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to a vocal artist but also for solo playing

adapted from Musical Instruments of India by S. Krishnaswami. Ministry of I + B 1967

It believe it a true observation, that few secrets are divulged to one person only. Tom Jones p 99

(from Horace)

"You provide the noblest materials for building, when a pick-axe and a spade are only necessary; and build houses of five hundred by a hundred feet forgetting that of six by two." Tom Jones p 115

April 6. Mon

Mrs Tripath stands beside the poster of Hanuman depicting his various adventures. She starts to sing in a lovely lyric Indian style which is impossible to describe, with hand gestures pointing to figures on the wall, repeating short verse after verse. She says she reads from the Ramayana every morning after bathing. I hear her at night chanting "Sita Ram, Sita Ram" as she goes about cleaning up. Indian vocal music is very different and I don't know how to describe it, half chant with sudden flights of variation, emotional, wavering -. The music of a country develops from the human voice of its people, instruments are developed around the sound of the voice. The early religious texts

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were sung. And popular songs are still sung every day by the people today. The story of Sita and Ram etc. H. Zimmer has said there is no climax in Indian Art. Certainly in Indian music there is an endless quality of continuation, so even if someone has stopped singing you know the music though unheard is still going on. Of course there are endless verses to most of the songs and they can go on for what seems like forever. I remember in a village at the celebration of a new temple having a song about Hanuman for about two hours at which time I left for bed. The song still going on. The negative space in their music (by that I mean the air, the time, which surrounds the music, the use of pauses of blank sound) is integrated so there is no brake. The music has a mournful sound, the over used term "soul music" fits. It can be very emotional [MARGIN: yet very delicate and very strong at the same time], it is by nature an intimate music, meant to be sung and played and appreciated in small groups, chamber music atmospheres. There is now a large use of amplification and playing for huge crowds which ruins the sound, turning it into a different, coarser type of music. [I am not speaking of ceremonial music or processional music which is aiming for volume and impression.]

April 7. Tue

In downtown Vanarasi at two main traffic circles they have installed traffic lights. The result is large traffic jams. This is not due to