Mu$ in edzicafion
music and dance. The famous poet and grammatical philosopher Bhar-
trihari (circa sixth century A.D.) exclaimed that he who is devoid of
poetry and music is a beast without tail and horn! and today when the
living current of the traditions of many of our arts has suffered a break,
the music tradition alone still clings to us, and however much one
might make oneself a modern and bring oneself under the impact of
alien modes of life and thought, one cannot shake off the native music
in which one’s being is so saturated. To know what sway music has
over us, and how whole families, inclusive of children, would congre-
gate at the concerts, one has only to visit one of our music conferences
or festivals, which act as an undeniable social force that binds us all
together.
The complete musical permeation of people’s life in India can be
appreciated by the fact that there is hardly any department of human
activity which is not lined or enlivened by music. It is no wonder we
have songs and a special melody to lull children to sleep, but we have
even our funeral lamentations in songs. All through the year, there is
a round of festivals and holy celebrations, an integral part of which are
music and dance. Any happy occasion in the family is not complete
without music or dance; no auspicious function like marriage can be
celebrated without the music of the pipe known as nagasvara, and the
women of the two families would sing and tax the energies of the pi-
pers who must reproduce their songs. As the workman plies the water-
lift, boat or cart and as the woman guards the field or thrashes the corn,
they sing, each such activity having its own appropriate tune, melody
and rhythmic pattern. All this constitutes the large mass of the folk
songs of the country.
I have sketched the background rather fully so that we might better
understand the present condition of music education in our country,
and to judge, on the basis of the ideals which it should keep in view,
how far it is progressing on lines not discordant with the tonic of the
essential indigenous viewpoint.
The fountainhead of music in India is the professional musician, the
vidvaB or ztstad, who, properly trained under his master for seven years,
becomes the bearer, interpreter and transmitter of a high tradition. The
method by which he acquires his art is by personally living with his
master, intimately, for many years, learning not only by actual training
but by listening and close observation followed by a period of appren-
ticeship when he assists and accompanies his master. The content of
Indian music comprises the large body of melodic forms, ragds, and to
a lesser extent, the rhythmic patterns, talas, and the composition of