The Spirituality of Music

Music is generally known and perceived as a phenomenon of sound, as a well-arranged construction of organized sounds created so as to appeal to the aesthetic consciousness of man. The sounding artefact, however, is but the outer body of the musical reality. And this outer cover would be utterly useless and dead if it were not indwelled by a living soul, by the driving energetic force which enlivens the sounding structure and fills it with sweetness – with the sweetness of music. Of what kind is this innate spirit? Which is the spiritual essence of music? What is it that turns sound into music, and music into an experience of overwhelming bliss? It is joy – the joy that is born out of the union of two imaginative forces in the cosmic cycles of creation. It is joy nourished by the quest of universal love, joy that is established ever again in a continuous process of losing and attaining. It is joy that is infinite in its nature but finite in its revelations. It is joy that manifests itself in beauty and carries at its core the spark of intrinsic harmony from which arises all creativity – and all music. Joy is thus the quintessence of music, the inner spirit that qualifies a procession of notes as a melody, the vital soul that transforms an array of sounds into music". Much has been written about music as a sounding reality, about its theory and structure, technicalities, special characteristics and underlying meaning. Musicological studies are of essential significance for the understanding of music in its structural, historical and cultural context, but such inquiries can never reach beyond the material phenomenon of music – beyond the outer body of the musical construction. The present book, however, aims at the inner soul, hence its approach towards music as a philosophical rather than physical entity. The essays are accordingly centered around music as a cosmic energy and its role and function in the universal game plan of creation. The first three chapters deal with music as such – with its inherent qualities, its dialectic disposition and its essence of infinity. The next following considerations are directed at music in relation to other cosmic energies, while the final three essays discuss music as a spiritual activity. The theoretical argument, wherever appropriate, has been enriched with poetic quotes reflecting the spirit of the bauls of Bengal, a community of mendicant singers who live their religion through music.