The Healing Power of Music - Manju Reddy

It is legend now that when Lata Mangeshkar sang, "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon" Pandit Nehru borke down and wept.  If Lata Mangeshkar had just rendered the words of this great song without music and tune, would she have had the same impact?  No!  When Don Giovani pours his heart out, when Vilayat Khan and Alla Rakha have an impassioned jugal bandhi, when Kisori Amonkar and M S Subbalakshmi sing, it is as if every cell in your body is responding to their music.

Music is the first language of the earth - the sound of the wind in the trees, the melody of birdsong, running water tripping over rocks - and the language of music touches an ancient and eternal place within us, beyond the logic of the mind.  Scientific studies confirm that playing music helps premature babies gain weight faster, surgery patients heal quicker and migraine sufferers suffer less, among other incredible results.  Music has a positive effect on a wide variety of symptoms, as it lifts the human spirit in subtle and profound ways.

Source : Deccan Chronicle, November 25, 2001. Reprinted with permission.

<< Back