Following Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen's discussion of Colin Lee's book The Architecture of Aesthetic Music Therapy in the unmoderated discussion forum of the Voices, and his article in the March issue of the same journal, I would like to give the perspective of Indian aesthetics on music.
The fact that Lee thinks the structure of music deserves more attention in music therapy work and research caught my attention in Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen's initial discussion. And also how music inspires a person (the personal) from my own musical life panorama. The fact that the personal experience come from the impersonal (the worldly experiences come from the spiritual) is a theme common to all cultures of the world, of which India is probably the one which has given much thought processes. Indian philosophy has dealt with it in detail and Indian aesthetics has stemmed from Indian philosophy but with its own identity and beauty and originality. Music is spiritual in India, and the spirituality of music inspires the living organisms and awakens the dormant spirituality in them, and this awakening is called inspiration by the modern thinkers. And it is these experiences of inspiration that we call our personal experiences, or in music therapy language, our musical life panorama. But if the music had no structure, if it were not beautiful in itself, if it had not touched our hearts by its beauty and emotional content, we would never have had those inspiring moments. The more complex and beautiful and fascinating the music is, the more deeper, richer and subtler it becomes and only then it becomes soulstirring and such music is very very rare and precious. It is not the common music which each and every one of us can make and sing, but it is the one each and every one of us listen to in rapturous attention, forgetting ourselves in absolute wonder. This is what Lee's patient was trying to articulate when he said that he could not handle that complicated music but it had inspired him. The duty of a musician is to make such deep, aesthetic, universal and spiritual music. Only then he can inspire the universe, and give peace to all. The society is benefited by that kind of aesthetic music. When such music and the aesthetic sense of such music, comes into the therapy room with the therapist, along with love for humanity and respect for "life" (and hence for the client) he gives a chance for responding to the music in an aesthetic way, to borrow Merethe Vadstein Welle's words.
One point that I wish to point out is that Pei-Ju—Tu's and Wolf's patients were old and demented or having psychiatric problems who could not deal with such complicated or complex music. And that was the precise reason for their liking of the simpler music. I too have such patients with me and I use the most common and the least complicated music, and sometimes even nursery rhymes to elicit the necessary emotions in them. But, then we are talking about the "relative" aesthetics of a mentally challenged or demented individual and not of the aesthetics of music at all. A music therapist should have a perfect aesthetic sense so that he can be flexible in every situation.
More the aesthetic sense and the flexibility, more the psychological knowledge and musical effects on emotions, the therapist becomes more equipped with the impersonal to bring about the personal change in humanity and in his clients.
In Indian music the ecstasy of a musical experience (which may be called an inspiration in simpler language) is equivalent to yogic experience of Brahma (God) one gets in the deep meditation (samaadhi). Hence it is described as naadalayayoga a type of immersing in ecstasy of God through the yoga of music/or sound. For the readers of the international forum I would like to share some of the peculiarities of Indian aesthetics.
According to Indian aesthetics, genuine art is not made but is a spontaneous flow from the heart filled with rasa. The great artist is also the great art critic. The artform includes diction, versification, and music is determined by inspiration and the laya is important since it determines the meaning of the utterance.
Rasa is the source of inspiration for an artist and a listener.
