Yield to the euphony

World Music Day has its genesis in Fete de la Musique, a music festival that began in France in 1982, and has since been celebrated on June 21 every year. The day assumes added significance in these strife-torn times when music is being seen as a powerful tool for reaching out to people and building connections
Music is the voice of the human spirit.It has a huge bearing on the daily lives of most people, meandering like a stream through their thoughts and activities. It has the dichotomous quality of being both amazingly complex and incredibly simple at the same time.
Of late, music has been widely used as a vehicle to inspire peace building and bring about positive social change. Since it facilitates communication which goes beyond words, it is no longer just a source of entertainment; it creates channels for past, present and future messages. It has been well recorded in history how artistes from all over the world jointly raised money for the quake-struck Haiti by recording MJ's song 'We are the World'. Similarly, in the late 1980s and 90s, young black Americans coming out of the Civil Rights Movement used music to highlight the restraints of the movement. They used hip-hop to raise their concerns and forced the world to sit up and take notice. Closer home, the recent Aman Ki Asha campaign harnessed the strength of music to generate an atmosphere of peace and harmony in the subcontinent.
Music and society have always been inextricably linked. Music holds a mirror to the prevailing social conditions, including the factors that either facilitate or impede social change. As American protest singer Phil Ochs famously said: 'One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies'. At the level of the social groups, it is dynamic because it enables the sharing of thoughts and promotes the development and maintenance of individual, group, cultural and national identities. In addition to its ability to communicate deeply and bring people together, music has proven healing powers. In the ancient civilizations of India, Africa, Europe, the Orient, and among the Aboriginal and Native Americans, the practice of using sound to heal and achieve balance has been handed down the generations. Both listening to or actively making music have been found effective in promoting relaxation, relieving anxiety and pain and creating a general feeling of well-being through the production of particular endorphins. Music therapists have, in recent years, become increasingly involved in reaching out to survivors of war and related forms of violence, and have reported positive results in their projects. In recognizing its potential to heal at an individual and global level, the aim of World Music Day had also been to bring together musicians, both established and upcoming, to serve the cause of music and humanity. Speeches of leading composers and singers are organised in order to disseminate information on the expanding role of music in the changing world order and make it accessible to people all over the globe. Seminars, contests, quizzes, exhibitions are all part of the extravaganza held in countries such as Argentina, Australia, Britain, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, Costa Rica, China, and Lebanon and India. So this World Music Day, let's surrender our spirit to the dulcet notes and pledge to make way for a culture of compassion, peace, and understanding.