The Music of Hindostan c15.s1: Authorities for the Sāman Scale

The Music of Hindostan c15.s1

Language: English

Authorities for the Sāman Scale

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| I Ṛkprātiśākhya. At least fourth cent. B. C. | kruṣṭa head | prathama palate | dvitīya brow | tṛtīya ear | caturtha nose | mandra | atisvārya (formed by karṣaṇa from the mandra) | 1 2 3 4 |
| II Bṛhaddevatā. At least fourth cent. | kṛṣṭa | prathama udātta Ga prathama | dvitīya svarita Ri dvitīya dvitīya | tṛtīya pracaya Sa • tṛtīya | caturtha anudātta Ni • caturtha | mandra • mandra | atisvārya (Ahvārakas) (Taittirīyas) | 5 6 7 8 9 |
| III Taittirīya- Prātiśākhya. At least fourth cent. | kruṣṭa | prathama | dvitīya | tṛtīya | caturtha | mandra pañcama | atisvārya atisvāra anusvāra ṣaṣṭha antya | 10 |
| IV Sāmavidhāna- brāhmaṇa. Later than I, II, III. | | | | | | | Alludes to the whole series as ‘kruṣṭādi’, that is, beginning with kruṣṭa. | 11 |
| V Puṣpasūtra. Fifth to second cent. | | | | | | | | |
| VI Sāmatantra. Prob. not modern. | | | | gi | di | bi | | 12 |
| VII Sāmaparibhāṣā. ‘Quite modern.’ (R. Simon.) | kruṣṭa Ni {C (G) | prathama Dha {B (F#) | dvitīya Pa {A (E) | tṛtīya Ma {G (D) | caturtha Ga {F (C) | mandra Ri {E (B) | atisvārya Sa {D (A) | 13 14 |

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Relative pitch of the notes.

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melody; whereas the Maoris think of the song as ‘here, down below’, and the harmony as going up to the roof under which they are singing and ‘coming down’ to them.

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Mandra, low. This is the usual name for the sixth note; it is once (No. IV) called pañcama, in continuation of the ordinals. That it was a substantive note of the scale we see perhaps in No. I, where it appears even though the tṛtīya is omitted. But that it was on a different footing from the five notes above it is indicated in line 4, where they are all head-notes as opposed to the mandra, a chest-note. It gave its name also to the lower octave in the secular scale as opposed to the middle octave (madhya, or madhyama) and the upper (tāra, or uttama).

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Atisvārya, extremity of the cadence. This is a curious name for the lowest note of the full scale, to which we should naturally have attached some idea of a tonic. But it is obvious that it is not a substantive note of the scale at all. In line 4 it only exists by permission of the mandra; in line 10 there is an uncertainty about the pronunciation of its name (atisvārya, atisvāra, anusvāra), and alternatives are suggested—ṣaṣṭha (sixth) and antya (last); in lines 17, 19, and 25 the ‘musical hand’ does not provide for it, and line 4 does not appropriate to it an organ of the body. It is clearly an ‘extra’ note; and it may be observed that the Greeks similarly regarded their scale as stopping normally at the B, while they called the note A below it ‘extra’ (proslambanomenos).

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Tetrachords. There are indications that the nucleus of the scale was, successively perhaps, the tetrachords:

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EX. 349. and

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The tetrachord E–B. In line 9 this is the usus of the Taittirīyas, confirmed by line 29. In line 16 these same notes are appropriated to the four Ṛgveda accents. Lines 1 and 2 are very difficult because we do not know how to place the three notes of line 2. Aṣṭama (eighth) in a scale of seven notes is surprising. But it will be seen at the foot of the diagram that the scale actually contains eight notes, and it is just conceivable that aṣṭama, which is obviously extra to the accepted seven, names the F♯, which is alternative to the F♮. This leaves sama (level) and śukra (bright) to fill three places; and all that can be said is that atisvārya, the ‘additional’

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note, is the most likely of the three to have been left unfilled. In line 1, where we can place the notes, it is remarkable that *tṛtīya* should be omitted in the series of four; and this may be an indication that the D was not on the same footing with the others, and that in this treatise, at any rate, the real nucleus of the scale was held to be F E–C B, i. e. composed of the Fourths F–C and E–B.

