The Music of Hindostan c8.s3.20

c8.s3.20

It is impossible to measure this sort of song by any European standards, the problem is so entirely different. With us, as with them, a singer concentrates into a single song all his knowledge and past experience, and has taken years to learn what it takes a few minutes to sing; but he is only interpreting. It seems as fresher and more convincing thing when, after an equal or perhaps larger number of years training, the song is created there and then; when its message has never been given in quite the same terms before and never will be again. The greatest European singers are apt to be voice-producers first and musicians afterwards; the Indian singer is before all things a musician, who may happen to have a good voice, but seldom has a good tone. And it seems possible to overrate good tone; at any rate, it is surprising how much art can be heard behind a poor one. Then, too, in the absence of orchestration and of counterpoint—except such as the drum provides, and of harmony—and, with that, of a certain terseness of structure, the voice has unaided to supply all the interest and to spread it over a certain lapse of time.