The wordmeaning is the essence or more simply, the taste. The first and foremost artist/poet/composer/singer in Indian aesthetics is God and the Upanishads describes God as Rasa itself. He is both the rasa (the experience of supreme bliss or ananda) and the one who experiences the rasa (the rasika). To get the artistic aesthetic experience (rasaanubhava) the artist has to be unselfish, disinterested in ordinary life dualities, objective, capable of contemplating life experiences without being affected by them. The artist embodies the emotions of life recollected in a state of tranquility. Thus art communicates not the emotions but emotions of an emotion. There is peace and delight in the process which is universalized (impersonal) individual (personal) experience. Pain, pleasure and pathological consequences of stress and anxiety occur due to struggles in life for personal gains of pleasure, power, possessions etc and such personal stresses and strains cause diseases (which the Indian science and art calls samsaara or diseases due to ones own actions). Artistic aesthetics should not awaken such personalized excitement or depression which were the actual causes of the diseased state. It should give peace of mind, tranquility and enjoyment in life as a divine blessing, it should take the patient beyond the dualities of life and hence music as an artform takes the impersonal divine blissful rasa as more important and giving such music is the best method for therapy. Spiritual delight or ecstasy (experience of Brahma) and artistic delight or ecstasy (experience of rasa) are thus considered as equivalent in Indian aesthetics and philosophy. They are called twins. Spiritual bliss is jagrathsushupthy (awakened dreamless deep sleep) while aesthetic musical bliss is jagrath swapna (awakened, dreamy sleep) a waking dream or a vision as Keats put it. The artistic imagination of a musician (prathibha) is a kind of vision (drishty or perception or darshana) which see the world in a different way and thereby transforms it. By his art the artist creates a new golden world, while ordinary people see only a brazen dry world of duality around and get stressed. The artist gives concrete shape to his world through words and rhythms, and melody. It is in an inspired state of impersonal ecstasy that an artist chooses the words, the order of the words and rhythm and the melody. Rather, it is not the artist, but the inspired state which chooses for him the words and the melody. Thus the artist is between the heard and the unheard, the seen and the unseen, allowing the ecstatic state (Brahma or God) to choose the art for him. When such art flows out from the impersonal in the artist, the listener proceeds from the heard to the unheard, from the seen to the unseen, in a reverse order and recover the artist's experience. This is done through a sensitive response to the suggestive power of the heard sounds /the words/the melody. The artist and the listener have to achieve an identity (thanmayeebhava) and hear with the inner and outer ear, feel, think and respond together. Then the bliss of rasa is perfect. Suggestion (dhwani) is a link between words (the heard -or the sruthy) and the seen (visualized/perceived-darsan).
In the uttered/heard music there are three elements: (1) expression, (2) suppression, (3) impressions. Comprehension means comprehending not only the grossly expressed meaning, but also of the hidden or suppressed subtle meanings in the text and the overall impressions from every possible meanings thus suggested. More than denotation, the connotative, suggestive meanings, and the rhythmic repetitive flow of words help us to get the experience. Dhwani (suggestions) functions as both denotative and connotative meanings and the right response help us to make a hermeneutical leap. The beautiful words /thoughts/melodies coming out of a heart filled with ecstatic bliss clothes itself with beautiful coverings (aavarana) without any conscious effort from the part of the poet/musician. And the listener without any efforts visualize and enjoys the beauty of it. Dwani (suggestions) is the soul of art and is related to meaning. Meaning is classified under denotation, indirect indication by metaphor, sphota or meaning of the utterance as a whole and only through suggestion can great art be expressed. The creative and analytical music therapy of the modern music therapists utilizes some of these aspects of ancient Indian aesthetics.
Rasanishpathy (creation of rasa) is by combination of three factors. Bharathamuni one of earliest writers on Indian aesthetics calls them as vibhava, anubhaava and vyabhichaaribhaava.
Vibhaava: These are secondary factors which might excite our feelings and hence are personal. Characters or dialogues in a drama, words in a music, etc., may elicit old memories in our life associated with a particular type of music. This is what we call eliciting the musical life panorama of a patient to get a diagnostic as well as therapeutic response from patients. This is important for a music therapist since he/she should know the musical background of the person to be treated, and also it elicits a positive response of interest from the patient which itself has healing properties. The settings, like seasons, gardens, fragrance, moonlight, seeing near and dear ones, hearing their voices etc can also elicit the same response so that vibhaava is only a secondary element .The MLP of different individuals differ.
