Geography and Music

Arkapriya Chatterjee

Often, we do not compare music with Geography. If it is studied thoroughly, we can find that Geography and spatial analysis signifies that music has some spatial properties like how it influences the atmosphere and surroundings.

It is often believed that Tansen, one of the ‘Navratnas’ of Akbar’s court, could paint pictures, bring rain and light fire with his beautiful demonstration of Hindustani Classical Music.When he used to sing a raga based on evening, during the daytime, the sunlight would diminish and it seemed to be dusk! His singing could bring sudden clouds, lightning and rain, light sudden fire and destroy everything! Thus we can find a close relationship between the mood and emotions of music with the Nature and Environment which in turn is related to Geography.

In Indian Music, a popular Rabindra Sangeet “Shaono gagane ghor ghana ghata, nishith yamini re” is one of the Maithilee and Brajboli songs. It describes clouds gathering in the sky on a dark monsoon night and “sakhis” telling Radha to be careful and not go to meet Krishna. Thus this song describes the sky condition as well as the Hindu culture (relation between Radha and Krishna). This gives us an essence of Climatology and Cultural Geography, that deals with different cultures, societies and tradition.

There are many other Rabindra Sangeets like “Akash bhora, surjotara”, “Daruno ogni bane re “, “Chhaya ghonaiche, bone bone”, “Shiter bone kon se kothin asbe bole”, “Bosonte ki sudhu  kebol phota phuler mela” and many other related to “Prokriti Porjay” describes the different seasons, climatic phenomena, weather changes and their effect on different physical features of land in those conditions. Thus we relate all these with the different branches of Geography.

Music Geography, a sub-part of both Cultural Geography and Urban Geography is a study of Music Production and Consumption as a reflection of the landscape and geographical spaces surrounding it. Rupankar Bagchi’s popular song, “Pahar mati stup, joler kachhe chup” describes the beauty of different physical features of a landscape. Though the original theme of the song may be different but we can relate this song with geomorphology to some extent.

Some popular Western songs can tell us a lot about Geography. The “Earth Song” of Michael Jackson tells us about pollution, environmental devastation and war. The narrator wonders whether we can reverse the destructive course or not.

“Mercy, Mercy Me” by Marvin Gaye tells us about the damages we have done to the earth. These include poisoned air, oil spills, harmful radiations and overcrowding.

“Pass it on down” by Alabama reminds us that we need to preserve the air, forest and the oceans for our children to enjoy it.

We can find that all these songs are themed on environmental pollution, disasters, there precautions and prevention. Thus it reflects Environment Geography and Ecology which deals with the spatial aspects of interaction between human societies and their natural environment.

“Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver is also a popular song which describes the beauty of the mountains in Colorado (related to Geomorphology) and their destruction due to economic development. The song also describes that Tourism was the top industry of Colorado. Therefore we can also relate this song with Tourism Industry which is a sub-part of Human Geography. It deals with tourism as an industry, its social and cultural activity, travel and its impact on places.

In, Hindustani Classical Ragas, we feel the essence of seasons, climates and environment. “Raga Bhairav” is a morning raga. In this raga, the applications of “Komol Re” and “Komol Dha” indicates a silent, calm and peaceful mood which occurs during the dawn when sunlight is not so bright, no environmental disturbance and pollution and no sound except the rustling of the leaves of trees and plants.

“Raga Basant” is sung during the last “prahar” of the night. This raga indicates a changing of season and newness of spring. The applications of both “Sudhdha Ma” and “Kori Ma” sequentially indicates a joyful spring season. “Komol Dha” and “Komol Re” gives a beautiful melody of bright sunlight, colourful flowering trees and songs of birds especially cuckoo. These all are related to the mother nature.

Geography describes the world with its beautiful as well as atrocious looks. These looks are reflected in the different aspects of nature and the life style of all living beings. In my opinion, Music forms the breath of Nature and a rendition in the lifestyle.

*Student, Semester V Honours