The Music of Hindostan c11.281

c11.281

Thirdly, as a result of this individualizing of the several notes of the scale to form a *Rāg*, repetition at different levels, ‘imitation’, is rare. Exact imitation can only take place in similar tetrachords. And though the majority of *Rāgs* are composed of tetrachords of which the constituent notes are similar in *pitch*—both are of the form tone, semitone, tone, or both of the form semitone, tone and a half, semitone, and so on—the two tetrachords are seldom identical in the *character* of their constituents. In the instance just given, Ex. 281, if the A is touched lightly its corresponding note, E, is touched still more lightly; the F is a substantive note and the F♯ a passing note, whereas the B♭ and B♮ which correspond to them are equipollent alternatives. A piece of imitation, therefore, in the two corresponding parts of the scale would not really be correspondent; hence we meet with only a very limited use of imitation at different levels.