https://youtu.be/QBiDqqXtR-c
I am inspired by their discussion and this shloka from सङ्गीतरत्नाकरः to write my thoughts.
How do we distinguish Naada in music, particularly Carnatic music, from sound?
Sound is any vibration caused materially and perceived within our hearing. Therefore musical Naada is also a kind of sound. But all sounds are not Naada. This is because the core of Naada is human consciousness.
Consciousness in its highest sense is Brahman, the all-pervading creative intelligence. In all creation, it is most completely expressed in human consciousness. And man can strive to attain to the state of experiencing Brahman. The path is shown by rishis and acharyas like Adi Shankara.
Brahman is also called Naadabrahman, and Omkara Naada, as explained by Dr. Vrinda. So in the Sanatana Dharma, the original source of everything is Naada.
The instinct for all music comes from this Naadabrahman=consciousness and has an aestheic dimension without which making or experiencing music is impossible.
Naada is to be first intuited and then expressed aesthetically. And then it has to be experienced aesthetically. If there is no experiencer there is no Naada. In other words all music is a subjective experience - both its creation and its enjoyment. I daresay it goes beyond sensory pleasure because it seems to have a unique effect unlike other sensory experiences. You don't listen to all that you hear if your consciousness is not tuned in. It's a bit like Bhagavan Krishna tells Arjuna that if he has to see Vishvarupa, he needs a special pair of eyes - the inner eye of an elevated consciousness.
The Indian classical musical system gives us insight into developing a profound dimension in music by structuring it on the principles of Raaga, Taala, and Bhaava. Whether it is one musician or an ensemble, they all begin by getting inside the infinite canvas of the cosmic Omkara Naada as created by the sonorously tuned Tambura. Once the musician experiences that Omkara within, as it is said in the shloka shown above, he harnesses the combination of Praana and Agni, the two dimensions of his life force, to express the musical idea. In all this, the first listener is the musician himself. Even when birds chirp and machines make harmonious sounds, they become music only when there is a human to experience them.
What about iPod and You Tube music? Machines can mimic or store and reproduce music made by humans with varying degrees of efficiency. But the starting point of all those sounds is their creation through a subjective human experience. If and when machines can subjectively feel and create music autonomously, even then, the tag of music will be placed on their creation only by a human who can subjectively experience the aesthetics.
In the Amazon Prime TV series, Mozart in the Jungle, a Japanese robot is shown as being constructed and programmed to conduct a famous orchestral piece. The protagonist, a great and original conductor, is so outraged by the idea that he dashes the robot into a rivulet and destroys it. He considers it the most repulsive piece of technology to outrage all musical sensibilities through a caricaturing of a sublime subjective aesthetic experience. That is the same experience we connect to Naada Brahman.
No soul, no music.
These same aspects will apply, to a lesser extent, to other fine arts and performing arts. Remember the centrality of the subjective human experience which we connect to Brahman or the Supreme Soul.
