The Music of Hindostan c10.134

c10.134

Broadly speaking this transition from the heptachord (*mūrchana*, *harmoniā*) to the octachord (*rāg, tonos*) is the passage from the domination of the Fourth to that of the Fifth, from vocal to instrumental music. The voice discovers the consonance of the Fourth before that of the Fifth. Its upper notes are the more powerful, and the overtones accordingly more audible. Consequently it is in singing the upper notes that the desire to reach a consonant note chiefly makes itself felt. A bass voice, for instance, is singing [Figure: ]. The E above it sounds clearly in his ear: but it is beyond his compass; he therefore takes the lower E as the most obvious consonance. With instruments, however, the case is reversed. It is the lower notes that are the most powerful and yield the clearest overtones; and with these the Fifth comes to be appreciated more than the Fourth. In this respect, besides that mentioned above, the music of the Carnatic shows signs of greater age—of having begun earlier that is, and lived longer, and reached a further, not necessarily a higher, point of development. The *aṃśa* is there less a vital element of *Rāgam*; musicians often cannot tell you which note is *aṃśa*, and the songs make little account of it. This shows that the consonance of the Fourth, which the principle of *aṃśa* emphasizes, is less keenly felt there. And again the songs tend to close on the tonic or the Fifth, whereas in the North there is no such preference; they may end anywhere, but do, for choice, on the first note or with the first phrase of the song, on whatever note it may bring them to rest. Here, for instance, is a typical Carnatic phrase (cp. Ex. 379):