The Music of Hindostan c7.253

c7.253

That it should do so is natural because the leap of a Fourth is a leap to the known through the unknown, and the ‘unknown’ is taken primarily as a melodic, i. e. an adjacent interval. Hence the Garhwālī figure, even though taken in ascent, is essentially a falling figure, and the Gurkha, even in descent, essentially a rising one; and the character of the latter is accordingly more jovial and exhilarating. Added to this there is in the Gurkha songs a strong rhythm, recalling the Scotch ‘jerk’, and an absence of complicated cross-rhythm.