Music

It is impossible to take away music from our lives. Music has always been the part of human lives. It is very difficult to find the exact time of the origin of music. Music was with humans from time immemorial onwards. It started as folk songs and then advanced into many types. What is music? And what is music to us? Perhaps these are the two most important questions which we all thought about. The first question resembles a scientific inquiry, which is objective while the second one is perfectly subjective. In this article, I am just trying to answer these questions.

What is Music?

Let us see some definitions about music. According to "The American Heritage Dictionary (Second College Edition)" music is "The art of organizing tones in a coherent sequence so as to produce a unified and continuous composition"

Larry Austin (composer) defined music as "Music is wanted sound." Another definition of music, defined by Eliott Schwartz is, "Music is the organization of sound and time." Lots and lots of definitions are given to music. But intuitively, deep down in our heart, we know that these definitions don't satisfy the question of what music really is. Nature provides us with music. In fact, in each and every aspect of life, there is a possibility of potential music that could be discovered. Maybe, that is the reason why music became advanced through time, or maybe human beings had grown to grasp the advanced forms of music. 

As we can see there are several definitions associated with music, which will not truly define the depths of what music really is. It is definitely difficult to understand music objectively, rationally. Music could well be understood through the heart than through the brain. We understand well about the effects of music on us than about what music is.

What is music to us?

I think it is better to ask about what music is not to us rather than what music is to us. Even if a person is as extreme as to be not receptive to any kind of music, when he will be in love, he definitely will be inebriated with music. Love and music are connected. Spirituality and music are connected. Everything that got to do with our soul is connected with music. 

Love is spirituality to the common man. It is the same. And music is a way to attain both. It touches the soul and when touched we get illumined. We will not be the same anymore. Maybe we could even say that we got a rebirth to a new life. This important is music to our lives.

There is no musician in this world who is not touched by the essence of his own soul, spirituality. And there is no spiritual person who is not inebriated with music. That is the reason why almost all great religions include music. Religion is a mix of music and philosophy, which is channelized way to spirituality. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God (John 1:1)," a verse from Bible, which points out the basis of sound and music. In Hinduism, there is a theory that the whole existence is formed from the sacred syllable "om." Islam being a multi-ethnic religion, the musical expression of its adherents is vastly diverse. There are several kinds of music in Islam. Sufi songs are a kind. Sufism is the inner esoteric dimension of Islam.

Every human being, irrespective of caste, creed, gender or any kind of differences experiences the automatic movement of their limbs along with the rhythm. Everyone dances with music. Everyone appreciates music. Everyone lives with music. In fact, we could even say that music is a phenomenon which destroys the nonsensical discrimination created by the narrow-minded understanding of people.

As a conclusion, I would say that it is better to enjoy with music, dance with music, play along with music and to live with music rather than to try to discover music rationally and objectively.