Avicenna and Music and Healing

by Hamza El Din
Avicenna, or Ibn Sina as he is called in the middle east, was a
descendent of Sinai people and a physician. He is considered as one of
the forefathers of the modern medicine. He saw that people were
sometimes healed by music and he wanted to understand how that
healing works.
So he thought, 'What disease could I pick up or in what disease could I
watch the effects of music? It must be something simple and not a grave
illness among my patients.' Cancer was ruled out because it was deadly
and lengthy. Toothache was ruled out because it was just too intense. The
simplest illness? He decided ... Insomnia. Sleeplessness.
It occurs when you're out of balance yet trying to sleep, between 11 PM.
and 1 AM. He found out that if he played on C around sleepless people,
they would doze off easily. That hour of the night is associated with C, the
note 'Do'. C is a tonic center from which to set out in many ways of scales
and modal ways. When you look outside at the sky, it would be deep deep
blue when it is moonless night, but when it is full moon night, it is bright
radiant blue. The note C, color is Blue, as the Moon, the Midnight, the
North and Coldness. They are the same vibrations. Yes, Midnight, the
hour of the North, look at where your watch points when ending the
numbers of hours of the day. Hundreds of years later, inventing the watch,
the twelve atop your watch dial is at the top of the circumference of the
Earth, to the North Pole, the land of ice. Ice and cold.
In the absences of music, take a cold shower, look at a blue color, or put
your head to the North while lying down, then you will find you can sleep
easily.
Insomnia at night! What is its opposite? The South, the Sun, the Heat, the
color Red represent the Noon time. Between 11 AM and 1 PM there are
those who suddenly become drowsy in the midst of the hustle bustle of

work, they feel sleepy. They are out of balance with the hectic world
around them. It is the Daytime insom-nia! G, 'Sol' is the fifth tonic for C,
therefor it is the note of midday. It is the time of hot bright Sun. The hot
represents Red and the direction of South. So to energize people and get
rid out of sleepiness, they should hear the music centered around G 'Sol'
or if there is no musical instruments around, they can have a hot shower,
or looking at the color of Red, or face South. They will feel themselves
being energized again.
Avicenna had divided the circle around us, whatever you might call-- the
globe, the circumference, the orb. Now he looked to the West, where the
Sun sets in the evening. Avicenna found out another simple daytime
distress, in the realm of memory here. He noticed that there were some
people prone to repetition or forgetfulness at the end of the day, at the
time of sunset. He connected this to the West (where the sun sets), and
pink is the color of it. There are two simple memory problems. One is
thinking about so many things at the same time, so it is easy to forget
other little things - like you sometimes struggle to find keys or forget
appointments. The other is being stuck while thinking one thing, repeating
it over and over again, as something that had happened in the daytime,
completely unable to get it out of his mind. In the logic of music, the note
D 'Re' is the fifth tonic of G 'Sol'.
Hearing compositions built around D will balance and heal the one who
has memory problems. Who is the most known having memory
problems? The are aged people. D is also associated with old folks, a
time for remembering the past all the time. So, the West, the Sunset, the
color of Pink, the Coolness and the old age are equal to the note D 'Re"
vibration in cents and they tune the sense of memory.
The opposite direction is on the other side, the fourth cardinal direction,
the fourth quarter, to the East. The hour of Sunrise. The note is A 'La' as
the fifth dominant of D. represent the hours of the beginning of the day,
childhood, curiosity, high energy. A's color is green. The color that you can
first make out as the dawn breaks after the gray. The time of the day to
look ahead to the future.
So the East is Green color, the Sunrise, the beginning and the note A, '
La', they all are equal in cent vibration and they balance curiosity in man.
Musically, if a musician will start a composition on A 'La' and make it
dominate in his composition cadenzas, he will play for hours passing

trough many modulations, opposite of the D 'Re' tone. One can't leave
that mode easily and move to another.
The fifth of A, is E "Mi", at the tropic of Capricorn between noon and
sunset, and at the same time halfway between sunrise and noon, about 3
and 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and between 9 and 10 in the morning. It is
the color of Yellow. The note B "Si" as the 5th tonic for the E will represent
the next opposite, the tropic of Cancer midpoint between midnight and
sunrise at about 3 and 4 AM, or between sunset and midnight at about 9
and 10 PM. The light of just after the twilight, when the last pink is finished
but the blue has not fully deepened, or out of the blue of the night before
the Orange of Sunrise appears, between those hours of the day. It is the
color of Gray. The last fifth is the note F #, "Fa #", it's the center where all
the cardinal points meet, the place of without direction, it is still,
mysterious and Black in color, emotion and sadness.
Starting as a scholar, physician, and scientist, Ibn Sina assigned qualities
to the relations of vibrations, tones, colors, directions, emotions and came
to these conclusions.
C 'Do', Midnight, north, color blue, the Moon and cold is 750 cents
G 'Sol' Midday, south color Red, the Sun and heat is 1000 cents
D 'Re", Evening, West,color Pink, Sunset, and Cool is 666 cents
A 'La', Morning East, color Green,Sunrise and beginning is 888 cents
E "'Mi", Midmorning, Midafternoon, color Yellow, S.E and S.W is 563
cents
B 'Si" Midevenin& Mid Dawn, color Gray, N.E and N.W is 840 cents
F# 'Fa#' Center, no direction, color Black is 537 cents