Beyond physics, the body becomes the conduit. Indian vocalists speak of riyaz—the daily training of breath, pitch, and timbre—while practices akin to pranayama cultivate steadiness. Tagore’s educational experiment at Santiniketan placed students under open skies, learning quite literally in moving air; his essays in Sadhana (1913) praise an intimate union with the living world. Rabindra Sangeet blends classical and folk idioms to foreground breath-shaped phrase and conversational melody. Consequently, effort is not grim but enlivening: the singer’s disciplined lungs give the environment a new contour, and the environment, in turn, shapes the singer. [...]