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The tetrachord F–C. On the other hand, the fact that the four ordinals (first to fourth) are assigned in every treatise to the notes F, E, D, C, and that in line 6 the *Ṛgveda* accents are appropriated to these notes, makes it clear that the tetrachord F–C has an equal claim with that of E–B to be considered the foundation of the scale.

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The hesitation between these tetrachords is reflected in the ‘musical hand’ of line 17, where F and E are both assigned to the first finger, and C and B both to the fourth; and the hesitation remains, in respect of C and B, in lines 19 and 25.

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It is clear also that the scale consisted normally of only five notes for a considerable time. In the *Puṣpasūtra* (9. 26) we find that ‘the Kauthumas sing the majority of their chants to five tones, a few to six, and two of them to seven tones’. In line 12 we find Sol-fa names for five notes only. That no more than five were contemplated may be seen from the choice of consonants. They are the medials of the five classes of consonant (guttural, palatal, cerebral, dental, and labial) proceeding in regular order from throat to lips. Lines 17 and 25 are a further indication that the normal scale consisted of five notes. All this lends some support to the interpretation given above of line 1.

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The scale was increased to six by the addition of *kruṣṭa*. That this was an afterthought is seen in the fact that it is independent of the nomenclature by ordinals, in the hesitation as to *kruṣṭa* or *kṛṣṭa*, and in the confusion introduced into the musical hand (lines 19 and 25). Finally, a seventh note was tentatively admitted in the *atisvārya*.

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*Consonance* (*saṃvāditva*). The consonance which was suggested by two tetrachords, F–C and E–B, is carried out further in line 23, where the seven notes are divided into two similar tetrachords. This consonance holds whatever the intervals may be between the notes within the tetrachord. For the intonation of these we depend on the identifications in lines 14 and 21 of the *Sāman* notes with those of the secular scale, which, as we saw (p. 114), was at least as old as the oldest of these treatises.

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In lines 6, 15, and 21 Sa is identified with tṛtīya, and this gives the Sa-grāma in a plagal form from N(i). In line 14 Sa is identified with atisvārya, and this gives the Ma-grāma in a plagal form from N(i), or the Sa-grāma in an authentic form from M(a). But S(a) and P(a) are saṃvādī; therefore the notes are D and A (not D and A). The two scales are therefore

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Sa-grāma. EX. 350.

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and

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Ma-grāma. EX. 351.

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We saw in Chapter IV that the Gandhāra-grāma was, according to one explanation,

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EX. 352.

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and it is possible that the Sāman scale may throw some light upon it. That scale is reckoned downwards, and therefore the note E is called R(i); but the grāmas are reckoned upwards, and therefore E is G(a). If the Ga-grāma begins on E, it has for its upward tetrachord E, F, G, A, that is, a semitone and two major tones. These make more than a Fourth, therefore either the semitone is the Pythagorean comma (256/243, 90 cents), or one of the tones is a minor tone, as in the lower tetrachord, E, D, C, B. The upper tetrachord would in the first case be the same as the early Greek Doric, and would contain the ditone, instead of the major Third. It seems likely that in some way of which we cannot now trace the history, the gāndhāra-grāma is a relic of this old tuning. The Comma of Didymus (81/80) has to be negotiated somewhere in the scale. We, in Europe, put it between the A and the D (major tone, semitone, major tone), the Indians between the E and the A (semitone, major tone, major tone). In so placing it, it is possible that they reduced an original E 256/243, F 9/8, G 9/8, A to a later E 16/15, F 9/8, G 9/8, A.

