Music is a form of art. The word “music” itself has an intense feeling which gives a sense of freshness, delight, joy and recreation. Music is not just tuning the basic seven notes of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni in Indian style or Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti in the western languages in the same chronological order. It involves different combinations and varieties in these notes. Music is also not something which is sung out chastely using a microphone or other audio devices, it even includes humming some tunes, playing instruments, background scores, just singing as is without any prior preparation like bathroom singing, beat boxing, producing some weird sounds through the vocal cords etc. Music is a way of expressing thoughts and feelings which connect all sorts of people irrespective of their geographical backgrounds, gender, age, race and other parameters. Music relies on tunes, lyrics, rhythms and other fine parameters. Music is also based on Mathematics and calculations. These play a crucial role in producing quality music.The word Music is derived from the Greek word ‘’mousike’’ which pertains to the Muses. There are different forms and ways of music expressed all over the world. Music can convey the feelings of happiness, excitement, sadness, bitter memories, birth, death and many more. Music can be considered as a hobby, passion or career. Many people find their careers in music as singers, music directors, background musicians, instrumentalists etc. Music is not just expressed by singing. Any pleasant sound which is good to hear gets to be called a form of music. Lot of sound is produced on a daily basis in every walk of our lives. So we breathe and live with music throughout our life. There are different styles of music experienced in different parts of the world. Each country or continent has its own fashion and style of music. Dance also cannot be performed without any sort of background music. Hence music plays a very important role in performing arts and is well connected to other art forms and art pieces. Music is inculcated into theatre and dramatics as well. The different forms of music include Classical Carnatic Music, Classical Hindustani Music, Jazz, Rap and few others. Music also acts as a means of communication between the Almighty and the devotees. Music in the form of shlokas and mantras are offered by the devotees in praise of the Almighty. “World Music Day” is observed and celebrated on the 21st of June all over the world. This day also happens to be a summer solstice-that is the longest day of the year. The other synonyms of World Music Day include Fete de La Musique, Make Music day and Music Day. This concept was started by Jack Lang who was the Minister of Culture in France along with Maurice Fleuret in 1982. This celebration was extended to about 120 countries all over the world thereafter. The history of propounding this day goes long back to October 1981 where Maurice Fleuret became the Director of Music and Dance at the Ministry Of Culture upon Jack Lang’s insistence and request. Maurice tried to apply his ideas, thoughts and reflections to the practice of music along with its (music) evolution by quoting that Music is felt everywhere but concerts are nowhere. This tried to implore that though music was known to all, it was not preached and propagated widely. He emphasised on creating the awareness of music, by spreading its uniqueness and speciality through concerts. He felt that concerts were means which help to create awareness among people regarding music and its greatness. After analysing some statistics as to how many people were following music, Martin observed and discovered that only one or two had the proficiency and qualification to play a musical instrument out of the five million population in France. This study was conducted based on the cultural interests and habits of the French people. This motivated him to attract people towards music by dragging them onto the streets in order to provide a platform for them to explore the feeling of music. This led to the celebration of Fete de La Musique in 1982. From then on people from different countries like Russia, UK, Brazil, Australia, Italy, India, Peru, Greece, Germany, United States, Japan, Canada and Mexico started celebrating World Music Day. The main purpose of celebrating Fete de La Musique was to promote two main intentions, firstly encouraging amateur, budding and professional musicians to perform on the streets, with the slogan “Faites de la musique” which means “Make music”, which is also a homophone of Fête de la musique. The second one was to organise more free concerts and thereby highlight all genres of music and make it reachable to all sorts of people. The main vision of Fête de la musique organisation was to conduct many free concerts to public and urged the performers to devote their free time in spreading music without any charges. The main motive of Fête de la musique or WORLD MUSIC DAY is to organise free concerts in huge numbers throughout the day. Usually all the radio stations celebrate this World Music Day throughout a week in order to mark its significance and greatness. Music is just not confined to humans, but is also applicable to animals, birds and insects. Cuckoo bird is well known for its sweet voice. Though the sounds produced by some of the birds sound harsh and gross, it still creates a magical feeling in the air which thereby gives immense joy and pleasure. Even during these tough times of COVID, music helps as a stress buster and creates a feeling of hope, confidence, positivity and thereby strengthens our inner spirits to fight against this bitter situation and win over it. Hence the celebration of music must not be restricted and limited to only June 21st but must be enjoyed every second and every minute on all the days and in every walk of our lives.
By Supriya K S, Bangalore
