The Music of Hindostan c5.27

c5.27

That is perhaps as far as the printed page can go in presenting to the eye what can only be apprehended by the ear. To suggest the effect of that which even musical notation only faintly shows, we may borrow a device from the poets. When Homer wanted his reader to feel that Helen’s beauty was worth all the ten years’ agony of Troy, he made him listen to the old men on the walls talking about her ways as she had moved amongst them in their youth. In that spirit we may read the diary of Pierre Loti in the fifth chapter of his *L’Inde*; and those who have never heard what he speaks of may divine what he means, while those who have heard it may take pleasure in his accuracy of observation and truth of feeling.