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We have other hints which point to a correspondence between the Greek and Indian scale. The Aryans came into India from the North. Gāndhāra is the same word as Kandahar, which as late as Alexander's time (fourth century B. c.) included Afghanistan and the Panjab, with a capital near Peshawar. The Gāndhāra-grāma is the oldest of the three grāmas, and may preserve an early Aryan tradition. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit, which is closely allied to Greek. Evidence of the correspondence of the Greek and Indian systems has been accumulating in these pages; and that the fundamental scale of Greece, the Doric tetrachord, should be identical in form with the oldest form of Indian tetrachord would be more striking evidence than any. But it is unfortunately not more than circumstantial.

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The Gāndhāra scale gave its name no doubt to the Gāndhāra note. The names Madhyama and Pañcama have been discussed in Chapter V. Of Ṛṣabha, Dhaivata, and Niṣāda nothing is known; they may be place-names, like Gāndhāra, or fancy names, like the majority of the śrutis. Of Ṣadja there is something more to be said. Referring once more to the list above we find in line 4 the seventh note left without an assigned organ of the body. In line 14 that same note is called Sa. We remember also that the atisvārya is not a regular note of the scale, but is introduced into it as an extension of the other six. Elsewhere, in the Sangīta-sāra-sangraha, for instance, ṣadja, which undoubtedly means ‘born of six’, is said to be produced from six organs of the body, viz. nose, throat, chest, palate, tongue, and teeth. Putting these together we see that the name ṣadja is merely the mythological expression of the musical fact that the atisvārya was an ‘extra’ note on a different footing from the others.

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There is, however, another tradition as to the intonation of the Sāman scale. M. Śeṣagiri Śāstrī (Descriptive Catalogue, pp. 3, 4) gives the scale as Ma, Ga, Ri, Sa, Dha, and says that the sound is that of the Rāg Abhogi. That Rāg is:

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Drone D¹ (which does not matter here, the drone being a later invention), *aṃśa* E, omitted notes C and A. This is an old tradition, as may be seen from three passages: (1) in an early book of the *Mahābhārata* the notes of the secular scale are given as Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Dha, Pa, Ni; (2) in the *Nāradaśikṣā* (I. 2. 16) the order is Ma, Ga, Ri, Sa, Dha, Ni, Pa; and (3) in I. 7. 4 it is Ma, Ga, Ri, Sa, Dha, Ni (Pa omitted). In all three passages the first five notes are the same, and the last two are out of order; this looks as if the first five were substantive and the last two optional, thus:

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¹ The European note (not the svara).

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Ex. 354.

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and this is the scale of Śeṣagiri Śāstrī and of the Rāg *Abhogi*; and since the *aṃśa* of *Abhogi* is at E, it divides thus:

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Ex. 355.

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and its lower tetrachord is similar to the *usus* of the *Āhvārakas* given in line 26 of the list. We must accept this transilient scale, therefore, as a collateral form of the *Sāman*.

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*The musical hand.* The basis of numeration is in some countries five, in others a dozen (England) or a score (France); in India it is four. Rupees, for instance, are frequently counted by placing one finger on each and sweeping them into the hand. Bearing this in mind, it may be possible to introduce some method into these discrepant accounts of the musical hand. The root idea of this ‘cheironomy’ is that the thumb touches successively the tips of the four fingers. This is seen in the *svāra*, or cadence, where the hand is held ‘in the shape of a cow’s ear’ (see the second of the two illustrations opposite), and the thumb passes over the four fingers in succession. Line 17 may accordingly represent two systems of counting:

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| | Ga | Ri | Sa | Ni | Dha |
| (*a*) | | 1st | [2nd] | [3rd] | 4th |
| (*b*) | 1st | [2nd] | 3rd | 4th | |
| (line 17) | 1st | 1st | 3rd | 4th | 4th |

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Similarly line 19:

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| | Ma | Ga | Ri | Sa | Ni | |
| (*b*) | | [1st] | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | |
| (*c*) | thumb | [1st] | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | (pentachord) |
| (line 19) | thumb | thumb | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | |

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Sāmagah, Madras.

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Sāmagah, Bangalore.

