Music Therapy— Loose Ends Galore? 5

REAR WINDOW Music Therapy— Loose Ends Galore? With the cost of allopathic medical treatment sky- to cure illnesses. Tansen is supposed to have set things rocketing and the much-publicised side effects around him on fire by singing Deepak raga and his lady of1. many so-called miracle drugs, there is a boom in the friend quenched it by singing Megh which brought rain. citizens’ and practitioners’ interest in alternative systems Dikshitar’s Amritavarshini bringing rain to a parched of medicine, particularly those which are non-invasive and land, Punnagavarali attracting snakes, teaching Varali side-effect free. This is welcome and should normally spur alienating the disciple from the guru, and singing Ahiri systematic research into such systems and produce a viable, making the singer go hungry are some other examples of affordable system of medicines. But what is happening the belief in the extraordinary effects of music. Lalgudi is for hospitals to climb on to the new bandwagon and once narrated his experience when he visited the place prematurely start half-baked (or even unbaked) therapies where Stradivarius violins were made. The wood for and claim magical, painless cures for various diseases. The making the violins was stored in a room where music was latest entrant into this field appears to be music therapy. being constantly played in the belief that the wood would absorb the music and become more musical in quality. In M. Balamuralikrishna and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan are the West, one Dr. Tomatis claimed to have discovered reported to have been doing research on music therapy for the Mozart Effect— that listening to Mozart resulted in some years though, as far as I know, they have not formally increased brain development in children below three years published their findings. A leading corporate hospital is and that rats exposed to Mozart developed better spatial reported to have started diploma and degree courses in reasoning power and were quicker in finding their way music therapy with a Sangeeta Kalanidhi as their adviser out of mazes. [This should help pallavi vidwans to safely and applied to a university for affiliation and recognition. get out of the maze of their complicated tala-s!]. He was Significantly, they have applied to a Vedic university and able to sell thousands of cassettes of Mozart to schools not a conventional one! Is the subject ripe for a formal though most scientists disputed his claim. A question that degree and professional practice? remained unanswered was: if there was a Mozart effect, why was Mozart himself sick so often? Music therapy, accordingto one Ayurveda manual, is defined as: “The prescribed use of music and Music, it is said, has charms to soothe the savage musical2. interventions to maintain, restore and improve breast. [But it did not seem to soothe the cruel emotional, physical, physiological and spiritual health and passions4. in the breast of Nero who is said to have fiddled well-being. [What more can one ask for!] Goals of therapy gleefully after setting Rome on fire!]. It must also have include communicative, academic, motor, emotional and originated in the ‘savage’ caveman breast and probably for social skills.” Another manual defines meditation music that reason continues to influence emotions whether it and sound therapy as: “An automatic process of deep inner is to calm or aggravate them. All arts like music, dance, healing set in motion through the right combination of painting, architecture, etc. have a common quality— that sounds that resonate within and fill the space around us. of deep emotional experience of a collective consciousness Since we are the product of our environment, the sound which is social but individually and subjectively expressed. aims to treat the environment first by the chemistry of It is, therefore, possible to think of art therapy as a generic sound”. We know that sound has a physics. This is the class though music may be more popular and easier to first time we hear of a chemistry of sound whatever that try out. It is common to special schools teaching autistic may mean! children through music, dance and painting. From ancient times, not only music but even certain sounds, such as one finds in the Vedas Diseases fall roughly into the following kinds: and3. the so-called magical chants, have been believed to (a) surgical conditions have special effects not only on the listener but even on 5. the outside world. According to the Old Testament, King (b) infections David is supposed to have cured illness by playing on his (c) systemic damage / dysfunction harp. Even Hippocrates is believed to have used music (d) psychosomatic 35 l SRUTI January 2007 janbob.indd 35 1/8/2007 5:25:39 PM REAR WINDOW (e) auto-immune Ratipatipriya— improves