How music grew, from prehistoric times to the present day — John Shaqi
How music grew, from prehistoric times to the present dayPeyser, Ethel R. (Ethel Rose)
History
How music grew, from prehistoric times to the present day
Peyser, Ethel R. (Ethel Rose)
Music -- History and criticism; Musicians
The native legends tell us that the gods gave music to the people and
all through the music there are signs to show their power and influence.
The literature of India can be traced back many centuries and through it
we see what an important place song held. There were minstrels in the
ancient courts whose duty it was to chant songs in praise of their royal
masters. In their religious ceremonies, too, music held a high place.
One of their holy books says: “Indra (their chief god) rejects the
offering made without music.” The Hindu people are divided into many
classes, which they call castes, and in ancient times the singers were
members of the priest caste. The Hindus love music and have always used
it for all festivities, in the drama, and in the temples.
The singing of poems from ancient time has always been popular and
dancing too, and here, as among the Japanese, have grown up trained
dancers called the Bayaderes or Nautch girls. (Chapter V).
Music is still used in India to appease and please the gods and to plead
for rain or sunshine.
Travelers to India relate that they have heard the beating of drums,
accompanied by solo voice or by a chorus, continued for several days at
a time. When there has been a drought, and rain is needed, this long
drawn out music is used as a means to ask the god to bring rain.
In the Temple of the Sacred Tooth in Ceylon (India) on each night of the
full moon, the sacred books are chanted by relays of yellow-robed
priests, following each other every two hours from dark to dawn. They
chant in deep resounding voices without a pause. The Buddhist priests
have repeated these sacred texts on every night of the full moon for
twenty-eight centuries!
In India they have made a deep study of color and sound and things we
know very little about, and to which we attach very little importance.
Through their study of the laws of sound and color, the Hindus feel sure
that they are related. Edward Maryon in “Marcotone” says: “Chemistry and
Mathematics prove that the Natural Scales of Light and Sound in
Principle are one, and therefore the Primary Colors of the Solar
Spectrum, and the Primary Tones of the Musical Scale have the same
_ratio_ of speed vibrations. Therefore both _Tone_ and _Color_ can be
scaled so that a given number of Lightspeeds (Colors), will equal a
given number of Soundwaves (Tones).”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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