The Music of Hindostan c16.2

c16.2

Still, even instinct must work in elements of design which make on the whole either for variety or for unity, or which can be so used as to do the one or the other. The primal unity of our system is the tonic chord, and in a larger scheme the tonic key; and the sense of contrast reposes primarily in the dominant and subdominant chords and keys. These again can become unifying forces with related keys supplying contrast. It would be impossible for our music to get away from this as long as it continues to be harmonic, since all these chords are by implication in the triad itself (major or minor), and, by extension of its meaning, many others. The primal unity of the Hindu system is similarly the tonic note, or drone; and the sense of contrast is supplied primarily by the *aṃśa*, that note in which the lie of the song, its *tessitura*, centres, and the notes which are related to this (1) as consonants, *saṃvādī*, (2) as passage notes (*anuvādī, vivādī*) between the consonants. But whereas the dominant was implied in the tonic, and while contrasting with it still made for unity, the *aṃśa* stands out against the drone (*kharaj*¹) as a matter of choice, and so makes for contrast; and yet since the varying relationship (in the different *Rāgs*) of the amśa to the kharaj, its relative distance from it, is what gives its special character to the song, this very contrast may be said also to impart unity, the unity, namely, of that particular Rāg; and thus the general unity of the song proceeds not from intrinsic necessity, but from freedom of choice.