The Music of Hindostan c9.s2.38

c9.s2.38

(Incidentally, the *Sāman* chant involved from five to seven notes.) Of four notes, *Svarāntara* (= hiatus); this seems to be a confession that the tabulation had broken down. Still, the list as a whole may be read to mean that a small compass connotes antiquity, as we found it connoted also remoteness of locality. No one doubts, either, that pentatonic scales precede, what indeed may be considered ‘spoiled’ forms of them, hexatonic and heptatonic. They are, logically, older because they are innocent of the Semitone, which comes into the scale only when the ear can appreciate the major Third. (Fourth/(Major Third) = Semitone). Melodies in these scales have extraordinary strength and sweetness, but not much variety.