere. I could identify many notes of Indian melodies in it. That this soul-stirring music had the power to touch the collective soul with deep aspirations evoking genuine devotion was quite obvious. I heard afterwards that the choir on Fridays draws crowds from all over the neighbourhood.

Apart from religious music the concerts that are given in the big cities of Europe are very impressive. European music is richer than Indian in the volume of sound, in the wide range of its scale and in timbre. Instruments like the 'cello, the piano, and the violin allow it a range of octaves impossible for the human voice. These concerts are impressive by the powerful vibration they create, vibration pulsating with beauty and harmony. Sometimes they bring down sound patterns of cosmic harmony from the vital plane. The audience helps the artists by its semi-religious attitude towards music. The average

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European, who is generally not open to direct spiritual experience, is able to rise to a plane of harmony and peace, of beauty and self-forgetfulness, for the time being, in some of these concerts. In the midst of the general materialistic outlook, music to the average European is a convincing demonstration of the profound effect of the imponderable on man and things. I am convinced that music is one of the secular channels through which the mass in Europe can get a glimpse of spiritual experience. If music can convey a high spiritual or some deep psychic state the audience would surely be able to receive something of it.

Indian music, compared with the European, is poor in symphony, but it has developed a remarkable range of melodies. Each melody is a fixed pattern of rhythm having fixed musical notes in an ordered scale of ascent and descent. But this fixed scale does not limit the scope for original improvisation by the artist which becomes his free self-expression. Having mainly to depend on melody Indian music developed subtleties of vocal notes—it arrived at twenty-two recognised musical notes called "intervals" in an octave, while Western music has twelve.

Indian high-class music is meant to be sung in a hall for a small select audience. The temple music is meant for the mass. The highest aim of the art of music in India is to reach the Brahman-the Infinite;

The wide world-rhythms wove their stupendous chant To which life strives to fit our rhyme-beats here Melting our limits in the illimitable, Turning the finite to infinity.

Savitri, Book I, Canto 3.

To melt the limits of human being and to "tune the finite to infinity"—is what music can achieve.

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