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Lines 24 and 25 combine these. We have therefore:

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| | Ma | Ga | Ri | Sa | Ni | Dha | |
| (a) | | | E | D | C | B | (tetrachord) |
| (b) | | F | E | D | C | | (tetrachord) |
| (c) | G | F | (F♯) | E | D | C | | (pentachord) |

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as bases, perhaps successive bases, of the Sāman scale.

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*The accents.*

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| | Ma | Ga | Ri | Sa | Ni | Dha | Pa |
| (i) line 6 | | U | S | P | A | | |
| (ii) ,, 16 | | | S | A | U | P | |
| (iii) ,, 23 | S | U | A | S | U | A | S |

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There was a doubt, as we saw, about the relative position of udātta and svarita: in the Rgveda the svarita is above, but there is reason to think it may originally have been below the udātta. This doubt, reflected in (i) and (iii) above, is natural if we consider the nature of the svarita, which started on the udātta, rose a little above it, and fell much below it. It was natural that in recitation, where the question of exact pitch did not come up, the fall should be the conspicuous thing, and in its general effect the svarita come to be considered below the udātta; but that, when the pitch came to be defined in chanting, the rise should rather attract attention, since a fall or cadential phrase took place for other reasons than the fact that the syllable had a svarita accent, whereas the rise was peculiar to the svarita note, and therefore in its particular effect the svarita was above the udātta.

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That in (i) the pracaya is above the anudātta and in (ii) below it need cause no trouble, since, as the pracaya is ‘toneless’, there is really no sense in assigning it to any particular tone.

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The position of the anudātta above the udātta in (ii) is more difficult. Perhaps we are justified in calling Ga (in ii) udātta on the analogy of (i) and (iii). This would fulfil all that is required of the pracaya and anudātta, that they should be somewhere below the svarita (and the upper udātta). The lower udātta then appears as the other terminal of the tetrachord, with the svarita above it.

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In (iii) the accents appear to lose their grammatical meaning entirely and to be given a musical meaning. The udātta is now the terminal of the tetrachord, at Ga and Ni, with the svarita above it and the anudātta below it. The udātta is ‘raised’ above the others not in pitch, but in musical eminence. The svarita loses its sense of ‘graced’ note, and becomes a note of certain relative pitch. The *anudātta* is no longer of indefinite ‘low’ pitch, forced under certain conditions ‘lower’ (*anudāttatara*), but becomes definite.

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The theory of consonance thus determined has its counterpart in Greek music:

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These are quite different from Hucbald’s *excellentes*, *superiores*, *finales*, *graves*, with which Burnell compares them, and which involved a series of disjunct, not conjunct, tetrachords.

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An example of the chant as sung by a *Sāmagaḥ* in Madras shows the general musical effect. The breve at the beginning shows the actual pitch of the first note (a Fifth higher); the chant itself is given at the pitch which suits the scale just discussed. The fragmentary syllables are merely phonetic spellings of the apparent sounds of the phonograph, with gaps where the words are inaudible. It was extremely difficult to get even this short specimen.

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Sāman chant. Madras. (Phonogram.)

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Ex. 356.

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Herr Felix Exner was far more successful in 1904. His results have now been worked out by Dr. Erwin Felber, provided with text and translation by Herr Bernhard Geiger, and were published in 1913 under the title *Die indische Musik der vedischen und der klassischen Zeit* as a contribution to the history of recitation. Dr. Felber has very kindly given permission for their transcription here. The actual pitch is given, as before, by the breve at the beginning of each example. The *Sāmaveda* notation with which each of his examples is supplied is omitted here, because it is probably the notation of a different sect from that to which the singer belonged, who has, at any rate, taken no account of it except in a very general way. Felber's numbers are given for reference. He discusses the melodic structure of these chants in his third chapter (pp. 38–43).

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No. 427. Sung by a Brahman priest in Calcutta, forty-two years old, born in Jodhpur. Original text:

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Mahi trīṇām avar astu dyukṣaṃ mitrasyāryamṇaḥ | durādharṣaṃ varu[ṇasya] |

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Translation:

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May the mighty aid of the three gods be ours—the help of Mitra and Aryaman and the invincible Varuṇa.

