“So Love was crown'd, but Music won the cause.
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Timotheus, to his breathing flute
And sounding lyre
Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.”
The above verses from John Dryden’s "Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music", gives a picture of the feast given by Greek ruler, Alexander the Great, after he defeated the ruler of Persia, Darius. The feast was hosted at Persepolis, the Persian Capital.
In the proceedings of the feast,
a musician Timotheus performed and is believed to have manipulated Alexander’s
emotions – from glorifying Alexander, encouraging the king to drink, changing
the tone to melancholy for the death of Darius, praising Alexander’s love
Thais, to evoking emotions of revenge that made the king and his love to set
the Persian palace on fire. Timotheus did this all with only one tool – music
which stirred various emotions of pride, love, gloom, fierceness, all of which avenged
for all the Persia's previous demolition activities against Greece. That’s the
power of music!
Music is an art of coordinating/ coordinated sounds. It is in
every aspect of our lives – in nature, lullabies, rhymes, films, etc. But it goes
more extent than just soothing the ears. Let’s discover it today, as the world
is in the vibes of celebration of International Music Day!
1.Music for therapy – Music has helped humans individually to reduce stress, elevate mood and improve a person’s overall wellbeing. Scientifically, music therapy has also evolved well over time as a proper medical way of intervention for relevant requirements like Alzheimer’s, trauma management, ASD, etc.
2. Music for breaking monotony – Many tend to listen to music while working to ensure they don’t experience monotony for long hours, focus better, escape from noisy external environments, etc. A study by Cloud Cover Music, a digital streaming firm supports the same - about 94% of 1005 respondents chose to listen to music while working.
3. Music as a medium of innovation – Right from testing new ways of ways of combining sounds, using creative lyrics, experimenting with different instruments, to introducing new techniques like beatboxing, music paves way for innovation.
4. Music as a medium of
expression – Several unconventional thing and unspoken thoughts can be expressed
with music as a medium of expression. Music has been such an authentic
conversation starter in many cases. For example, "Together Again", a song
of American singer Janet Jackson was a tribute to her friend who died of AIDS and
for all other victims of AIDS across the globe.
5. Music as a means of livelihood
– Music offers various roles of occupation for people like teacher,
musician, singer, instrumentalist, performer, etc. It also contributes significantly
to economy of nations. As an instance, quoting the reports of Hyundai Research
Institute in 2018 – BTS brings 3+ billion dollars for South Korea’s economy.
The band has added more value to Korea in many aspects like tourism, television,
language, etc.
6. Music as an identity – As
history has shown us, music is an integral part of cultures and thus in the
identity of people too. The most relevant music form that has gained great
momentum over time, the Hip Hop music is again a form of expression that voiced
out racial equality from the African Americans.
Thus, music makes man a better admirer and contributes to causes at global level. Let’s make the world be a better place and humankind more thoughtful with the universally appealing language – music, for “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” (- Plato)
