Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

CWSA 27

Fragment ID: 6710

Poem and Song [3]

About French or German songs I know nothing – but as for the English, except for a few like Cardinal Newman’s hymn “Lead, kindly Light” they don’t exist so far as I know,– I mean of course as regards their contents, manner, style. I believe in European music the words are of a very minor importance, they matter only as going with the music. But I am not an expert on the subject, so I can’t go farther into it. When religious songs were written in mediaeval Latin, they were very fine, but with the use of the modern languages the art was lost – the modern European hymnals are awful stuff.

13 May 1936