ROLE AND PURPOSE OF MUSICAL ART

Sir,

I was watching a live talk show called the ‘Stream’ on the Al-Jazeera channel the other day. The main discussion was the topic on the role of music amid the ground offensive and bombardment of Gaza. Among other things, the host elaborated how the people of Palestine have, through music, sustained their sanity in spite of the scathingly harsh humanitarian dehumanisation that is continuing to take place in the strip.

When the discussion was concluded, I had a thought that took me into reminiscence on the role and purpose of music. Personally, when I was studying world conflicts starting from World War I going up, reading the documentation of historical events from the perspectives of Mr Glyn Harper, Peter Hart, a military historian and others.

I came to the staunch realisation that, the definition of art, particularly music, has been in deficit. The definition has been among other factors, reductionist. I say this because I came to the conclusion that the main purpose of music is, above everything, the mouthpiece of society, which functions as a pillar of social cohesion.

Motives

With the aforesaid definition, musicians should check their motives when they write. In prior years, soldiers in the battle field would compose songs to express their lived experiences from day to day; no wonder theirs is a classic composition. For example, the likes of ‘umshini wami’ during the armed struggle in South Africa.

The migrant worker in the deep stomach of the earth, in the abyss of the gold mines of Johannesburg, South Africa, would sing wishful songs to his dear old wife and about how he longs to see his young son whom he left unborn.

Express

He would express how he will remain in his status, not defiling the marriage bed or the altar of compromise. Music to him was a medium of communication to express his longings and ills. He would express his masculine role in society and how it has landed him to work in other countries. He would look at his wife’s picture and cry, missing her without access; music became the only access that his imagination would find useful to visit her, just for a moment. Alas!

It is disheartening how music has been reduced to mere entertainment, celebration and fun; let me take you back to when a  mother would, despite the ill fate that landed her in single parenthood or widowed, sing a lullaby to her one month old child. She would hold them in her lap and sing whatever that she desired for her baby. I get nostalgic saying this because such moments are not worth what money can buy and they were expressed though music. Even to date, the sounds of ‘umlolotelo’ echoes my ears because my own mother sang these kinds of songs to me. It is such power that music wields on society, thus musicians should make sure that such powers are exhausted comprehensively
In conclusion, I want to urge every musician to understand that music is not meant for the audience to self-destruct. It is wrong now that all we hear and see in music is only for economical gains and popularity. Musicians should stop being popularity-hungry, not only singing to the heart but also to the conscience, and should learn from those who precede them. We are really fed up of hearing about lust, sex, money, drugs and greed, lest we self-destruct. Music is much more than that.

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