The Music of Hindostan c9.11

c9.11

It may be observed in passing that this distinction between step and leap, between a ‘melodic’ and ‘harmonic’ scale, lies at the bottom of all music. It appears in our music in the form of ‘passing’ and ‘substantive’ notes; in two successive chords¹ the constituent notes of the second of them can be, and can only be, justified as melodic steps or as harmonic leaps from those of the first, however much the current conception of what is melody and what is harmony may grow. But, just as in our music the two ideas were held apart to some extent and ticketed as Counterpoint and Thoroughbass respectively, but afterwards fused in Harmony, so,
(7) together with the ‘melodic’ and ‘harmonic’ scales, we find everywhere in India the ‘complete’ scale—a scale, that is, which extends beyond the small gamut of adjacent notes, or which fills up the gaps left by the sparse notes.