Music for hope
Does music bring something in itself or is it a messenger? What is its nature? Music can evoke and create feelings like peace or love as well as fear or anger. From ancient times, it has been used to convey or relay information, even if it is not in the ways used by language. Yet music once did more than conveying simple information: it was a real support for human souls, when it accompanied collective tasks: for instance, African American Spirituals was a musical genre invented by Africans enslaved in the United States and whose songs could accompany the the cutting of the green sugar cane in the slave plantations of the South.
These songs, mixing musical elements of African origin with elements of Protestant hymns, gave courage to slaves, who were hoping and waiting for better days. Such hope related to unpredictable events or an intangible presence can be found in less tragic music, for instance in Doo-Wop or Swing, that capture what could be called the spiritual essence of music, especially through vocal renderings.
Music for spiritual growth
Actually the spiritual character of music is not only present in music related to the African American tradition. In a sense, each piece of music can be said to be spiritual, in a sense, as even those who believe first in humanity are longing for superior human characters. And Sacred Music, from Gregorian Chant to New Age, offers a wide range of musical structures that all convey specific metaphysical messages. Yet metaphysics is neither religion, nor a part of any religion. Metaphysics, as a branch of philosophy tries to determine the basic nature of reality, beyond any physical appearance.
The main metaphysical questions are related to ontology, which tries to define notions like being, existence, becoming or reality. The basic idea is that each piece of music, especially those that are written to reach spiritual targets, are an invitation to spiritual growth. A genre like New Age music invites relaxation and meditation and is often used by therapists, yogi and other specialists of personal development who help their listeners to reach states like mindfulness or, more generally, awareness. Let us notice that composers like Vangelis, Kitaro or Yanni, who are often decribed as New Age artists, reject that categorization.
Anyhow, metaphysics often talks about entities to know, and from two perspectives: one says nothing is real without an observer, the other one says the contrary. How can we apply such questions to music? For musical materials, it is easy: ‘Can sounds be defined as sounds if there is nobody to listen to them?’. William Sethares, a sound engineer and a teacher, clearly answered no in one of his technical books. And (as) for the most intangible realities that music evokes: ‘What are they?’ To that question, each individual, composer, performer or listener, may bring a very personal answer: it is a right.