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Felber. No. 427. ♩=79. *Sempre glissando, piano.*

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Ex. 357.

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Molto allegro. hā - - - i ma-hi t-rī - ṇām a - va - ra - stū -

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e dyuk - ṣam-mi-tra - syā - rya - m - ṇāḥ

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du-r - ā - dhā - - - - - - - r - ṣā . . m va-ra-u

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This example (No. 427), and three others (Nos. 428–30) which it has seemed unnecessary to transcribe, shows, like the Madras example just given, little more than the scale of the Ṛgveda (see line 28 of the diagram on p. 259):

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Ex. 358.

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the F being, on the whole, the most prominent note.

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Felber 443. Sung by two Brahmans of Tanjore aged forty and seventeen—a priest and a student in Madras.

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Original text:

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punānaḥ soma dhārayāpo vasāno arṣasi |
ā ratnadhā yonim ṛtasya sīdasy utso devo hiraṇyayaḥ ||

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Translation:

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Purified, O Soma, by drops, thou movest concealed in the waters; rich in treasure thou residest in the womb of the sacrifice, a golden fount divine.

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Felber. No. 443. = 106. Agitato. Ex. 359. f pu-nā . . . . nā - ḥ so . . ma dhā - rā . . yā

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ā - po vasā - - - na-ā . . . . sā . . . sī

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ā - rā - t - na - dhā - ḥ yo ni mṛ-tā . . .

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Musical notation for "sya sā . . . . dā . . sī ut-sā - ḥ dā-i-vo . . ."

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Musical notation for "hi - rā . . . . nyā . . yā - ḥ."

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Felber, No. 444. Another version of 443, sung by the Madras priest alone.

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Original text of the second verse:

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duhāna ūdhar divyam madhu priyam pratnaṁ sadhastham āsadat | āpṛchyam dharuṇaṁ vājy arṣasi nṛbhir dhauto vicakṣaṇaḥ ||

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Translation:

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Milking the honey he loves from heavenly udders, Soma took his seat on his ancient throne. Mightily thy stream empties itself into a vessel of honour, and purified from the touch of men thine eyes behold what is far away.

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Felber. No. 444. d=116-149. Agitato.

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Musical notation for "Ex. 360. pu-nā-naḥ so . . mā - dhā - rā . . . . . . yā . ."

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Musical notation for "ā . po - sā - no a - r - ṣa - syā ra-tna-dhā yo"

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Musical notation for "ni - mṛ ta - sya sā . . . . . . i - da - sā - i"

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Musical notation for "o - hā - u - vā ut-so de - vo hi-rā . . . hā - i"

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Musical notation for "o - hā - u - vā ṇya - yā . . . au - ho - vā"

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Musical notation for "ut-so de - vo hā - i - ra ṇyā - - - - yā - ḥ"

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The scale of these two (Nos. 443 and 444) is the same:

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Ex. 361.

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the melodies pivot on F and D. The chromatic beginning of No. 444 is quite common in secular singing, from which it seems to have been imported here, in order to establish a tonic.

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The two which follow show a different scale:

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No. 426.

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Ex. 362.

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No. 425.

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Ex. 363.

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The F♯ is essential in No. 425 and accidental in No. 426; in both it is used chromatically, which is on the whole unlike secular song. I heard something like it in Madras, but was unable to note it. Two chants were sung: one distinctly chromatic, described as *ucca* (high); the other as distinctly diatonic, described as *nīca* (low). I was more than once asked by the singer whether he should sing in the *ucca* or the *nīca* voice; and it seems possible that he may have been referring to a difference of scale rather than of pitch—*ucca* G F♯ F♯ E, &c., *nīca* (G) F E D, &c.

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No. 426. Sung by a boy of fifteen in the Sanskrit College, Calcutta.

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The text is not from the *Ṛgveda*, but a *stobha*, i.e. composed not of verses but of jubilations consisting of sentences and alleluias. (*ho-i*, &c.). In the Pada form:

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ut nayāmi ādityam ādityam prāñcam yantam ut nayāmi ahorātrāṇi ahaḥ rātrāṇi aritrāṇi dyauḥ nauḥ tasyām asau ādityaḥ ādityaḥ īyate tasmin vayam īyamāne īyāmahe [. . .].

