The Music of Hindostan c13.s3.48

c13.s3.48

When three notes of neighbouring pitch and no more are sung without any particular emphasis on any one of them, the voice tends of itself to emphasize and the musical consciousness to give pre-eminence to the middle one. Thus in the scale of the Andaman islands, which (in some parts at least) consists only of three notes separated by some very small interval, it is recorded that the middle note is made the tonic. Again, in the snake-charmer’s pipe (see Ex. 274) the middle note of three is made the drone. Similarly, if three equal units of time are repeated and an accent is put on one of them, it will gradually determine to the middle one of the three: ◡ ú ◡, ◡ ú ◡ (or, if the commas between them represent rests: 2/4 ♩ ♩ ♩ ⁑ ♩ ♩ ♩ &c.).