The Music of Hindostan c15.s1.182

c15.s1.182

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.