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Translation:

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I bear aloft the advancing sun, I bear it aloft; days and nights are the oars, the sky is the ship. On this fares forth the sun; and with it we are borne to that well-loved spot whose name consists of three letters.

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*Note.* That which is named in the adoration of *om* (spelled a + u + m), which is an image of the world of Brahma.

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Felber. No. 426.

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♩=88. Sempre accel. Ex. 364. un - na-yā-mi ho - i un - na-yā-mi ho - i un - na-yā-mi ho - i ā - di-tyam prāñ-caṃ tam un - na - yā-mi ho - i ā - di-tyam-prāñ-caṃ tam un - na-ya-mi ho - i a - ho - rā - trā - trā - ṇya-ri ho - i a - ho - rā - trā - trā - ṇya-ri ho - i

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Musical notation

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dyaur - na - ru hā - u dyaur - na - ru - hā - u dyaur - na - ru - hā - u

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Musical notation

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tas-yām - a - sāv - ā - di - tya . . ī - ya - te hā - u

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Musical notation

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tas-yām - a - sāv - ā - di - tya ī - ya - te - hā - u

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Musical notation

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tas-min va-yam ī - ya - mā - na ī - yā - ma-he hā - u

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Musical notation

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tas-min va - yam ī - ya - mā - na ī - yā - ma-he hā - u d = 120.

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Musical notation

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ī - yā - ma - he hā - u ī - yā ma-he hā - u.

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No. 425. Sung by a boy of twelve, a Brahman, in the Sanskrit College, Calcutta.

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The original text is: mūrdhānam divo aratim pṛthivyā vaiśvānaram ṛta ā jātam agnim | kavim samrājam atithim janānām āsan naḥ pātram janayamta devāḥ ||

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The translation: The chief of heaven, the lord of the earth, Agni Vaiśvānara born of the sacred truth, wise, almighty, the guest of man—him it was whom the gods created as our chalice for their use.

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Note. The sacrificial ghee is poured into the fire (Agni) which bears the gift up to the gods, that is, the fire is the vessel which conveys it to the mouth of the gods.

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Felber. No. 425. d = 73 1/2.

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Musical notation

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Ex. 365. hā - u hā - u hā - u ā - jya - do - ham - ma

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Musical notation

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ā - jya - do - ham - ma ā - jya - do - ham - ma mūr - dha-nan-dā - i NOTATION. The various systems are all modern—of the last few centuries, perhaps; and that followed in one MS. would not help to the elucidation of another. The signs employed are sometimes letters which appear to be abbreviations of technical terms, sometimes numerals which bear some as yet unexplained relation to the ordinals of the Sāman scale. They are written over the syllables of the text to indicate the substantive (prakṛti) notes, between them to indicate grace-notes (vikṛti), practically the ‘ligatures’ of Plainsong. Secular music has also till quite lately, the last century, dispensed with notation; and it must be remembered that a written notation would be a hindrance rather than a help when everything was learned by heart¹ or extemporized.

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¹ I saw in Mysore a guru who had received £10 for his life's work of committing to memory the text and the melodies of the whole Sāmaveda.

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The form of the chant is recalled in its proper order by the aid of half a dozen sticks a span long, arranged much as we might arrange matches to mark whist-points.¹

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¹ See Haug, Ait. Br., vol. ii, p. 185, note, and p. 238, note; also Burnell, Arṣ. Br., pp. xxviii and 105.

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Technical Terms (taken from R. Simon's Puṣpasūtra): atikrama (transilience), disjunct motion, i.e. Thirds, Fourths, and Fifths in ascent and descent. The actual intervals prescribed by the Sāma-paribhāṣā (quoted by Simon, p. 516) are shown in white note-heads; those actually employed in Exner's examples in black.

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Sāmaparibhāṣā (S. Indian notation).

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Ex. 366.

