Introduction
Effect on body
Pitch and feeling
What is Music therapy?
Studies-West and India
What is Raga?
Ragas and Moods
What is Rasa?
The Expression
Responses
Music and Ayurveda
Role of Rhythm
Melodies and Moods
Ancient Literature
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What is Music Therapy?
Music has the power to access deep emotions. Healing is concerned with bringing the body into a natural state of balance. A blend of musical tones can lead to such a balance more easily. Musical therapy is a method of psychotherapy where a patient listens to music which affects his moods and feelings. The aim is to restore, maintain, and improve emotional, physical, physiological, and spiritual health and well-being. Music is known to affect both the mood of the patient as well as his physiological functions.
Music Therapy in the West and in India
Music therapy in the West has become quite popular as a scientifically practiced discipline and is used for children with mental or physical handicaps, learning disabilities, sensory impairments, behavioral problems and emotional disturbances. It is used in the West for child birth, pain management and stress reduction. The ageing, prisoners, drug and alcohol abusers, and the mentally ill also benefit greatly from it.
Dr.Susumu Ohno, a geneticist at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope Duarte, California has researched and found out that DNA and music might be connected. Every organism’s genes are composed of strands of DNA, which in turn are made up of four nucleotides containing the bases adenine, cytosine, and thymine, arranged in sequences that are unique for each species. In an imaginative leap, Dr.Ohno assigned musical notes to these substances – Do to Cytosine (C), Re and Mi to adenine (A), Fa and Sol to guanine (G) and La and Ti to thymine (T). Then, having assigned musical notes to each base, Dr.Ohno chose a particular key and timing, as well as the duration of each note. The result was a melodic composition. He found that the more evolved and organism is, the more complicated is the music. The DNA of a single-cell protozoan e.g, translates into a simple four-note repetition. But the music transcribed from human DNA is much more complex. To listeners knowledgeable about classical music, these DNA – based compositions have been taken variously for the music of Bach, Chopin, and other great composers. It is unbelievable that the body, which we believe to be mere collections of chemicals, contain such uplifting, inspiring harmonies.
Not only is it possible to make music starting with DNA, one can do the reverse – start with great pieces of music, assign nucleotides to the notes, and end up with a particular type of DNA. When he transcribed a Chopin piece into a chemical notation, sections of the resulting formula were the DNA of a human cancer gene. “Recognizinbg the music latent in DNA suggests a new of looking at evolution. Mutations could be ways of tinkering with the melody, of creating new, more complex tones”, says Dr.Larry Dossey.
According to Dr.GulzarSingh of George Town University Medical Centre, Washington DC, who is working on Music Therapy, “Music has the components of healing. It leads to altered state of consciousness and changes one’s responses to illness”. “There is definitely some value in music therapy with researchers developing specific music for specific ailments”’ says Dr.Manjit Singh, neurologist at Safdarjung Hospital, in Delhi.
Dr.Rajendra Prasad, neurosurgeon at a leading private hospital, says, “Even in case of severe head injuries, the brain recognizes music and what the person is used to listening at home. Brain tracings have revealed this.”
According to Dr.Manjit Singh, music works through a group of chemicals called neuro-hormones produced in the brain. He explains that a favourite music words as a soother for the ears which results in the release of those hormones that relieve stress.
Since the 60's there have been journals on music therapy; the National Institute of Natural therapy, set up in US, also uses music for treatment of illness. In India, Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan has found that Ananda Bhairavi helps relieve hypertension, while Shankarabaranam is useful to the mentally ill However, in India, many music therapy practitioners are part spiritual healers. Ganapathy Sachidananda Swamy of Mysore, has developed his own system of music for healing, which he says soothes 72,000 subtle nerves and 14 important nadis.
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