The Music of Hindostan c17.159

c17.159

The main interest here centres in the metrical plan. This is based on a contrast of what we may irreverently call pot-hooks and hangers. They are marked *a* throughout, placed for the former below the stave and for the latter above. A succession of these makes up a section which is understood to be *A* in contrast to *B*. *B* is itself an expansion of *a*; it is a trisyllable as against a disyllable, an opposition which we saw to be important in verse. But for fear the *a*’s and *B*’s should become monotonous they vary in length; the *a*’s are of 2, 3, or 4 quavers, the *B*’s of 6, 7, or 8. The ‘pot-hooks’ have on the whole the best of it in the *astai*, but the ‘hangers’ drive them off the field in the *antara*; *B* acts as an impartial umpire, giving decisions in favour now of one side now of the other. The ingenious way in which in the first five bars the last note of the ascending metre is made the first note of the descending melody is worth notice. It will be seen here too that, though on quite different principles, not a note is idle.