The Music of Hindostan c17.126

c17.126

But the truth is that we have not attached much importance to the breaking up of metre. One reason for this may be that, both for the sake of clinching the tonality and also because of the variety which is thereby obtained, we love to contrast different levels of pitch; and the best way of making this difference of level felt is to keep the melodic figure constant. This may easily degenerate into a mannerism.¹