The Music of Hindostan c15.s1.106

c15.s1.106

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.