Why do we have music?
Let's start with a little philosophy, I guess. I believe everything has a purpose, or else it has no reason to exist, and it ceases to exist. So all music has a purpose. We have to search and find out what that purpose is.
Think of ancient cultures... Egypt or China... music that we have record of today was played in honor of people that had power. Playing music was a sign of respect, praise, or adoration. In Africa, in the tribal period, beating on drums was a form of communication from tribe to tribe, and the same beating of drums, though they used different rhythms, was one of the key forms of communication in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and throughout European wars.
Many African cultures also sing when working, to pass time or to make the work seem a little less like work. This tradition continued in the slave trade, which led to gospel music and the roots of jazz. Now people can play jazz, and when I play jazz, I know I don't feel like I'm working at all.
Brazil and other Latin American countries bang on monstrous drums with complex patterns and techniques when it's time for Carnaval or any other festive celebration. I know a girl who's been to one, she said it really did make the festival for her.
Even pop songs have a purpose, they make life more enjoyable, and country songs pull at heartstrings, and techno makes you dance, and rock makes you go crazy. When you need to do these things, those genres are perfect aides. Like a subconscious action pill. Ooh that's scary.
Let's see... Indian cultures use music as a form of meditation, but also to honor and respect those who played music and lived before them. Indian music has such an established and strict set of rules to follow, for example, some ragas are only played at certain times of day, some notes in ragas can only be followed by specific other notes, some ragas are happy and some are sad, and all of India can tell you which raga is a sad one (Sriji says he doesn't like the music in Bollywood movies because all of the heartbreaking moments use the same raga, and the audience is so used to hearing that raga that even if they couldn't understand the language, they'd still get teary). But within this elaborate code there is still so much room for improvisation, so much, in fact, that improvisation makes up about 95% of their playing. They know scales and patterns and tihai, but there is never any planning before they walk on stage, it just flows out.
That's the beautiful thing about improv, by the way. If you're any good at it, you can create surprisingly beautiful music, maybe even music more genuinely from yourself. If that makes sense.
So, music has plenty of purposes. They can all be summed up into this: ...well. I don't know. Maybe they can't be. Music is beautiful because, though it can't be translated in to English or Spanish, it explains and portrays things that words alone cannot: beauty, power, elegance, grace, emotion, and soul.
Mysore Manjunath told us a story at a workshop I went to today, it goes like this:
--One day, a student asked his teacher, "Teacher, can music tell me exactly where to go, or what I am eating, or what 2+5 equals? Do you have a word in the musical language for your name? Can you play on your instrument the address I should send this letter to?"
--The student was being a snarky fool. So the next day the teacher the student to the ocean, which the little student was yet to see, and he said, "tell me, little one, how would you describe this place in words?"
--"It's amazing!"
--"Amazing, okay."
--"Fantastic, spectacular, magical, awesome, wonderful, beautiful!"
--"Alright," said the teacher. "Is that all the ocean is?"
--The boy was confused. So the teacher tried again. "Boy. How would you describe your mother?"
--"Sweet, caring."
--"Okay, keep going..."
--"Sensitive, loving, compassionate, beautiful..."
--"Okay. Now tell me, boy, are those six adjectives the sum of all of what your mother is?"
--The boy was shocked. He didn't really know that he was doing his mother a disservice. So he asked how he could further explain how great his mother was.
--The teacher said, "Write a song about her. If each note and each rhythm is a color, pick and choose them wisely to create a beautiful painting of her portrait. Tell me a story an example of her compassion on your fiddle. It is much easier and more honorable to portray living things and emotions and feelings and the world around you through music than through words."
M
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