Page:The Music of India.djvu/40

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fine head-quarters in Sandhurst Road and is supported by Maharajas and government officials. The staff consists of forty teachers, both men and women, twenty-nine of whom belong to the Bombay branch; and its income is about Rs. 30,000 a year. Both vocal and instrumental music are taught, either individually or in classes. The school in Calcutta, under the name of Sangit Sangha is a recent institution, and experiments are being made along the lines of the combination of the Indian and European systems.

The most noteworthy recent development has been the series of All-India Conferences, inaugurated in the year 1916 by His Highness the Maharaja of Baroda, which led to the establishment of an All-India Music Academy in the year 1919. The Conference has been held annually since 1918, and has done a great deal of useful work in stimulating interest in and promoting the study of Indian music and in the systematization of Hindusthani ragas. It has made possible the discussion of musical problems by a gathering of artists and experts drawn from the whole of India, a free interchange of thought and opinion by musicians of all races and climes in India, the attempt to find an adequate notation to express the beauties and refinements of Indian ragas and melodies, and finally the establishment of this All-India Academy. The Academy is under the patronage of many of the leading Indian princes and has the support of men like Mr. N. V. Bhatkhande, who are giving themselves to the development of Indian music. It aims at providing facilities for collective and individual research, and for the collecting and preserving of the best classical compositions, and hopes to bring about a uniform method of arranging the ragas and systematizing the melodies for the whole of India. The Academy of Music hopes, in co-operation with its sister organizations, to promote the development of a living musical culture, having its roots in the soil of India and expressing itself in nobler and more beautiful forms, so as to enrich the lives of both rich and poor.