The Music of Hindostan c11.59

c11.59

We have seen nothing in the facts of *Rāga* so far with which to meet a possible suggestion of the frivolous, that if you were to put the phonogram of an Indian melody on to the cylinder fore part behind and hear the tune backwards it would sound just as well. One answer to this would be that in that case all the ascending passages would come out as descending and vice versa, and that many (not all) *Rāgs* have a distinct form for ascent and descent. And this in two ways, or at least as two manifestations of the same instinct. The pentatonic (*oḍava*) and hexatonic (*ṣāḍava*) modes are often pure (as in Nos. 1 and 24), but sometimes mixed (as in Nos. 4 and 11): in the pure mode the ‘leap’ is taken absolutely; in the mixed mode it is taken with a subsidiary grace-note, or in a sort of tentative way. In descent the ‘leap’ is bridged by a passing note: