BENGALURU: There is often a level of controversy that surrounds the relationship between music and spirituality, where many question whether it is appropriate to learn (or teach) a piece of “religious” music from a religion other than your own. It is true that much of traditional music was born in the temple, church, synagogue or gurdwara, and many great musicians and composers were priests or saints who used their music in the service of the divine.
From Mirabai to Johann Sebastian Bach, many musicians/composers/poets wrote music as their own worship, or to be played during worship by others. There are a couple of things to unpack here – firstly, what place secularism has in music, and secondly how whether we can appreciate music if we don’t subscribe to the same beliefs are the composer.
There is of course, plenty of music that is completely temporal and secular in nature, that has nothing to do with any God, religion or philosophy. So is it enough to just work with that and steer clear of anything that could cause trouble? Honestly, no. If we try to sanitise and present something that is neutral and safe, especially in art, culture and music, we lose a lot that is valuable. Instead, why not look at a representative view of secularism? We know that representation matters, so why not represent everything? Or at least many things. This has been the idea with SaPa in Schools, to present young people will many different styles of music and perspectives, to create global citizens that can respect Indian and global cultures.
And when you are able to present representative, inclusive secularism in music, you can teach students that it is possible to respect music for music’s sake. If Bach wrote his music for the church with his belief system firmly in place, you can still appreciate it’s grandeur from the comfort of your living room. If Mirabai sang for her beloved Krishna, you can still appreciate her poetry without necessarily having the same feelings. As individuals, we should be able to respect the art for what it is. To appreciate the magnitude of the Sistine Chapel, you don’t need to be a Christian, you just need to have sight.