The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c9.36

c9.36

In a previous chapter attention has already been drawn to the resemblance that Indian music bears to that of Greece, and this is still more fully borne out by a careful study of modern Greek national airs. In a work not long published, by M. Bourgault-Ducoudray,⁶ the construction of the peculiar scales found throughout the East have been made the subject of most careful research, and the use of what the author terms the "chromatique oriental" is especially noticed. This scale is no other than the Indian Mâyamâlavagaula, and to its frequent use attention has been drawn elsewhere. M. Bourgault-Ducoudray's work to students of Eastern music is especially interesting, and the careful analysis that is given of each air renders the work most valuable. The resemblance between Indian songs and the examples of melodies from the Levant is so striking that, in many cases, it is difficult to believe that their origin is not identical.