The Music of Hindostan c11.55

c11.55

An English-speaking Indian habitually chooses the word ‘tune’ to translate Rāg. And the fact is he does not attach importance to the tune of a song. A song may be sung in many ways—the more the better, as a rule—so long as it is within the welldefined limits of the *Rāg*; on the other hand, the least departure from the prescribed notes surprises us, not always pleasurably. This has one advantage, at any rate, that it is unnecessary to record Indian tunes in notation. The names of the *Rāgs* to which the *Gita-Govinda* (eleventh century) was sung have been preserved, and even in the absence of a notation it is open to any musician of to-day of sufficient skill to sing them as expressively as Jayadeva himself.