“The meaning of music is intrinsic and lies within itself. It can be extracted only through an act of musical understanding and not by an assignment of values of the kind provided by a semantic theory.” — R. SCRUTON, Aesthetics of Music
Musical intelligence allows a listener or a performer to discern or interpret nuances of meaning hidden in various musical ingredients viz., pitch, note, loudness (amplitude), texture, timber (tone colour), rhythm, melodies, metrics, harmony, pattern, agogic etc., and their almost infinite arrangements — inclusions and exclusions, permutations and combinations, and their play with pauses or silence. It also allows them to create such metrically arranged pitched sequences as a means of communication with themselves or with others. Linguists have found that certain contours are apparently universal such as the rise in pitch for questions.
Singing notes, adhering to a pitch all demand the activation and involvement of mind and intellect. Music is thus a training ground towards exercising the mind.
Music and IQ
36 students took a standard intelligence test after listening to either silence, a relaxing guided imagery tape or Mozart. After the period of silence, the average score was 110. This was 111, after the period of guided imagery tape. The score was significantly higher after listening to Mozart: 119. It is indeed, strange to note that even the people who had expressed their dislike for Baroque and classical music had scored high in all these tests! It was concluded by Frances Rauscher, who conducted this study that listening to complex, non-repetitive music that of Mozart may stimulate neural pathways, which are essential for the process of thinking.
Rauscher also used the same experimental designs to study other genres of music such as Philip Glass and other highly rhythmic dance pieces. She, however, noticed no increase in the listener’s IQ level.
Spatial Intelligence and Spatial Reasoning
Spatial intelligence, which is crucial in higher brain functions like chess, mathematics, music etc., is the ability to see the visual world accurately, to form mental images of the physical objects and to recognize variations in objects. There are reports that listening to Mozart increases spatial scores of high school and college-level students on IQ tests. Researchers of University of California at Irvine have concluded that simply listening to the classical music of Mozart can enhance spatial reasoning performance. In yet another study, spatial intelligence was tested by projecting sixteen abstract figures similar to folded pieces of paper on an overhead screen for one minute. The exercises tested whether anyone could tell what the shapes would be like when they were unfolded. Over 5 days, one group listened to silence, another to Mozart and the third to the mixed sounds. The studies revealed that while all the groups improved their scores from day one to day two, the Mozart group was significant as its score rose 62%m compared to 14% for the silent group and 11% for the mixed sound group. The Mozart group continued to achieve the subsequent days as well.
In another study conducted by Frances Rauscher, it was also found that the spatial reasoning performance of 19 kindergarten children – who received 8 months of music lessons – far exceeded that of 15 others who were never given any music lesson. It therefore appears that all pre-school children should get an adequate dose of music – singing, playing the instruments, listening etc., which would, no doubt go a long way in developing their mental capacity as they grow up into adulthood.
The Music-Mind Nexus
Every bit of our musical experience presupposes the mind’s presence or involvement. Mind Influences music; in turn, mind gets influenced by it! As music and mind exhibit identical polarity or pattern, it is considered analogous to the human psyche. It is a deeply felt reflection of one’s inner core of existence, where all the life’s disappointments, regrets and traumas—accumulated over the years are encrusted.
While referring to them, music performs magic: the pain becomes pleasurable, agony, ecstatic and melancholy, sweet. While in the Western classical system, music is formed by ‘intellectual’ melodies with ’emotional’ beats, in the Indian classical system, it is quite the reverse. Both Hindustani and Carnatic systems opt for emotional melodies (ragas)- giving pre-eminence to bhava, but with highly logical and mathematically precise (‘intelligent’) beats. In the Carnatic system, I have struggled (in vain!) with the strict acrobatics involved in combining the emotional Carnatic raga with the analytical beat, often ending up with a ruddy right thigh, which is used to keep the measures with the constant pounding by the right palm and fingers.
Yoga and Music: The Products of Mind
Mind is a peculiar phenomenon. Kabir, in one of his songs, has observed this strange quality of mind with which we identify ourselves. Referring to his experience with divinity, Kabir says:
“when I was there, the divinity was nowhere
And when the divinity was there, I was nowhere;
The Lane of Love is too narrow,
There’s room only for one!”
In both the systems of yoga and music, the mind initiates and participates in the process. In fact, without its involvement, it is next to impossible to experience the fruits of either yoga or music. But the peculiarity is that as one progresses after initiation, the mind (along with its associated ego) is exterminated automatically. It’s like burning off of the ladder after one has used it for climbing!
This happens in both the systems. The musician, while singing, finds himself merging into those musical vibrations, alapanas, alankaras, kalpana swaras etc., which emanate from him automatically and involuntarily! As far as the yogi is concerned, he’s virtually off his head, as he merges into his consciousness in such a way that he doesn’t know whether he is inside it or outside, as, thanks to yoga, inside becomes outside and outside, inside! He is free of mundane worries, having tasted the ‘blood’ of vibrational bliss!
In a way, the mind, which has created the systems of music and yoga, eventually gets destroyed. No doubt, the destruction of mind is a cause celebre here for the sadhakas as shedding off his ego, he starts basking in vibrations that re-energize him, elevating his consciousness to the highest levels possible, where bliss is inseparably fused with reality and consciousness. (Sat-Chit-Ananda)
This article was published in Nadabrahmam – October 2011, Pages 25, 26
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, August 23, 2021