Page:The Music of India.djvu/154

 ought to be something in all good music which any cultured ear and mind can artistically appreciate.' He was of course referring to the best examples of either western or eastern music and to cultured minds on both sides of the world. The question naturally arises here as to whether it is possible for any one to appreciate the music of the other side without some special education of the musical faculty. We know how difficult it is for people who have had no musical education at all to appreciate classical music in the west, and we know too that all classes can be educated to appreciate it. It is a fact that many musical artists of the west have revealed a very keen appreciation of Indian music, and some of them have learnt to use it with real distinction. Some may think that this is a rare occurrence, and not a possibility for every-one who has a soul for music. This book should at any rate reveal the fact that Indian music, whether fully developed or not, is at least founded on sound musical principles, and that it does contain possibilities of appreciation by all truly musical people.

There are many reasons which prevent people from giving that appreciation to the music of the other people which it merits. There are some to whom the music of the other is simply a noise more or less disagreeable, or perhaps 'the least disagreeable of noises.' There are some who like Aurangzeb would have Indian music buried so deep that ' neither voice nor echo shall issue from the grave.' Various causes may conduce to this lack of appreciation. A writer in the Madras Mail sometime ago gave expression to one of these. He wrote :

'I own that Indian music, though it interests me, does not appeal to me in the least. I have tried again and again to catch some comprehensive idea and grasp a beginning or an ending, to discover whether the music is pathetic or sublime, erotic or religious, and I have never yet succeeded.'

He goes on to say with impartial fairness :

'The conclusion to be drawn is not that the art is inferior or that it does not exist. It is the ears of our musical understanding which are deaf to those sounds, which have so powerful an effect upon our neighbours.'