Over fifty years ago in the deepest jungles of the Amazon, a group of anthropologists came upon an Indian tribe that had never before had contact with the outside world. They were amazed by the strange objects the scientists brought with them: matches, steel knives, watches, guns, a shortwave radio – signs of a technological god vastly more powerful than the spirits of the jungle and its wild denizens.

The scientists also brought along a record player on which to play a variety of music and watch the reaction of these “primitives.” They tried out big band music, Louis Armstrong, popular tunes by Rosemary Clooney, and bluegrass. The Indians listened politely, but their faces expressed little pleasure or understanding of what they were hearing.

Then the scientists played a piano concerto by Mozart. Suddenly the Indians smiled and swayed in rapture as the melody drifted out into the jungle. Language could not express the pleasure they felt: It was sublime, mystical, timeless.

It was, in short, classical.

Was it the voice of God? Get The Drift for one view.<