The Music of Hindostan c17.95

c17.95

4. What gives its peculiar flavour to a melody, what defines more than anything else the character of a particular *Rāg*, is the position of the *aṃśa*. Round it, and round its consonant or correlative (*saṃvādi*)—a note at the distance of a Fourth or a Fifth from it—are grouped the phrases of the song. They derive their meaning, their point, from their relation to it. It is easy to see that the character of a phrase would completely alter according as the *aṃśa*, the salient note of the scale, were made the salient note of the phrase, or not. The *aṃśa* may be at any place in the scale, not excluding the keynote or drone note. The first section (astai) of the tune usually circles round the *aṃśa* and the second (antara) round its consonant. The aesthetic effect of a high and a low *aṃśa* is quite different, and in this respect the *aṃśa* and all that it implies may be compared with what we know as tessitura, though that is rather a ‘range’ of notes, whereas the *aṃśa* is a single note. Over against the *aṃśa* stands the drone note, or keynote (*kharaj*). These two notes divide between them the functions of our tonic. Hindostani music is apt to begin on the *aṃśa*, and to end, if not there too, on whatever was the first note, or the end of the first phrase, of the song. This leaves the melody, to our ears, in the air. In the Carnatic music it is the rule, rather than the exception, for the melody to end on the drone note, or its Fifth. Yet, even so, the drone note has not the finality of our tonic. When the *aṃśa* is at F, for instance, any meaning that we could attach to a tonic is utterly driven out of C. The purpose of the drone is rather to maintain a steady level by comparison with which the *aṃśa* appears as high (and the tune spirited) or low (and the tune reflective).