Human voice, or sound emanating from a musical instrument, if not contained within certain limits, can cause much inconvenience. Already, a lot has been written about noise pollution, which is adversely affecting the reflexes of those who are exposed to high-pitch sound, musical or non-musical.
Noise is of two kinds: natural and unnatural. Included in the natural category are the hissing sound produced by piercing winds, cloud thunders and the calls of birds and animals etc. We are accustomed to these sounds, which do not have any unpleasant bearing on our sensibilities. All unnatural sounds, including that of loud music, are created either by man or by his machines. These sounds, after crossing certain limits, interfere with our duly routine.
The basic measuring unit for sound is decibel. When we whisper into each other's ears, the pitch of our voices remains between 15 and 20 decibels. The level of sound during normal conversation ranges between 50 and 60 decibels and the telephone conversations fluctuate between 65 and 80 decibels. If the intensity of noise does not cross the limits of 80 decibels it does not disturb human sleep or other daily chores. Beyond that it starts creating troubles of varying kinds,
Human body organs, which can be damaged by noise: are brain, stomach and metabolism of the body. Loud noise, such as ear-splitting music, also influences human speech, causes irritation, anger and peevishness. Keeping himself within tolerable limits of sound, an individual can maintain or even increase his daily output whereas frequent exposures to loud noise can cause such ailments as blood pressure, deafness, depression, anxiety, amnesia and reeling of head.
Studies have indicated that sound can affect both human mind and body. A big explosion, a thunder or the sound produced by the collision of two moving objects creates terrifying effects on the listeners. On the other hand, sound waves generated by a single or a combination of musical instruments have a soothing effect on human mind providing peace to the mentally or emotionally disturbed individuals. The raising or lowering of the pitch also affects the minds of the listeners.
Many fables and myths about the heat producing raga deepak, the rain-inducing raga malhar and the healing ramifications of some other classical songs have been in circulation since time immemorial and are still accepted by many musicians. However, in the absence of reliable scientific explanation and empirical data, and in the light of their inability to stand to a logical scrutiny, these notions are generally dismissed as mere conjectures.
Recent findings in science laboratories have given a new lease of life to the age-old notions about the therapeutic dimensions of music. Moreover, researchers have established that sound and light waves, when fully controlled can produce such marvellous results that baffle human mind.
Can stroke victims sing their way back to normal speech? At the beginning of the decade of the 1980s after painstaking research, scientists at Boston University School of Medicine proved that they could do so. Using the newly developed Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), they proved that a patient and a doctor could sing a dialogue like two characters in an opera.
Melodic Intonation Therapy, according to researchers, takes advantage of the seeming paradox that patients with severely impaired language faculties usually retain the ability to sing the words of songs. Reason: music is processed primarily in brain's right hemisphere, while speech is a function of the left hemisphere where they sustained injury. MIT by then had proved effective in restoring speech to aphasia patients: those who, following strokes or brain injuries could not speak at all.
The process by which music creates its effect is based on the supposition that during the state of consciousness every living being has a pervading feeling in his mind. This may be a permanent or a temporary condition. When it is required to replace a particular state of mind by another set of conditions, the objective can be achieved by juxtaposing on the former the desired feeling, which should be stimulated by a stronger emotion.
This includes the determination of the extent of their development, the frequency with which the remedy should be applied and the duration of its application. All this pre-supposes a thorough awareness on the part of the musicians (practising music as a therapeutic agent) about the working of the mind of their patients as well as accurate diagnosis of the various states of their minds, which respond to music stimuli and treatment. This means a careful and painstaking study, which is backed by experience and expert guidance.
The process by which music creates its effect is based on the supposition that during the state of consciousness every living being has a pervading feeling in his mind. This may be a permanent or a temporary condition. When it is required to replace a particular (deceased or abnormal) state of mind by another set of conditions, the objective can be achieved by juxtaposing on the former the desired feeling, which should be stimulated by a stronger emotion.
The resultant feeling is known in old music parlance as rasa - such feelings as are consistent with and capable of maintaining our standard of conduct and behaviour up to the highest cultural notions of the society of which we are a part.
Jaidev Singh in his essay, 'The Concept of Rasa', has explained this phenomenon as follows:
"The connotation of rasa has four ideas: 1) sap, juice, 2) flavour, relish 3) delight, and 4) quintessence. All these four ideas are included in the word rasa as it is used in understanding its connotation as to analyse its meaning in connection with food. When we take a morsel of food, we move it about our tongue, trying to extract its sap or quintessence. While doing so we feel a peculiar relish and delight. Even so in art, where emotion is the food and the artistic consciousness is the tongue. The resulting experience is rasa".
A large number of musicians in Pakistan believe and are known to have adhered to this theory.