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Early accounts of Christian singing in Mizoram confirm that these modifications observed in present SUDFWLFHZHUHDOVRWDNLQJSODFHLQWKHHDUO\\HDUVRIWKHVRQJV¶UHFeption. The descriptions give a sense RI WKH µYRLFHV¶ WKDW FKDUDFWHUised early Christian singing that has been retained in the khawhar zai practice. Though antagonistic towards the Christian influence in Mizoram, J.D. :LOOLV¶GHVFULSWLRQVRI Christian worship during his visit to the Lushai villages on the border with Myanmar give some of the best accounts of the practice of singing in the rural areas in the early decades, far from the direct influence of the missionaries.236 _{In Ruantlang village, the sound of the drum beginning the singing} would announce the fact that the worship was about to start, calling the villagers to the church (1948: 169, 174, 180):

Soon the sound of sweet voices filled the air. The Lushais have lovely voices, and the women are particularly tuneful and crystal clear. Whilst the Lusei (sic) music itself is slow DQGVDGWKH\FDQVLQJ(QJOLVKWXQHVLQJRRGNH\DQGSLWFK«7KHVHUYLFHODVWHGIRUDERXW two hours and consisted mainly of hymn singing and drums.

236 _{J.D. Willis was an officer posted in the Chin Hills of Myanmar close to the border with Mizoram.} +LVQRWHVIURPDQXQRIILFLDOµZDONLQJWULS¶KHPDGHLQWRWKH/XVKDL+LOOVLn 1948 are held in the British Library.

The villagers were proud of the tRQLFVROIDFRS\RI+DQGHO¶VHallelujah Chorus they possessed in an exercise book, as well as their copies of the KHB, expecting that Willis would be able to sing all of the hymns (Ibid: 176). This shows that Mizo Christians were not unable to sing according to the notated tonic solfa, but were not always inclined to do so, especially outside the church context. Willis also experienced domestic congregational singing, during which a large crowd gathered in the home and the drums were brought in to aid the singing, much as happens at the khawhar in. Travelling in December and January, it is no surprise that Christmas songs such as µ$GHVWH)LGHOHV¶ were among the songs sung, though Willis noted that in this case the tune was altered in the lêngkhâwm zai style which remains the tune by which the hymn is still sung today. He elaborates (Ibid: 191):

We sat and sang thus for some five hours at least and it seemed but little longer than five minutes. At times one of the women would lead the singing and being carried away by the zeal of her own emotion would dance as well. The Christian dance that is done to a hymn is very modified and is little more than the singer standing up, clapping her hands and bending the knees. Later in Hnarlung I was told that this was a very common dance done at Christian gatherings.

:LOOLV¶GHVFULSWLRQVGHYLDWHOLWWOHIURPWKHPRGHUQH[SHULHQFHVRIWKH zaikhâwm at Christmas, except that growth in population has meant that such gatherings usually take place in a church hall rather than in a home. Noting that lêngkhâwm singing was primarily a domestic event, it is all the more significant to note the connection that the present khawhar in has with past traditions not only of times of death but also times of celebration at Christmas and Easter. It is now one of the only occasions for singing such songs in the home, and a rare chance to enact the type of community singing that would once have been much more frequent. The increasing acceptance of songs less strictly associated with mourning at the khawhar in is perhaps a result of this fact, since it is increasingly becoming one of the few sites in which to enact the collective memory of such domestic singing that used to happen more frequently at other events and seasons.

The letters of Kitty Lewis after her 1924 tour of remote villages in North Lushai offer an even earlier record than that of Willis.237 _{In Neidawn village near Champhai, the sound of a drum or gong was} audible in advance of her arrival, which told of the fact that the village had gathered to sing a hymn of

237 _{Held in National Library of Wales.}

welcome. :LOOLV¶DQG/HZLV¶REVHUYDWLRQVRIWKHXVHRIWKHGUXPWRDQQRXQFHVSHFLDORFFDVLRQVDQG singing sessions to the rest of the village corresponds to the way in which the unmistakeable solemn beat of the drum today can announce the gathering of the community at the khawhar in. Jackson has also noted the way in which the Mizo churches introduced a new sonic dimension to the landscape, creating new forms of locality as Christians settled within earshot of the church bells (Kominko 2015: 452). In Hmawngzawl, a modified version of -RKQ+HQU\1HZPDQ¶V µ/HDGNLQGO\OLJKW¶ was sung as a solo, which Lewis GHVFULEHV DV EHLQJ VXQJ µHQWLUHO\ RI TXDUWHU QRWHV¶ suggesting that it had been presented in the lêngkhâwm zai style. Her accounts DUHFRUURERUDWHGE\KHUSDUHQWV¶DFFRXQWVDQGOHWWHUV IROORZLQJWKHLUYLVLWLQZKLFK5XWK/HZLVUHFDOOHGWKHVLQJLQJRIDVRQJµWRDSXUHO\/XVKDLWXQH¶DQG Herbert Lewis described the call of the drum to church. He narrates the singing of familiar songs including the British national anthem sung to the pentatonic scale:238

The Lushais cannot, unless very carefully taught, sing the notes fa and te, and have to be FRQWHQWZLWKWKHRWKHUQRWHVLQWKHVFDOH«>DQRWKHU@K\PQZDVVXQJWRDIDPLOLDU:HOVK tune, converted as a matter of course into the pentatonic scale.

At about the same time as Lewis, G.M. Mendus also turned her hand to notating some songs, in an apparent attempt to understand their musical syntax having initially expressed her distaste for lêngkhâwm zai when she arrived in Mizoram. Scraps of notation survive among her papers at the National Library of Wales that correlate with the melodic modifications and pitch functions illustrated in Figure 3.7 and which also correspond to contemporary versions of the songs she attempted to notate. In a British radio interview given in 1984, the missionary Roberts produced recordings probably from a 1978 tour of a Mizo choir to North America.239 _{A recording of khawhar zai is included in the} LQWHUYLHZ57KDQJKXWD¶VµKa râlܒhuamna ka dam ngam lo¶240 _{which is a rare example of such singing} in past decades that offers a point of comparison. As is practiced today, the hla hriltu is present, a woman, and the singing style is indistinguishable from the present style. The only slight difference is the tempo, which is faster, not slower than contemporary practice. However, it is possible that the nature of the recording context, probably in a studio or for a North American audience, made the tempo

238 _{Letter to Mr Williams, 8 January 1924. Lewis was a Member of Parliament at the time of his visit} to the Lushai Hills.

239 _{Recording from interview held in National Library of Wales.} 240 _{µ,GDUHQRWUHPRYHP\DUPRXU¶}

quicker. The fact that Roberts herself claims in the interview to enjoy singing along to such songs suggests that by this point the missionaries had thoroughly accepted the repertoire as part of the Christian musical tradition of Mizoram. These few accounts and sources spanning the twentieth century cannot conclusively prove but can go some way towards supporting the notion that the modern experience and practice of khawhar zai has not changed significantly.

This section has used the one translated example from the sample to illustrate the way in which solfa zai were modified but also contributed changes to the older musical style such as the wider range of the PHORGLHV,WKDVDOVRGUDZQIURPDUDQJHRIDFFRXQWVWKDWVXJJHVWWKDWWKHµYRLFHV¶RIkhawhar zai heard today bear a close relationship to those of the early development of the repertoire. The study will now turn to some of the melodic aspects of the music that indicate some retention of the musical style of the missionary hymns.