Music
_I: Music, teacher!
_AM: The most fundamental of the arts.
_I: Why is music so important to everyone? What makes it so appreciated, valued?
_AM: We can see it from many points of view, so let's start from the same place we have talked about colors: Vibration, origin of all things.
_I: Sure... If the Universe is vibration and all energy arises from vibration, of course the Universe is Music.
_AM: But understanding music as what you hear on a radio or on your phone or at a concert is quite different from what universal music is, which is more related to mathematical patterns than sound.
_I: Oh no, math…
_AM: I'm sorry, but that's how it is. As we have once said, the sacred trinity of Music is composed of Rhythm, Harmony and Melody. Understanding the three is understanding the logic of the universe.
_I: Define Rhythm.
_AM: It comes from the Greek “rein” which means “to flow.” The Universe is a constant flow, like an ocean full of positive and negative currents that follow each other consecutively, which in their interaction change the way of circulation, causing its waves to modify, creating different levels of resonance, vibration waves, arranged in different time frequencies, which in their repetition, acquire the idea of being “repetitions of flow”, what you call “rhytmós”, that is, rhythm.
_I: Like what we talked about yesterday about the wavelength, in which the body of the complete wave is the vibration and the time it takes for each concave and convex curvature to repeat itself is what is called frequency. So, those repetitions are called rhythm.
_AM: Exactly. That rhythm flows between space and time, in the Universal constant, and it maintains coherence between the different speeds and repetitions, which you know as Harmony.
_I: What is Harmony?
_AM: It comes from the Greek “harmony”, and means “agreement, concordance”; since its root, “harmós”, means to bring together, put together, connect. The universal idea of harmony is not directly related to music, but to the conglomeration of different frequencies and vibrations that are arranged among themselves without collapsing, articulating. And those parts that come together are what are known as Melody.
_I: The Melody is the parts?
_AM: It comes from the Indo-European and Greek “Melos” which means “parts, units”. On a universal level, each aspect, each vibration that comes together is a part, a unit of time and space that makes up something giving meaning. The melody is what transmits the sense of that harmonic unity throughout the rhythm. To “melos” was added the Indo-European word “aw” (to speak, to say), which derived from the Greek “aeidía”, meaning: to sing. The meaning is to speak with parts of the body, to sound in units.
_I: Let's see if it's clear to me... Rhythm is the constant flow in which patterns of vibration and frequency (space and time respectively) are repeated, in which each of these repetitions are combined with each other, articulating in coherence and order, that is say Harmony, so that the parts then obtain a logical meaning that can be transmitted through the Melody.
_AM: That's right. In music, Melody is the abstract sense, the subjective, it is the feeling, the information that reaches us and with which we relate humanly, since it is what we can relate to stories, to emotions, to thoughts and intentions. While Harmony and Rhythm are an objective and structural part of music, they are the least perceived by the conscious listener, but they are the key for the brain to love the song.
_I: Why?
_AM: Because the brain is dedicated to managing data in the form of pulses, and it only understands beauty through these electrical pulses. Thus, rhythm is the way in which information is registered in our neural network, and harmony is what allows said information to be interpreted as positive for development, since something disharmonious could be interpreted as a threat to homeostasis (the balance of internal systems).
_I: So the subject can only enjoy the melody as long as the brain feels comfortable with the harmony and rhythm.
_AM: That's right. Basically, for the brain, just as for the Universe, music is mathematical. If I say: 2×2=5, there is a part of the brain that will feel uncomfortable, because no matter how much I do it on purpose, the brain interprets that there is an error according to all the previous accumulated data. The same thing happens when in a musical measure you say: “one, two, three, four!” and before finishing saying the four the first sound begins, the numbering was marking the rhythm, if an instrument started at 3 or 5, the song would sound disharmonic, chaotic. For this reason, the pulses in the universe are arranged geometrically and mathematically, which develops the so-called “metric” and “tempo”. Just as in architecture, music needs a plane on which to develop the pillars of sound, whether in a non-tertiary binary form, these pulses of sound and silence in a repetitive constant are fundamentals of melodic sound like the foundations for a home.
_I: And what we hear is basically that math.
_AM: The human ear is capable of hearing a frequency between 20 and 20,000 hertz, that is, the number of times something can vibrate per second. These hertz are what determine the sound scales in musical terms, creating the structure of repetitions, within which the most used is the diatonic scale, (dia-tonós = beyond the extension), which divides the notes into two groups: major and minor, within what we call “the Eighth”. The measurement of hertz in this scale is given by multiplying said hertz or repetitions by 2, that is, a note vibrating at 110hz will complete its scale cycle in 220h, and the next one will be in 440h, and so on. 880hz, and continues.
_I: It's all numbers, repetitions, multiplications...
_AM: And it is those multiplications that generate the variation of what resonates, creating harmonics throughout a rhythm, it is the meter that allows objects to vibrate in order, which for the brain is a pleasure.
