Admittedly, we don't really see any magical music in the books/movies, but Dumbledore has said: "Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!"

There's a post by @Ninclow from 2017 sharing his thoughts on how music/magic fits into the universe. However he doesn't really get into any practical applications or examples. I didn't wish to necropost, so I decided to ask in a new post:

1. How do you think music fits in with magic? Obviously there is something there, otherwise Dumbledore wouldn't have made this statement.

2. How do you imagine magical education happening in Hogwarts and beyond?

3. Musical instruments: made differently, new non-muggle ones?

4. Are there any practical applications for music?

edit: the post I mentioned (https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/ah-music-a-magic-beyond-all-we-do-here.37230/) in case you want to easily read it.

 

My headcanon on magic is that spells can be compared to waveforms travelling through some kind of magical "aether", and doing magic is all about finding ways to create resonance in that aether to create those waveforms. Incantations, wand movements, intention, potions ingredients, wand core materials etc are all different methods of "composing" magic from smaller parts.

Music fits in this system as one more way of forming magic, and I would imagine it would be used for more subtle effects (say, mood altering magic, weather magic, protective magic) rather than simple point and shoot spells. Music is also a great way of getting large groups of people to act in synchronization, so I imagine some kind of ritual with a large number of participants would be a good application for musical magic. In fact you could argue that the Hogwarts school song is sung unsynchronized for this reason: having a large group of excited kids singing a thematically loaded song in perfect synchrony might lead to large scale accidental magic that could have unwanted consequences.

 

Celestina Warbeck is ripping off Celine Dion. The Weird Sisters are ripping off Green Day and The Beatles. Thank you for listening to my TED talk.

 

I think a lot of people fall into the trap of thinking there needs to be a magic version of everything.

The music itself? I imagine it'll be exactly the same.

 

If i remember correctly, JKR's esay on Celestina Warbeck mentions that she has background banshee singers, so I imagine this, along with house-elf choirs and merpeople background singers are a thing, depending on musical genre.

With intruments, you'd get different side-effects with the played music depending on what wand wood the intrument was made of. So a guitar made out of acacia will only consent to play or its owner, a sycamore guitar will only play experimental stuff, willow instruments will have healing effects on any audience while ones made out of fir will last forever. If you pair these with unicorn hair strings or dragon heart strings you'll of course get different effects again.

We see music affect Fluffy in PS, and Dumbledore's love of chamber music from his chocolate frog card, so maybe music has a positive effect on dark magic? I could imagine playing a skillful, slow ballad to a sectumsempra wound could heal it, or something like that.

 

I don't mean to say that magic and music have no connection, but I do think the Dumbledore quote being used to evidence a definite connection might is being taken slightly out of context . It sounds to me more like Dumbledore complementing something he finds wonderful than referencing an actual link to magic itself. I could see him describing a particularly nice view in nature with the same sort of line.

But as far as the music itself, I always imagined something very similar to the magic we know, but with some slight deviations. The overall sound would be similar, but between spells and creatures and other such things magical musicians would have access certain sounds and techniques that their muggle counterparts would not. Which would go the other way as well, with things like auto-tune and electric instruments being absent or altered for magical musicians.

 

Haha, that's probably true. I quoted it primarily because the post I found did, but I do not assign it as much weight as Ninclow did; nevertheless I thought it an interesting intro for such a conversation.

My own thinking is that there are some magical properties of music, especially since different materials would be used (for example unicorn hair as a core for a violin's strings). However I mostly see its effects having mild healing effects or even extremely powerful & otherworldly effects (that would however require great skill & would be pretty esoteric). So I mostly agree with @arkkitehti on music having subtle effects, though I can see it playing a part in weird rituals.

 

I don't think he meant that literally, but also, there might as well be some ineffable magical properties that are hard to find practical or actionable uses for, much like the Power of Love, which has a direct impact on the world but it's not something your average Joe can truly consciously weaponize.

Musical education? Probably through extracurriculars/clubs at Hogwarts.
Private tutors for rich halfbloods/purebloods.
Maybe something like the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts, focused on music, or maybe the WADA has a musical/music program?

That one is probably true, both in magic materials as well as enchantments for preservation, better/weirder sounds, maybe imbued with mood altering charms (a violing with a cheering charm, for instance, that can always lighten the mood).

Yes and no.
I think any inherent magical applications to music will be ineffable or abstract.
I also think it's possible to enchant an instrument with a mood altering charm and wield it to cause practical effects, but it wouldn't be something inherent to the music.

This is actually pretty cool, though listening to a concert in mermish would cause some funny dissonances. I'm picturing an awesome grindcore band singing about breaking the system or something, with hardcore mermish backup vocals and no one realizing the merfolk are actually singing beautiful love ballads (if only one cared to listen the sounds under water).

I'm adding that to my headcanon from now on... the influence of magic woods could be pretty cool to explore.

 

In terms of Pop I can't help but imagine its like Christian Rock, or those continental european bands that just covered Beatles hits. Small fish in a small pond rather than being actually all that great.
Considering Rowlings socurces for her magic though I suspect that the harmonies and mathematics behind music are extremely important. The materials of wands remind me rather a lot of stringed instruments and I dont think that that is unintenional.