The Music of Hindostan c15.49

c15.49

On the other hand, at Tanjore a man got up of his own motion and sang *Sāman* before a roomful of people, and, what was more surprising, before a European in their presence. It appeared that he had a theory of his own as to how *Sāman* should be sung, and was seeking converts. He has evidently taken the scale of the *Nāradaśikṣā* (see below, p. 259) as if it were in the modern notation, F–G, instead of the ancient, G–A, and the mode is therefore changed. Further, the essence of the *Sāman* chant is that it circles about one note, F (or E, or D), and only leaves that to form a downward cadence. His version draws attention away from the E to the A below, which in the true *Sāman* is quite a subsidiary note, and it begins, therefore, to be in a regular *Rāg*, which *Sāmagās* assert positively that their chants are not. Moreover, he has forgotten after the first line to put in those characteristic prolongations of notes by vocalizing syllables which add so much to the solemnity of the chant: