The Music of Hindostan c5.36

c5.36

"The human voice had, I found, been kept for the end. One after another tiny fragile-looking boys in rich attire, with eyes almond-shaped and over-large, executed bravura passages with bewildering rapidity. The voices they once had were now broken—already dying, as it were. A man in a gold turban conducted them, to the sound of a truly awe-inspiring prelude, by holding them with his eyes, his head lowered like that of a snake fascinating a bird; and you knew that he was mesmerizing them and could, if he pleased, force to breaking point the delicate structure of their frail organs. The words they articulated to their minor cadences were a prayer to appease an angered goddess.