Integration through four complementary languages of music

Liberation of Integration, Universality and Concord (Part #32)

Given the importance of sound and music as a major integrative factor across cultural boundaries, and given the size of the audience which music now has through radio and cassettes, the possibilities of this route merit further exploration. Integration modelled on sound may be inherently more comprehensible to more people than integration modelled on sight.

It is interesting to note a tantalizing relationships between this study and that of Jacques Attali who structures his study of the political economy of music in terms of 'quatre formes possibles de diffusion de la musique, retrouvant les quatre structures fondamentales que peut avoir un graphe' (15, p. 63). These are 'networks' associated with: ritual murder or sacrifice, presentation, composition, and reproduction.

De Nicolas on the other hand structures his study in terms of four 'languages' distinguished by their intentionality: images and sacrifice, existence, embodied vision, and non-existence. The first three seem to be related to those of Attali, and it is the non-relationship of the last which is significant in both perspectives. Attali's concept of the sacrificial aspect (15, pp. 43-91) as an attribute essential for the renewal of social structures is intimately related to the Rg Vedic concept (17, pp. 139-154). Such efforts to show the functional significance of sacrifice in relation to social integration need attention in a period when 'nobody is willing to sacrifice' advantages acquired under the present systems in crisis. The implications of the relation between the two studies could also be further explored in the light of number-governed sets (19).

De Nicolas study has already inspired an exploration of the tonal underpinnings of the Rg Veda by a musicologist, Ernest McClain (21), which is interesting in its own right. This helps to understand the interrelatedness of perspectives and the mnemonic value of their expression through vivid symbols (gods, dragons, etc). McClain clarifies the musical significance of the four languages and, in this context, their relevance to integration:

'The four Rgvedic 'languages' de Nicolas defines have their counterparts in the foundation of all theories of music. His 'language of Non-Existence' (Asat) is exemplified by the pitch continuum within each musical interval as well as by the whole undifferentiated gamut -- chaos - - from low to high. His 'language of Existence' (Sat) is exemplified by every tone, by every distinction of pitch, thus ultimately by every number which defines an interval, a scale, a tuning system, or the associated metric schemes of the poets, which are quite elaborate in the Rg Veda.

The 'language of Images and Sacrifice' (Yajna) is exemplified by the multitude of alternate tone-sets and the conflict of alternate values which always results in some accuracy being 'sacrificed' to keep the system within manageable limits. The 'language of Embodied Vision' is required to protect the validity of alternate tuning systems and alternate metric schemes by refusing to grant dominion to any one of them'. (21, p. 3). 'The embodiment of Rg Vedic man was understood... as an effort at integrating the languages of Asat, Sat and Yajna to reach the dhih, the effective viewpoint, which would make these worlds continue in their efficient embodiment' (17, p. 136).

The whole notion of dialogue between perspectives which is the basis of the Rg Vedic approach needs, however, to be related to current investigations of conversation theory as summarized by Gordon Pask (20).