Anubhaava: The effects of the emotion that develop the main sentiment are called anubhaava. The main sentiment or emotion we want to evoke is love. The emotion of love is sometimes expressed by some people as anxiety, anger, depression, etc. (possessiveness included) and when such emotions become extreme stress and strains of life increases and diseases occur. If on the other hand, love is expressed as loving concern and compassion for the entire creation, tranquility and peace are experienced by the individual and by the people around such individual, and this impersonal love for humanity touches everyone's heart. Music of ancient India considered this as the healing power and created music of such nature. The divinity in the impersonally aesthetic universal love and of music was appreciated by all Indian aesthetics and philosophies. The bliss is against a background of peace (shaanthi), absence of mental agitation, disturbances and stress or anxiety. What actually happens is that apart from secretion of the endorphins from the neurons, and the alteration of the beta to alpha and theta waves during such peaceful, melodious music, the human brain is also having a gate control mechanism of all pains caused by samsara, through the divine intervention of music. This cognitive value of art as a controller of pain and pleasure is recognized not only by Bharathamuni but also by later aestheticians like Abhinavaguptha. Others like Bhaamaha considered Rasa as an ornament (alamkara) to music. Dandin thought lucidity, sweetness, richness and grandeur gives good art its properties. But it was Anandavardhana's dwani (suggestion) which gave perfection to Indian aesthetics. Rasa can be expressed only through suggestions. It can never be explained or spoken by direct speech. Just like the experience of God, which is beyond words. Which is impersonally personal and universal, music also is impersonally personal and divine. It is this nature of good music which heals. The music therapist has to select and create such good music and act as an intermediary in the will of God, in right earnest. The barriers to realization of rasa experience are the selfish, personal and dual feelings of the daily life and to get over them, and realize the transcendal /spiritual bliss the artist/musician develops a rare type of cognition similar to yogic wisdom and realization in samadhi. The nearest to it in western language may be the sublime state (loginus: in the treatise of the sublime)
Table 1. Nine rasa in Indian aesthetics
| Rasa | Dominant State | Temperamental |
|---|---|---|
| 1.Shantha | Tranquil, peaceful Impersonal love of a yogin/of God |
Physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual health. |
| 2.Erotic | Personalized passionate love 2 types. 1 in separation. 2.in union. | Paralysis of faculties of cognition/sensations |
| 3.Comic | Mirth, laughter | Perspiration |
| 4.Pathetic | Sorrow | Hairs stand out, body trembles. |
| 5.Furious | Anger | Change of voice, mental disturbances |
| 6.Heroic | Energy | Trembling of body, hands, etc. |
| 7.Terrible | Terror | Change of colour |
| 8.Odious | Disgust | Weeping, anxiety |
| 9.Marvelous | Astonishment | Fainting |
In healing music the impersonal, tranquil state of physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual health is the goal. And it is this rasa which is ideal for music therapy. The sentiment of love in separation from the God (divine partner) with an optimistic yearning for reunion with Him, is used. The serenity, the sweetness, the satisfaction, the delightful, ecstatic graceful movements and words and rhythms of melodious Indian music has a structure best suited for this purpose. In some special occasions It also uses the heroic sentiments with energy as its base, and presence of mind, perseverance, diplomacy, discipline, strength, reputation for truth and righteousness, patience, charitable disposition and heroism. This is for energizing the system. The other rasas are used on stage performances by dramatic personnel and dancers but not by musicians. Because music is always for healing and peace and love. Anaesthesia is for easing the pains. Aesthesia is experiencing the bliss. Seemingly opposing words. But they are two sides of the same coin for a music therapist. With the aesthetics of musical bliss, music therapist numbs or blocks the pains and eases the pains.
Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen's essay, with its soul-searching questioning of what aesthetics really is and the resulting myriad implications on the practice of music therapy, is truly stirring. I myself have often wondered what makes the music of music therapists distinct from that of other musicians, and what gives music itself such universal potency that "so many people have a favourable opinion of music therapy even before they have learned anything about how it functions" (Bergstroem-Nielsen, 2006).
I am especially intrigued by the need of every music therapist to reconcile his or her personal conception of what is aesthetically effective with the client's own aesthetic conception. A large part of the honor of the profession lies in putting the needs of the client first, yet attending to our own needs is a necessity as well, ultimately. After all, use of simple, "ordinary" music - music that is often effective among populations with dementia or developmental delays, for example - has the potential to put the therapist on the fast-track to burnout. The music therapist has to be creative on so many different levels, and among them is how he or she does what is most appropriate and effective for the client musically while maintaining an energized passion: passion for making a difference in the life of the client, of course - but also passion for how this difference is being made musically. During my first semester as a graduate music therapy student at Lesley University, I have wondered, and sometimes even worried, about how I can best serve others as a music therapist without sacrificing my musicianship and my own aesthetic sensibilities. Perhaps I have run the risk of sounding self- and not client-centered by saying this. I am confident, though, that as I continue in my academic and clinical enrichment, new creative avenues will open through which I can excitedly embrace, utilize, and continue to nourish my unique musical identity and, consequently, be more present for and helpful to the client than I ever could have been otherwise. In short, I believe the author's statement that "our practical musicianship is a crucial part of that which we are offering" (Bergstroem-Nielsen, 2006) should hold immense importance for music therapists of every kind, lest we lose our identity as music therapists and, I daresay, our credibility as professionals.