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Calcutta examples. Ascent. Madras examples.

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Sāmaparibhāṣā.

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Descent. Calcutta.

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Madras (none).

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N.B.—It will be noticed that leaps are commoner in ascent than in descent and in the Calcutta chant than in the Madras.

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udūha (upper completion) is the name for the upper consonant (saṃvādi).

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roha is a general name for ascent of one or more notes. The modern term for an ascending passage is ārohaṇa, for a descending, avārohaṇa.

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svāra (lit. relating to sound), the cadence, used whenever the last syllable of the final section (nidhana) has the svarita accent. Examples:

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Ex. 367.

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karṣaṇa (lit. dragging, rubbing), the lengthening of a syllable by interpolated notes, is applied only to long or augmented (vriddhied) syllables. The most usual forms, though there are other varieties, are:

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Ex. 368.

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abhigīta (approaching note). Usual form:

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Ex. 369.

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udghāta (elevation). A downward appoggiatura, e.g.

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Ex. 370.

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vinata (crooked), a special case of abhigīta

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Ex. 371.] or karṣaṇa [Figure: Ex. 372.

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pratyutkrama (attack, initial step) is a progression to the next note above. Eight cases are given:

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Ex. 373.

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The definition does not appear to state, what seems evident, that in this progression one syllable is sung to two notes, that it is, in fact, the podatus of Plainsong.² No. 8 of these plays a great part in Rāga (see p. 158). These examples clearly presuppose the tetrachord E D C B, not F E D C.

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² A good many of these figures find, of course, their analogues in the Neums, a list of which is given on p. 24 of H. B. Briggs's Elements of Plainsong, 1895.

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gati (gait, passage). The lengthening of a syllable by the vowels i or u, e.g. ho--hoi--hoyi.

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¹ We recognize in this semitonal elevation or depression the law of the mediaeval Musica ficta, which substituted a rising and falling semitone for a rising and falling tone.

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*atihāra* (extremely long syllable, prosodial term). The carrying over of a syllable by means of a *jubilum* (*stobha*), e.g. ba—(auhova)—rhīṣī.

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*parvan* (division). The smallest unity of a verse; practically, what can be sung in one breath, hence, musically, a phrase.

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*virāma*. The caesura at the end of a phrase.

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MELODIC FIGURES. Mention should also be made of a method of handing down the traditional manner of singing. Melodic figures which constantly recur are directed to be sung after a certain well-known pattern. For instance, the cadence to the first line of the first hymn (given above) is:

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Ex. 374.

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Other syllables, then, which have this particular cadence are said to be ‘done like *hiṣī*’. Thus:

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Ex. 375.

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Herr Simon gives about 100 examples; but until the *Sāmaveda* notation has been exactly interpreted it would be misleading to transcribe them.

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If the cumulative effect of this evidence, chiefly circumstantial, may be said to have established any conclusion as to the original scale of India, we have found there, as in Greece, a starting point in a tetrachord of the form:

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Ex. 376.

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It is interesting to ask what is the musical justification of this particular series of notes, and of their development.

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The music is purely vocal; no instrument is employed: and vocal scales are conceived downwards. They are so conceived because the telling notes of the voice are in its upper register, and this presents itself therefore as the starting point¹ for a vocal scale. In its search for consonance the ear hears in the first instance only quintal, not tertian, harmony, as was explained on pp. 123 foll. Quintal harmony provides only Fifths, Fourths, and major Tones. It has been shown on p. 150 that in looking for harmony to a given note the Fifth occurs first in an upward series, but the Fourth in a downward. A vocal scale, conceived downwards, establishes therefore the Fourth before the Fifth, the tetrachord before the pentachord. The intermediate notes can only be filled up by major Tones, for no other interval is as yet present to the ear. As soon as the major Third is heard it corrects no doubt one of these major Tones into a minor Tone.

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¹ The Hindus named the upper terminal of the tetrachord *graha* (beginning) and the lower *nyāsa* (end).