_I: I see…
_AM: Many animals made use of these vibration capabilities to attract each other. In the constant search to find the other part, reproduce, find balance, energy, some insects and animals of all kinds discovered that the best way to attract each other and unite in space (in case of not being seen because of their colors, or during the night), was heard. Using the sound they could emit with their throats, with their mouths and beaks, with their paws and palms, feathers or noses, they developed speech devices, creating sound boxes and vocal cords, capable of attracting attention, protecting themselves, and attracting others. own.
_I: Then the birds sang…
_AM: And humans imitated their sounds. Humans began to emulate nature, imitating all the noises, sounds and songs of other animals and elements, making them concepts, and thus words, verbs, and using vibration as a method of transmitting information. The sounds that were initially screams or grunts that attracted attention became harmonic, a kind of “singing speech.” Thus, songs were the key to unity, ceremony, tradition.
_I: Sound has united us since the beginning of time…
_AM: Enriching the soul. The words, the songs emerged from the thought, which was taken to the heart and propelled by the air from the lungs, from the chest. The energy of thought, the soul, was called by the Greeks “ménos”, coming from the Indo-European “mén” (to think, to know). The word was deformed to “mön” in European languages, which described the concept of spoken soul thought as “mön-awa”, and from there to “moúswa”. This is the origin of the word “Musa”, meaning “high thought”. The Muses were the divinities that inspired humans, the spirits that encouraged them to find the arts, grace and beauty in existence, which elevated them to another state of consciousness, awakening new ideas and thoughts.
_I: The muses inspire us... They were not existing beings in themselves, but ideas, spirits that manifested in our internal capacities.
_AM: When in Greek you refer to those things related to something, you add the suffix “-iké” or “-ikós”, which is why in Greece the idea of “Those souls and spirits that are related to the thoughts that inspire” was coined. our minds”, translated as “Musiké”, origin of the word Music.
_I: Oh, so music in itself is not related to sound, but to everything that inspires us!
_AM: Music is the door to all ideas, thoughts, emotions, needs, beliefs, it is the vocabulary of the spirit speaking with the soul and communicating to the body. The development of music from the original times was related to all areas of life, not only artistic, but survival, construction, strategy, sowing and cultivation, ceremonies, policy. Everything was a song.
_I: It reminds me of the people from Australia who talk to the universe through songs.
_AM: Yes, and like all the natives did. In the Paleolithic, imitating nature, using objects from the environment to make percussion, which led them in the Neolithic to build the first instruments. In both periods, music was directly related to life and action, and therefore, generating songs and music invited life. Conch shells, drums, strings, were developed towards the end of this period. Until then, the scale was in the rhythm of fifths, repetitions of 5 notes, while entering the time of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the 7-note scale began to be used, with more complex instruments, which gave rise to the Greek development of the zither. , the lyre, the flute, the cymbal, the cistrum... Similar forms accompanied throughout Asia, while in the Americas they would continue with the flutes and drums. In the Mediterranean, the expansions of empires and mixtures of cultures built new styles, developing religious music, sacred music, and instruments such as the organ, the guitar, and later the piano. In the same way as in the periods of pictorial art, music accompanied human inner development, reaching an exceptional point with Classical Music, which had its birth in the Baroque period, and its greatest development towards the 18th century. Going into our times, music became popular in romanticism and then in contemporary music, which brought more popular and mechanical music. industrial. The avant-garde, simplism, electronics, and the dozens of styles that emerged in globalization, were shaping the people. Music awakened ideas, revolutions, philosophies, drastic changes, wars, loves, passions, because music is the inspiration of the Universe turned into melody. It is the cosmic object made universal subject.
_I: That is, we are music... If we are the spirit living its own creation, we are composers singing their music, in an enormous symphony in the orchestra of creation.
_AM: Therefore, you must dare to discover your music. The music you listen to, the sounds that come to you, those that arise from you, those that you can create with your body or with instruments, are a vehicle of the state of your vibration, of your energy flow, of understanding how the parts come together. combine in your interior. You must listen carefully to the music you like beyond the melody to understand what your brain is looking for in them, the order they provide, according to the emotions they awaken in it. The notes of music are your chakras, the sounds they emit are your emotions, and the songs are your rich inner world. So, I give you a challenge.
_I: Which one?
_AM: The moment you feel ready, create your song, your own song. If you were a song, what would you sound like?
_I: Oh… I like it…
_AM: Sounds inside you, tells your story and your emotions, your thoughts and wills, loves and pains, your battles and your victories, your peace and your anguish, joy and sadness, relationships and loneliness. Tell your story in the form of music, hum it, write it, play it, release the strength of your soul by singing to the world who you are.
_I: I am the spiritual inspiration living the melody of life.
_AM: Sing, and let the Universe know that you exist. I am Rhythm.
_I: I am Harmony.
_AM: I am Melody.
_I: I Am the Music…