Bergstroem-Nielsen's concluding remarks about the compatibility of aesthetics and plurality are quite thought-provoking as well. Indeed, aesthetic qualities cannot be absolute or completely unified, especially in a cross-cultural perspective. I am reminded of Suvarna Nalapat's response to the article, which expounds upon music therapy practices through the Indian aesthetic tradition, in which music is spiritual: not personal or individually contrived but, literally, of God. This ideology is elaborated through discussion of rasa, "the source of inspiration for an artist and a listener" (Nalapat, 2006). What I find particularly striking here in light of Bergstroem-Nielsen's discussion is a chart Nalapat provides of the nine rasa of Indian aesthetics. The first, "shantha," marked simply by holistic well-being through states of tranquility and peace, is what the author considers "ideal for music therapy," yet I cannot help but take notice of another rasa, "pathetic," associated with a state of sorrow that manifests itself through trembling and raised hairs (Nalapat, 2006). On a musical level, such a "chill response" has been documented in Western neurological research as evidence of a peak affective experience that is often positive (Zatorre, 2003, 11-12), and these peak experiences have served as vehicles for healing in various approaches to music therapy such as the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (Bonny, 2002, 48-50). All this is to say that in certain instances, aesthetic ideals within separate contexts fail to coalesce, coexisting only at a distance from one another - but coexist they do. Arguing that one musical aesthetic is more valid than another would be as vain as arguing that red is more colorful than blue!
Ours is a discipline with a spectrum of approaches and perspectives, and there is beauty in the uniqueness and usefulness of each one. I share the excitement Bergstroem-Nielsen expresses in his closing remarks, and I too would like to think some beauty has yet to be unearthed within the aesthetic realm of music therapy.
References
Bergstroem-Nielsen, C. (2006). The importance of aesthetics as a dimension in music therapy activity. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved November 17, 2007 from https://normt.uib.no/index.php/voices/article/view/241/185
Bonny, H.L. (2002). Music and consciousness: The evolution of Guided Imagery and Music. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.
Nalapat, S. (2006). Indian aesthetics in music therapy - The personal and impersonal. [Contribution to Moderated Discussions] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved November 18, 2007 from http://voices.no/?q=content/indian-aesthetics-music-therapy-personal-and...
Zatorre, R.J. (2003). Music and the brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 999, 4-14.
I believe that we live in a society that lives on aesthetic judgment, whether we are aware of it or not. Aesthetics examine what is beautiful, fun, exciting, boring, disgusting, entertaining, and tragic. Aesthetics uses all of our senses; touch, smell, sight. We are able to discriminate between each of these senses. They are distinct, but work
together to create or experience aesthetics.
Aesthetics in music, specifically music therapy, as presented in Bergstroem-Nielsen's article, is what makes the music interesting. It relies on the structure, expression and the therapist. I believe it is the level of sensitivity one has for the music and for the client.
This semester, I am working at a local nursing home. I have found that aesthetics play a major role in the therapy session, whether it is for five minutes or fifteen minutes. I must structure the environment (including the therapeutic and musical elements) in a way that uses my personal experiences and love of music to foster and encourage the client(s) responses. I believe that in doing this, it creates a sense of comfort and belief for the client. It shows that I really care for him or her.
Aesthetics in music therapy are at some level different to aesthetics of music as an art form. What is rich in harmony, uses a wide range of notes and dynamics, and is orchestrated just perfectly, might not be what the client is interested in. To them it might be "boring". Music therapy aesthetics are related to the clients needs.
I agree with what Bergstroem-Nielsen has said in his article. I give him a thumbs up for putting the information out there and hope that it can be discussed further.