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In proceeding beyond this tetrachord there is nothing, apparently, in the nature of things to decide whether the F above should be first added, as consonant to C, or the A below as consonant to D. The F was, as a fact, added first. This is seen to be a result of the circumstance that the E was a graced note. It was, if we may judge from the modern secular usage (see Chapter VII), seldom sung pure; an upper note was, so to say, inherent in it; and this determined to an F rather than an F♯ owing to the C below. The A was added also; but, as the interest of the chant lay at the other end of the tetrachord, this A became more or less atrophied, and a G was never added below it. Meanwhile the F inherited the musical importance which had attached to the E, and the tetrachord F–C competed with the tetrachord E–B for supremacy.

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It was here that the Greeks parted company; and the reason for their doing so is instructive. They continued their tetrachord A–E upwards through a B♭ and downwards through a D, but we do not make out that the tetrachord B♭–F ever attained any sort of eminence in their song. The B♭ did not come into their scale as a ‘graced’ A, as the Hindu F was a graced E. For they aimed at singing their notes pure, as Aristoxenus tells us.² They regarded their B♭ therefore merely as a consonant to the F below, not also as a kind of heightened A.

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² He is contrasting (*Harm.*, ch. 10) the continuous (*synechē*) motion of the speaking voice and the motion-by-interval (*diastēmatikēn*) of the singing voice, and says, ‘In speaking we avoid bringing the voice to a standstill (i.e. a pure note) unless we force it to that in moments of feeling. But in singing we do the opposite; we avoid continuous motion, and aim at making the voice, as far as possible, stationary’—i.e. we sing our notes not ‘graced’ but ‘clean’.

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To return to the Hindus. The F, having inherited the prestige of the E, took on grace in its turn. But here a difficulty arose: should the grace-note have the same relation to the F as the F had to the E, and determine to a G♭ (F♯), or should it be consonant to the D below, and appear as a G? Both notes were taken in; and the scale had now two distinct sections: that from E downwards which was formed diatonically, and that from E upwards which was formed by grace, i. e. chromatically. These had distinct characters, and were distinguished as we saw by the names nīca and ucca (p. 271, and Exs. 362, 363). Moreover, the chromatic (ucca) style of singing is peculiar to the Sāmaveda, where it had, as we see, an efficient cause, and is not found in Rāga, where that cause is absent.

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A purely vocal scale is so foreign to our music that, though we may understand it, we have difficulty in feeling its musical force. The following melody from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (i. 144) appears to be in such a scale; and its constituent notes happen, curiously, to be exactly those of the Sāman scale:

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*The woods so wilde.*

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Ex. 377.

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Those writers on the modes who insist that the last note of a song must be the tonic would be delighted to find in this a rare—probably the only—instance of a Locrian (Mixolydic). But a tonic F gives a much better sense; and indeed Orlando Gibbons has harmonized it, if it was he, like a bagpipe tune on F and G pedals, though it must be confessed that harmony of any kind sadly impairs its delicious inconsequence and irresponsibility, and a calculated close on B does much to clip the wings of its fancy.

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There is an abundance of tunes, too, which seem to have no definite tonality and to be divided in their allegiance to different tonics. Here is one from Böhme’s *Altdeutsches Liederbuch*, p. 729:

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EX. 378.

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The essence of the melody is that E is the predominant note; that it closes in A minor rather than C major is of the nature of an accident. In both these melodies we see the marks of a vocal scale not only in the high *tessitura* and the indefinite tonic, but in the way they tend to ascend by leap and descend by step.

Linked texts (13)

Nāradīyāśikṣā — Nārada, Sanskrit
Bṛhaddevatā — Śaunaka, Sanskrit
Taittirīyaprātiśākhya — Sanskrit
Puṣpasūtra — Gobhila & Vararuci, Sanskrit
Aitareyabrāhmaṇa — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit
Māṇḍūkīśikṣā — Māṇḍūka, Sanskrit
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Sāmavedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Sāmatantra — Sanskrit
Saṅgītasamayasāra — Pārśvadeva, Sanskrit
Ārṣeyabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Sāmavidhānabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit