The Music of Hindostan c13.s1.4

c13.s1.4

and could no doubt have been set in other ways provided the fourth syllable were *longer* than the others; and we notice that it does not disturb the singer that the first syllable, which is short, comes on the accent, while the two long syllables (*lā*) come one of them off and the other on the accent; but both are kept long, and all the short syllables are kept short in the music. It is moreover set not in 6/8, as the sound of the word would have suggested to us that it should be, but in 3/4, which further throws a slight emphasis on the syllable *ka-*, because, as we shall see, the beat comes there. Not that a long syllable invariably has a long note, especially if two or three of them come together; but it does as a rule.