married life; (f ) degenerative Shanmukhapriya— sharpens intellect; Art, by its very nature, is a pleasant and deeply absorbing Kharaharapriya— cures neurosis; activity and any such activity has always been known to have Sankarabharanam— soothes; a beneficial effect on the mind and its emotional state but Charukesi— rejuvenates; usually of a temporary, limited, tranquillising, positivising kind. “Music influences the mind; the mind influences Anandabhairavi— reduces hypertension, improves the body; therefore, music influences the body”— to what concentration; extent can this limited syllogism be blown up as a clinical Kalyani— dispels fear (When the king of Tanjavur protocol for major pathologies? Music perhaps will have wanted Tyagaraja to sing in his praise, the latter, instead, some positive effect in the case of (d) above though whether sang, Nidhi chala sukhama and this is evidence of Kalyani it can completely cure them is not certain. According to inducing courage, according to Kunnakudi). some doctors, (e) and (f ) have a psychosomatic aspect and certain mental states could make people more vulnerable It is simple to talk of music therapy but when one to them, but whether they can be cured by influencing the tries to pin it down in precise clinical treatment mind once the pathology has set in is doubtful. In fact, terms,9. one runs into an ocean of ambiguity, such as: today even psychotherapy is no longer a lying-on-the- l couch affair and is predominantly drug and high-tech Whereas a drug is a chemically precisely defined and imaging-based. In other words, a music therapist could be standardised product, music is difficult, if not impossible a therapist like the physiotherapist or speech therapist who to define or standardise as a product. tries to remove or alleviate an existing limited disability l A drug has a prescribed optimum dosage arrived at but does not seem to qualify to be called a doctor who can after extensive, rigorous trials. What does ‘dosage’ mean in totally cure major causative diseases. the case of music therapy— is it the frequency, amplitude or timbre, or their combined package, or the duration of Deep involvement in, and identification with, any play? activity which eclipses one’s ego has a beneficial l Is it the ‘musicality’ which is perceived which cures, or effect6. on one’s mental and emotional state. In this sense, any specific arrangement of frequencies? there can be art therapy, work therapy, play therapy and according to Osho Rajneesh, even love therapy. Playing l If it is raga therapy, how is the raga to be administered— with the grandchild can have a magical mood-lifting just as a scale or alapana, with or without gamaka-s effect on any grandparent. Does it then become a full- or embellishments, in which sthayi or speed, or as a kriti, fledged ‘grandchild therapy’? with or without tala? l A drug is a homogeneous product. A raga is not so An Ayurvedic music therapy manual gives the and different sanchara-s cover different aspects of it. following list of Hindustani raga-s and their Which phrases or sanchara-s would be most effective or beneficial7. effects / the diseases they can cure: ineffective in particular cases? Ahirbhairav— indigestion, arthritis, hypertension; l How well is music to be rendered— in other words, Bagesree— insomnia; what is the quality standard? Basant— gall bladder stones; l A drug like penicillin will act independently of the Bheemplas— hypertension, anxiety; patient who need not know what he is taking or even that he is taking it. Is it the same with music or should the Darbari Kanada— asthma; patient perceive the music being administered to him? Pooria— colitis. Should he also appreciate it? l Some phrases are common to more than one raga. If Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan gives the following these are sung, which raga is to be taken as `administered’? Carnatic list: 8. What if the therapist intends it to be one raga and the Bilahari— creates love and affection; patient perceives it as another? Will the disease be 36 l SRUTI January 2007 janbob.indd 36 1/8/2007 5:25:39 PM REAR WINDOW still cured? (T.N. Krishnan once narrated how, when music as a specific category like a sonata or a symphony, accompanying Chembai who sang Manji, he thought it and immensely more complicated if he has to recognise was Bhairavi and proceeded to do an elaborate Bhairavi and appreciate it as a raga. One music therapist is of the alapana! It took a visit to GNB for him to learn Manji). view that singing/ playing music by the patient is better than passive listening. just as in other systems of medicine, l There are differences of opinion about the scales of knowledge of medical science ought not to be necessary for raga-s and the notes permissible, and the raga-s of certain a patient to be cured.

Load more