The Music of Hindostan c5.38

c5.38

"These players and singers are the servants of the Maharajah. They are to be heard every day within the guarded stillness of his palace walls, while menials pass to and fro with a cat's footfall, or stand with hands joined in supplication. How far other than ours must be the thoughts of this Monarch's heart; how different his outlook upon the sorrow of life, and of love, and of death! But music like this, uncommon in character and distinguished in performance, reveals to me one little corner of his soul better than did our short and formal interview, spoiled by its tiresome punctilio and by the constraint of a language not my own.”