For a physicist, sound refers to those pressure disturbances, traveling through a medium (air or water) by particle interaction. It is also recognized as a series of compressions and rarefactions. While the human audible range is measured somewhere between 20 to 20,000 Hz, the human voice range lies somewhere between 75 to 1400 Hz. The soothing deep voice can be pegged somewhere at the lower range shrilling and panic causing void comes to the higher side.
Sound and culture
Human civilization around the globe has been pegged around the sound experience. From ancient times appropriate sounds have been experimented to achieve desired results. The rites and rituals involved in traditions such as nada yoga, shamanism etc. have profusely used and appropriate sounds to elevate the level of consciousness. Festivals and festivities have included appropriate sounds to add colour and gusto. Various drums, metal, wind and string instruments have been used to achieve the desired effect. Thus, the link between sound and mind is long-recognised in all human societies.
Transforming Sound to Music
It is the mind which recognizes sound as music or noise. The source, of course, is one, that is, sound. The conjugation of mind alone can make such a distinction, usually the mind responds to ‘disciplined’, ‘regulated’ sound and considers it music. On the other hand, ‘irregular’ and ‘chaotic’ sounds are rejected by the mind as noise. Similarly, familiar sounds create certain curiosity, conjured with certain tension in the mind. Over a time of course such sounds (even if they are noisy) get accepted and are overlooked. This author had the occasion to interact with families living along the railway tracks in Mumbai (Bombay), who narrated to him that without the routine sounds of railway trains passing through, they feel uncomfortable elsewhere. Some people even stated that they cannot sleep comfortably without the noise, to which they are used to, living near airports for years.
Acceptance of `Noise’ as Music
Once we accept a sound pattern and start loving it, it can transform into music. All we need is initial acceptance and unconditional love.
However, in the majority of situations, it is the way sounds combine into rhythmic patterns that please our ears and seize our mind, while satisfying our emotional needs — such as craving for love, recognition, compassion etc. which are rarely available in a competition ridden society.
An appropriate sound-silence interplay too makes our sound experience musical. Through manipulation of sound frequencies our moods too get manipulated. We feel joyful or melancholic by this magic in manipulation. Fast tempo creates such a sensation so as to accelerate the rate of our heart heat, while slow tempo relaxes and produces a couple of yawns too.
Transforming Sound to Gestures and Mimicry
Like the mind, our body too is capable of responding to our sound experience. A particular pitch can make us raise our arms while another following frequency may make us duck our head and shrink our body frame. The frequency-following effect, known for neurologists, is thus not confined to the mind alone, but also has a certain impact on our body – whether we reveal it to others or not.
Civilizations all over the world have exploited this impact of sound on mind and body culturally. Look at the varieties of ways the sound experience is conveyed to us by musicians – through voice manipulations and through a plethora of musical instruments. And look at the way a dancer responds to sounds, coarse sounds, refined sounds, tones, microtones, fast-paced music, slow rhythms-all get responded through the gestures and mime. Thus, an ordinary sound gets transformed into glorious movements in mind and body. It is the “sound” experience, indeed.
This article was published in ‘AYURVEDA AND ALL’ – February 2008 – Pages 28, 29
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, July 19, 2021