The Music of Hindostan c8.s3.1

c8.s3.1

A few notes may be added upon so much of the present-day music as a hurried traveller might hope to hear. In a land not blessed with concert advertisements or concert notices, it is difficult for a stranger in the first place to find the best music, and in the second to know what the inhabitants themselves think of it. He can only remember with gratitude some of the good things it was his fortune to hear. There was some beautiful vīṇā-playing at Mysore, where the general standard is high. The crisp and expressive touch and imaginative improvisation of Subbanna contrasted well with the smooth tones and solid technique and exact intonation of Seshanna, of whom it was said that he could ‘put Sabbanna in his pocket and shake him about’, a criticism the truth of which I was not in a position to gauge. They got by heart at my dictation ‘Ye banks and braes’, selected because it is in the Mohanna Rāgam, and were to improvise upon it next day, when a concourse assembled to hear the result. They quite entered into the spirit of the thing; Subbanna played the tune more as if he cared for it; Seshanna produced the more ingenious variations. Afterwards they played the following in unison with the utmost accuracy: