By V. Ramnarayan
Baiju Bawra was the unlikely hero of the
eponymous 1952 Hindi film, a legendary character loosely based on the life of a
16th century Gwalior court musician. Played by Bharat Bhushan, Baiju performs miracles
through the movie, in the limpid voice of Mohammad Rafi, singing the lyrics of
Shakeel Badayuni in tunes composed by Naushad. He is joined by such eminent
Hindustani vocalists as D.V. Paluskar and Amir Khan in variously bringing tears
to the eyes of a stone idol with raga Darbari, starting a fire with Deepak and
dousing it with Megh, and making a bed-ridden guru walk with a poignant
Malkauns. The ringing tones of Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar can be heard across rivers
and mountains, though they can unite lovers only in death. It was a love story all right, but more about the power of art, of such sublime music that the viewer was more
than willing to suspend disbelief.
Music in Indian films often breaks or melts
hearts, reunites families torn asunder in childhood, heals the sick, settles
arguments about the superiority of one or other school of music or artist. In
one astonishing sequence in a popular film in the 1960s, a personal attendant
sings in a hospital ward for the patient, accompanying herself on the veena.
The screenplay did not suggest that the music had a hand in the recovery of the
patient believed to be terminally ill, giving the credit entirely to the doctor
working day and night to save him and dying in the process, but such a turn
would have lent it a nice touch. This writer for one
thought the scene was absurd, but had to eat humble pie as he twice became
witness to similar scenes in real life.
On the first occasion, a young burns victim
found solace in the songs of M.S. Subbulakshmi which she asked her friend to
sing for her during her last hours on earth. The second instance had a happier
ending, as the same woman visitor sang for another young patient the night
before she underwent major surgery and made a complete recovery — at the very
hospital where the film had been shot decades earlier.
Most of us have felt elevated by great
music, often enough to wonder if music — and art in general — can indeed ennoble
human minds and hearts, even lend a healing touch in times of sorrow and
stress. Music has been used in therapy in both east and west through the centuries, though it is hard to
explain to the skeptic how exactly the treatment works. Sruti has attempted to
introduce some of the concepts of music therapy to its readers in some past issues
(221 and 268 for instance). In this issue we present some ideas and case
studies by men and women engaged in research and practice in the field.
According to the eminent neurologist Oliver
Sacks, “Humans are uniquely able to produce and enjoy music — very few other
animals can do so. But not only is music one of the fundamental ways we bond
with each other, it literally shapes our brains. Perhaps this is so because
musical activity involves many parts of the brain (emotional, motor, and
cognitive areas), even more than we use for our other great human achievement,
language. This is why it can be such an effective way to remember or to learn. It is no accident that we
teach our youngest children with rhymes and songs. As anyone who can’t get an
advertising jingle or a popular song out of their head knows, music burrows its
way deep into the nervous system, so deep, in fact, that even when people
suffer devastating neurological disease or injury, music is usually the last
thing they lose.
Sacks frequently saw that music could
enable a Parkinson’s disease victim to dance or sing, even though, in the
absence of music, he could not take a step or say a word. Songs brought back
words to people with aphasia, a loss of the use of language most commonly
caused by stroke, Music could even help victims of Tourette’s syndrome bypass
the embarrassing physical and verbal tics that afflict them. Sacks even itnessed
people with extreme amnesia sing or play long, complicated pieces of music, or
conduct an orchestra or choir, though their loss of
temporary memory was often total.
”Perhaps most remarkably, people with Alzheimer’s
disease and other dementias can respond to music when nothing else reaches
them,” Sacks says. “Alzheimer’s can totally destroy the ability to remember
family members or events from one’s own life — but musical memory somehow survives
the ravages of disease, and even in people with advanced dementia, music can
often reawaken personal memories and associations that are otherwise lost.”
Music has been used in medicine since the
time of the ancient Greek philosophers, who believed that it could heal both
the body and the soul. Native healers in the West as well as the third world
sing and chant as part of their healing rituals. In World War II, U.S. Veterans
Administration hospitals employed music to help treat soldiers suffering from shell shock. In 1944, Michigan State University
established the first music therapy degree course in the world.
There are claims that, when used with conventional
treatment, music therapy can help to reduce pain, even relieve chemotherapy-induced
nausea and vomiting. Studies indicate that music therapy can lower the heart
rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate.
Conversely, there can be little doubt that noise
or loud music can cause serious health problems. Again this writer once saw a friend with a chronic ear infection literally collapse when exposed to
deafening music at a wedding reception. At the very least, constant noise
pollution has made our whole generation noticeably hearing deficient.
