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Music – Its Origin and Nature MUISIC, you must remember,
like any other art, is a means for expressing something-some idea, some
feeling, some emotion, a certain aspiration and so on. There is even a domain
where all these movements exist and from where they are brought down under a
musical form. A good composer with some inspiration would produce good music;
he is then called a good musician. A bad musician can have also a good inspiration,
he can receive something from the higher domain, but possessing no musical
capacity, he would produce only what is very commonplace, very ordinary and
uninteresting. However, if you go beyond, precisely over to this place where
lies the origin of music, get to the idea, the emotion, the inspiration behind,
you can then taste of these things without being held back by the form. Still
this musical form can be joined on to what is behind or beyond the form; for it
is that which originally inspired the musician to compose. Of course, there are
instances where no inspiration exists, where the source is only a kind of sound
mechanics, which is not, in any case, always interesting. What I mean is this
that there is an inner state in which the outer form is not the most important
thing: there lies the origin of music, the inspiration that is beyond. It is
trite to say, but one often forgets that it is not sound that makes music, the
sound has to express something. There
is a music that is quite mechanical and has no inspiration. There are
musicians who play with great virtuosity, that is to say, they have mastered
the technique and execute faultlessly the most complicated and rapid movements.
It is music perhaps, but it expresses nothing; it is like a machine. It is
clever, there is much skill, but it is uninteresting, soulless. The most
important thing, not only in music, but in all human
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in all that man does even, is, I repeat, the inspiration behind. The execution
naturally is expected to be on a par with the inspiration; but to express truly
well, one must have truly great things to express. It is not to say that technique
is not necessary; on the contrary, one must possess a very good technique; it
is even indispensable. Only it is not the one thing indispensable, not is it as
important as the inspiration. For the essential quality of music comes from the
region where it has its source. Source
or origin means the thing without which an object would not exist. Nothing can
manifest upon earth physically unless it has its source in a higher truth. Thus
material existence has its source and inspiration in the vital, the vital in
its turn has behind it the mental, the mental has the overmental and so on. If
the universe were a flat object, having its origin in itself, it would quickly
cease to exist. (That is perhaps what Science means when it postulates the
impossibility of perpetual motion). It is because there is a higher source
which inspires it, a secret energy that drives it towards manifestation that
Life continues: otherwise it would exhaust itself very soon. There
is a graded scale in the source of music. A whole category of music is there
that comes from the higher vital, for example: it is very catching, perhaps
even a little vulgar, something that twines round your nerves, as it were, and
twists them. It catches you somewhere about your loins – navel centre – and charms
you in its way. As there is a vital music there is also what can be called
psychic music coming from quite a different source; there is further a music
which has spiritual origin. In its own region this higher music is very
magnificent; it seizes you deeply and carries you away somewhere else. But if
you were to express it perfectly – execute it – you would have to pass this
music too through the vital. Your music coming from high may nevertheless fall
absolutely flat in the execution, if you do not have that intensity of vital
vibration which alone can give it its power and splendour. I knew people who
had very high inspiration, but their music turned to be quite commonplace,
because their vital did not move. Their spiritual practice put their vital
almost completely to sleep; yes, it was literally asleep and did not work at
all. Their music thus came straight into the physical. If you could
Page – 423 get behind
and catch the source, you would see that there was really something marvellous
even there, although externally it was not forceful or effective. What came
out was a poor little melody, very thin, having nothing of the power of harmony
which is there when one can bring into play the vital energy. If one could put
all this power of vibration that belongs to that vital into the music of higher
origin we would have the music of a genius. Indeed, for music and for all
artistic creation, in fact, for literature, for poetry, for painting, etc. an
intermediary is needed. Whatever one does in these domains depends doubtless
for its intrinsic value upon the source of the inspiration, upon the plane or
the height where one stands. But the value of the execution depends upon the
strength of the vital that expresses the inspiration. For a complete genius
both are necessary. The combination is rare, generally it is the one or the
other, more often it is the vital that predominates and overshadows. When
the vital only is there, you have the music of cafè concert and cinema.
It is extraordinarily clever and at the same time extraordinarily commonplace,
even vulgar. Since, however, it is so clever, it catches hold of your brain,
haunts your memory, rings in (or wrings) your nerves; it becomes so difficult
to get rid of its influence, precisely because it is done so well, so cleverly.
It is made vitally with vital vibrations, but what is behind is not, to say the
least, wholesome. Now imagine the same vital power of expression joined to the
inspiration coming from above, say, the highest possible inspiration when the
entire heaven seems to open out, then it is music indeed; Some things in César Franck, some in
Beethoven, some in Bach, some in some others possess this sovereignty. But
after all it is only a moment, it comes for a moment and does not abide. There
is not a single artist whose whole work is executed at such a pitch. The
inspiration comes like a flash of lightning, most often it lasts just long
enough to be grasped and held in a few snatches. Something
similar to that experience may happen to you when your consciousness is all
attentive and concentrated; you feel suddenly that you are being carried aloft,
that all your energies are gathered and lifted up, as if your head has opened
out and you are thrown into the free air, into the far spaces
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and magnificent lights. The experience gives you in a few seconds what one may
in the normal course of things achieve after many years of difficult yoga. Only
immediately after the experience you drop down below upon the earth, because
the basis has not been built; even you may begin to doubt whether you really
had the experience. Still the consciousness has been prepared, something
definitive has been done and remains.
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