"In the hands of a virtuoso the talas are played at a speed so fast that the audience cannot possibly have time to count the intervals; due to the speed at which they are played, the talas are registered in the brain as a cluster configuration, a complex Gestalt involving all the senses at once. While the structure of the talas can be laboriously reduced to a mathematical sequence, the effect is subjective and emotional.... The audience at a recital of Indian classical music becomes physically engrossed by the agile patterns and counter-patterns, responding with unfailing and instinctive kinaesthetic accuracy to the terminal beat in each tala."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Richard Lannoy, quoted in Decolonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1492 to the Present Day. Claude Alphonso Alvares, 1991
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Indian_classical_music
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Indian classical music
28 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Indian classical music →
Related Quotes
"“The Hindu theory is not like other systems, limited to experimental data: it does not consider arbitrarily as natura…"
"What real music we have lies in Kirtana and Dhrupada: the rest has been spoiled by being modulated according to the I…"
"Musical notes and intervals were analyzed and mathematically calculated in the Hindu treatises on music; and the “Pyt…"
"Music in India has a history of at least three thousand years. The Vedic hymns, like all Hindu poetry, were written t…"
"For listening to music, in India, is itself an art, and requires long training of ear and soul."
"India has a classical music tradition that is around five thousand years old….Indian classical music is of two kinds …"
"The Indian system of notation is perhaps the oldest and most elaborate. There are ragas meant to be sung in winter, i…"
"It is in the domain of music in particular that the contribution of Muslims is the greatest. It is, however, difficul…"
"The roots of music are more exposed in India than anywhere else. The Vedda in Ceylon possess the earliest stage of si…"
"Muslim rulers and nobles always patronised music throughout the medieval times... Indian classical music survived thr…"