THE MUSIC OF INDIA. By Atiya Begum Fyzee-Rahaman. (London :
Luzac and Co. 12s. 6d.) AMONG the points introduced in Atiya Begum's book one had not yet been touched upon by any other author writing in
English on Indian music : the relation between music and occultism. This, naturally, will prove more interesting to students of occultism than to musicians pure and simple. Yet, as Mr. Fox-Strangways has put it in his admirable Music of Hindustan (Clarendon Press, 1914) :—
" Though we may be unable to point to definite characteristics in Indian music which are due to its impregnation with a most spiritual form of religion, yet its extraordinary correspondence in detail both of time and tune with the music of ecclesiastical Europe justifies the view that a peculiar outlook on the world, such as,
for instance, the specifically religious outlook, does bring as a result a peculiar form of music,:
The book contains lovely illustrations. It will whet the appe- tite of would-be investigators rather than satisfy it.
Previous page
