MUSIC AS INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

Music is undoubtedly the international language par excellence. Even more so than painting, sculpture and architecture, which can be universally appreciated, interpreted and internalized – music expresses in transcendental ways what other nonverbal art forms can do only partially – from longings, to love, to conflict, to fear, to laughter and exaltation. Music expresses the gamut of human feelings and emotions, uniting all humanity in its ontological traits.

Even if we do not speak a word of German and cannot grasp Friedrich Schiller’s An die Freude (Ode to Joy), we cannot help but be moved by Beethoven’s rendition of this marvelous poem in the D major fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony. This melody stays with the listener, coming back again and again, regardless whether one lives in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America – or on a space station circumnavigating the Earth.

Even if we know no French or even patois, we can appreciate Joseph Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne. Even if we are not familiar with Australian aboriginal music, we can feel the rhythm in Peter Sculthorpe’s scores, particularly the Songs of the Sea and Sky with the intriguing sounds of the aboriginal didjeridu in his tone poems Kakadu and From Ubirr.

And who does not start swinging when he hears African rhythms, the Afro-Cuban Salsa, the Afro-Brazilian Lambada? Is it not wonderful and universal, when peoples from all countries and levels of education react to the music of the late Miriam Makeba or of Celia Cruz? Who isn’t moved to tears by Portuguese Fados, by Lucinda Gouveia’s Velho Marinheiro and her incomparable Lágrima.

Music and song have accompanied mankind since time immemorial. The first musical instruments were probably hollowed-out bones used as flutes. Then there was the trumpet (remember the trumpets over Jericho) and the lyre (remember Sappho’s songs on the island of Lesbos). China had a well-developed musical culture already during the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC – 256 BC). In Chinese mythology Ling Lun was the legendary founder of music and musical instruments – bamboo pipes tuned to the sounds of birds. The oldest surviving piece of written music in China is a guqin melody, “Solitary Orchid”, written before AD 908. Its tonality is, of course, unusual to European ears, as is Chinese Opera, dating back to the Tang Dynasty in the eighth century AD. In the Middle-East and in Europe religious songs have existed for thousands of years, and thanks to the notation system invented by Guido of Arezzo around the year 1000 AD, music has been written down and preserved ever since – and not just remembered by monks chanting their liturgical Gregorian. Of course the Greeks and Romans had a form of musical notation too, but little is known about it and even less has come down to us. What cultural treasures must have been lost forever!

Not everyone is familiar with Indian Hindustani or Carnatic music, but it is worth our while to discover these worlds of human endeavour. Nor do we know the peculiarities of the songs and dances of so many peoples throughout the world, expressions of their souls and culture, and at the same time reflections of the universal source, inexhaustible in their diversity. Gradually we are discovering and studying the music of many different indigenous populations, such as the Amerindians, or of the pygmies. All represent a universal cornucopia, a horn of plenty for all mankind.

Since the adoption of the 1972 World Heritage Convention (187 States parties), UNESCO has been listing the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, places and traditions worth preserving for future generations. Music surely belongs in this category. On Tuesday 16 November 2010 at a UNESCO meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Peking Opera, Spanish-Andalusian Flamenco and Indonesian Angklung were added to the UNESCO list. Angklung is the bamboo musical instrument of West Java, where each instrument when shaken produces a specific tone. In the list of “musical sources” we find Baka pygmy music from Cameroon, Ca Tru & Quan Ho, traditional music from Viet Nam, Tibetan ritual music, Japanese Shomyo Buddhist rituals, Inuit songs of Canada, Azerbaijani Mugam, the Syrian Antioch liturgy, Tritonic music from Argentina, bagpipes from central France, Appenzell yodelling from Switzerland, and many others. UNESCO has recognized some 911 world sites (it keeps growing), in which 704 represent cultural heritage, 180 natural heritage, and 27 a blend of culture and natural heritage – in 151 States parties to the Convention (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list).

Now imagine for a moment an orchestra and a choir with players and singers from all nations, making music together. What a wonderful way of collaborating for peace and harmony! Imagine a Japanese conductor, a South African concert master, a Pakistani trumpet player, a Peruvian oboist, an Italian soprano, a German heldentenor, a Mexican baritone and a Russian bass!

By way of coda, let me reaffirm that Art is communication – seeing new perspectives, hearing sounds differently, unveiling worlds beneath the world, discovering the latent truths. Whether art reflects or reinterprets nature, whether it invents or reproduces, it always cross-fertilizes. Music is perhaps the most metaphysical of all art forms, fundamentally human and yet transcendental, yes, divine: While it often relates to the momentary Zeitgeist, it also inspires sculpture, architecture, painting – and thereby helps create the new Zeitgeist.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) reminded us that: “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul”. Indeed, Musica laetificat cor!

The Ex-Tempore can be purchased at the UN bookstore at door 40.

Alfred de Zayas, UNOG retired First published in Ex Tempore, the literary journal published annually by the United Nations Society of Writers (UNSW)/ Societé des écrivains des Nations Unies (SENU) in Geneva. http://www.extempore.ch/