The Music of Hindostan c9.25

c9.25

There are also signs of a practice which is familiar to us,¹ of sharpening the higher intervals. In No. 7 the semitones get larger as they ascend; in No. 13 the tones. In Nos. 8 and 13 the octave is sharp; in Nos. 16, 17, 18 the eighth note is considerably sharp on the octave. In No. 10 the octave is the first harmonic. In no other case is the octave true. This shows that the octave was not considered a basic interval in the sense in which the Fourth, Tritone, and Fifth were; and this again accords with what we find in the songs.