President’s Message

Fellow Rotarians,

Very Warm Greetings! I hope we all are safe and sound.

From time immemorial, music has formed part of our evolution history as human species.

Music is a pattern of sounds. Music is found wherever the human species inhabit, in every known geographical region, culture and religion, past and present, varying widely between times and places. Since all people of the world, including the most isolated tribal groups, have some form of music, it could be concluded that the history of music is as old as humanity itself.

Archaeologists have found primitive flutes made of bone and ivory dating back as far as 43,000 years, and it’s likely that many ancient musical styles have been preserved in oral traditions. It’s almost impossible to definitively know just how long music and musical compositions have been around, since humans only started writing music down around the 14th century B.C. “Hurrian Hymn No. 6”, an ode to the Goddess Nikkal, is presently considered the world’s earliest melody, but the oldest musical composition to have survived in its entirety, is a Greek tune known as the “Seikilos Epitaph”, dating as far back as 200 B.C.

There are many possible functions for music, such as dancing, entertainment, expression, communication, devotion or ritual. However, the major reason that music arose and persists is probably that it brings people together. It is said that music leads to bonding, such as bonding between mother and child or bonding between groups. It has been suggested that music, in causing such bonding, created not only the family, but society itself, bringing individuals together who might otherwise have led solitary lives.

A culture’s music is influenced by all other aspects of that culture, including social and economic organisation, and experience, climate, access to technology and what is the religion believed in. The emotions and ideas that music expresses and the situations in which music is played and listened to vary between regions and periods.

Indian music is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world, as is evidenced from sculptures depicting dance and musical instruments like the seven holed flute from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization and the various types of stringed instruments and drums recovered from Mohenjo Daro and Harrappa excavations.

Coming to more recent Indian musical traditions, which are primarily classical, of which two major ones are, the southern Carnatic music and the northern Hindustani classical music. India’s classical music traditions remain important in the lives of Indians even today, as a source of religious inspiration, cultural expression and entertainment.

Music is said to give one relief and is kind of a stress buster. It is considered as a powerful therapy that makes people calm down and, in moments of joy, it even makes people cheerful, a kind of mood elevator. A common and oft use phrase ‘It’s music to my ears’, when something said brings some positive and good information.

And on the negative side, music is also known since ages to be used as an effective tool in war, and when misused and abused result into a cacophony.

In recent years, researchers have shown great interest, as to how listening to music can benefit in numerous ways.

Studies have shown that music can even fend off depression. It can improve blood flow in ways similar to statins, lower ones levels of stress-related hormones like cortisol and, even ease pain. It is also said that music can even improve post-surgery outcomes, such as reducing pain and anxiety because listening to music triggers the release of opioids in the brain, the body’s natural pain relievers. Also, studies and experiments are ongoing on benefits of music during critical brain surgeries.

Recently, there is a lot of discussion on ‘music therapy’, which focuses on using music to improve patient outcomes.

Certain songs have the ability to remind us of certain periods or events in our lives – some that make us smile. With this in mind, researchers are increasingly investigating whether music may aid memory recall. Some studies seem to suggest music may aid memory recall for adults in the early stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Research also indicates that music can help aid recovery from strokes, where patients have shown to have improved speech recovery following a stroke.

It has also been suggested that music may help treat epilepsy.

So whether it is for therapeutic reasons or just for relaxation or entertainment, the importance of music can never be overstated specially in today’s humdrum life.

So let’s always have Music … the Sound of Music and love for Music ….

Preeti Mehta
President