The Music of Hindostan c9.s2.59

c9.s2.59

But the D and A scales (and G) are the best of the five only if the intervals are taken as strictly quintal; if tertian intervals are substituted, i. e. if ‘merging’ takes place, the five scales are equally ‘good’. If, therefore, these particular scales are found to be the favourites in a country, it is an argument that all the pentatonics were in that country taken as strictly quintal, at any rate originally, though tertian intervals may have crept in later.