MUSIC AS A SYSTEM

To identify music as a system we should get an understanding of what constitutes

music. Music as we know is made of notes. In Indian music the notes are sa, re, ga,
ma, pa, dha, ni. But what are these notes? Effectively these notes are sound formed
of sound waves and each sound wave is created by dissipation of vibrations. These
vibrations at various frequencies form a certain kind of sound which could create
music. This is much similar to the way in which we have understood the ant colonies.
A single vibration as a unit does not have any knowledge of the impact it is creating
on a global scale in the form of music. Its only purpose at being generated is to
initiate the next vibration and hence propagate the sound wave. However it is
common knowledge that larger impact it could create as a system sometimes even
initiating revolutions which change the social and political change in the world from
within.
Apart from the emergent effect on a global level, music as a system invokes
emotional changes in other components like humans. Various ragas of Indian
classical music are known to be sung at various times of the day. Poorva ragas are
sung between 12 noon and 12 midnight while Uttar ragas are sung between 12
midnight and 12 noon. This 500 year old raga classification in Indian classical music
aims to invoke a certain emotion or sentiment without any reference to time and
season. Hence we might relate as to how a series of vibrations in a certain frequency
causes various effects on an individual in a global scale.

To compare it with a system where “macrointeligence and adaptability derive from

local knowledge” we could evaluate music according to 5 key principles:
More is different - the two primary philosophies governing this principle are first,
requirement of a critical mass for the pattern to make sense. A single vibration in
itself does not propagate the sound wave and hence is futile. Second, global
behaviour is understood only by observing the whole system. It is only by a series of
vibration that a musical pattern is formed otherwise it is singularly non existent.
Ignorance is useful - as mentioned earlier a singular vibration does not have any
orientation of the note or the music it is going to create.
Encourage random encounters - as explained for ant colonies; “their encounters with
other ants are individually arbitrary, but because their are so many individuals in the
system, encounters eventually allow the individual to gauge and alter the
macro-state of the system itself.” similarly music is formed not only by all sound
vibrations but only by some of them at correct frequency and pattern. Random
encounters lead to such creations.
Look for patterns in sign - like pheromones in case of ants, sound vibrations rely
heavily on the frequency in which it is produced to be even audible.
Pay attention to your neighbour - “local attention leads to global wisdom”. one
sound vibration initiating the next is the key activity at the whole process of music
generation.

Now that the music has been established as a system let us concentrate on its
characteristic as an evolving system. Music is not only a pattern in time, in certain
cases it could be termed as a museum freezing each and every fleeting moment.
From folklore to ballads, it has carried along with it the culture and history of a
time in the most vocal form. Music is a storage device as well as a carrier. It is the
stamp of an era. Certain folk songs of Bengal like Baul and Bhatiyali are specific to
certain sects of people. If we hear a Bhatiyali we could most definitely trace it back
to the boatman of Bengal. Like all evolving systems music retains its basic principles
to become a reflection of its time. Here it should be noted that music which retains
the identity of the place however was not produced with the purpose of doing so.
The purpose of storing and transmitting information is not international but indirect
benefit of the situation.

Music in a global view is an interconnected network stimulating changes of various

scales. It forms a global network where nodes are formed by various styles of music
each affecting its local situation and connecting two others through what we could
simply termed as fluidity of genre. And the whole system together then easily be
viewed as a self generated network which has been sustaining itself through years
of feedback. To explain the case let us once again draw upon the example of folk
songs. Over generations people have affected folk music as much as music has
affected them. Folk music all over the world has been shaped and reshaped by the
changing culture of the society.

On a larger scale new forms of music have been created based upon feedback
system. Rock music which originated from the throbbing percussion of Yorba and
Dahomean tribes of music and spread when the locals were sold into slavery, has not
only attain a worldwide status in present times but has evolved over the influence
of time and culture to produce offshoots like psychedelic rock, alternative rock,
progressive rock and punk rock amongst others. This openness of the network is
crucial to the sustenance of a self-generative system,

But when we talk of any form of music we should know that music is empty without
rhythm embedded in it. Rhythm is a structure produced by music for its own utility.
Rhythm and music together creates the relationship with other components of
nature. Music as a system exists in as network of non linear pattern and it exhibits all
characteristic of it. As mentioned in the web of life ‘Self organizing system is a
spontaneous emergence of new structures and new forms of behaviour in open
systems far from equilibrium, characterized by internal feedback loops and described
mathematically by non linear equation’
Music exhibits a pattern which is non linear in a most basic sense. With global
feedback every minute it is influenced from different sources across the world and
relay its impact throughout the system which leads to emergence of new pattern
and styles every moment.
This continuous state of evolution is importance not only to its propagation but also
the resilience of generations of information hidden underneath its layers.

Once long ago an ancient man might have banged two objects together to create
sound and realized this rhythmic tune to be an effective method of passing his time.
Did the affect of music began there? Or did it began with the chirping of the birds,
rustling of leaves and gurgling of streams? Answers to such questions might never b
known but we do know is that music as a system has affected us since time and
immemorial and continues to do so. The effect of it might never be fully realized, as
it is noted in Indian music “god himself is a musical sound, the sound which pervades
the universe”

- Sampriti Saha