Music is an intrinsic part of every one of us �
irrespective of the fact whether we are singers or listeners. In the words of
Kabir, �Nada is a music which plays in the body without strings.� Rhythm is
the first organizing structure in the infant�s experience. Modern science
acknowledges that pulse and rhythmic patterns found in our heartbeat, in our
breathing and in our body movements are just a few indicators of rhythms with
which all our lifeprocesses are intrinsically linked. There is an inherent
rhythm everywhere � in and around us. If we could focus our attention, our
body rhythms become transparent to us. We could feel how our breathing cycles,
heart beats and our baro-receptor feedback loops are made of resonance and
rhythms which simply go on and on, till the Death deprives us of them.
As far as melody goes, it is built in our laughter,
cry, screams or songs � all following again a fixed rhythmic pattern. A whole
range of emotions could be captured and communicated through a wide range of
rhythms, tones and melodies drawn from diverse cultural milieux and musical
styles, schools and systems.
As in the case of any biological system, the nature
too is made of cycles and rhythms: seasons change in a cyclic manner and life
functions in a cycle of births, growth and death : A cycle without a start or an
end. Within the human body itself, lifeprocesses are carried out in a pure
rhythmic fashion. Various kinds of rhythms viz., endogenous rhythm, muscular
rhythm, pain wave rhythm, pulse-breath frequency, rhythms involved in the
processes relating to blood circulation, digestion, respiration, sleep, etc.,
are well known to the World of Science and Medicine.
All biological processes including our breathing,
food-intake and excretion, energy exchange, metabolism, circulation, action of
nerves, reproduction � all follow a basic pattern in an orchestrated manner.
It is interesting to note that scientists have discovered a musical symphony in
the process by which chromosomes condense and segregate during mitosis (nuclear
division). It is likened to a musical symphony produced by an orchestra in which
several instruments working individually or in unison make an attempt to produce
a collective piece of elegance and beauty � as one may come across in a Bach
or a Beethoven, in a Mozart or a Mendelssohn. As a conductor ensures that each
musical instrument enters the symphony at the appropriate time, with a wave of
the baton so the conductors of the so-called mitotic symphony called
�checkpoints� prevent errors in chromosome segregation that can lead to
disease such as Down�s syndrome or cancer. (David Cortez and Stephen J Elledge
2000).
"Music
exalts each Joy Allays each Grief Expels Diseases Softens every Pain Subdues the
rage of Poison and the plague�." -John
Armstrong
Source
- Mystic India
|