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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
Before starting on the subject of our study this afternoon, I want to tell you about the instrument upon which I am going to play. It is a South Indian vînâ, from Tanjore. The vînâ is the national instrument of India. It possesses extraordinary tonal beauty and variety of expression when properly manipulated. Not having been able to obtain the right kind of drone instrument, called tambura, on which to accompany myself to-day, I have tuned this vînâ like the tambura, doing away with three of its strings. The effect thus obtained is similar to tambura, but of course it spoils the vînâ quality of the instrument. I must also tell you that there should be a drummer, and a vînâ- or sârenghi-player, as well as the tambura, in order to obtain a good accompaniment for songs. In the absence of these to-day, it will be rather like listening to two parts of a quartet!
∗ An emblem of eternity.Google Scholar
† Mantras, or words of power.Google Scholar
‡ Emblem of melody, or, more strictly speaking, of tone as distinct from time.Google Scholar
∗ This hymn is in the 31st mode of the Southern Indian system. The name of the râga is Kalávati.Google Scholar
† I use the term Indian instead of “Hindu,” to denote the sum total of musical influences which find their home in the land of modern India. But Indian musical theory, it must be remembered, is mainly Hindu; for strong as are Persian influences, coming through Muhammadan sources, they are not wholly alien to the original Aryan tradition (vide H. H. Wilson's “Ariana Antiqua,” pp. 121–2).Google Scholar
∗ I have had to coin this word to express the srutis. “Quarter-tone” is a misnomer, since thirds of tones are found, and perhaps fifths also.Google Scholar
∗ See footnote †, p. 42.Google Scholar
∗ Compare Greek ideas about music in the training of the young.Google Scholar
† This of course is true of music regarded from the modern scientific standpoint; sound-vibrations, if sufficiently strong, being at once destructive of the non-harmonious, and harmoniously constructive.Google Scholar
∗ This musical theology, to which but brief allusion can here be made, is indicated throughout Hindu mythology and tradition; but, apparently, without sequence, and without the practical application which, upon studying it, becomes so clear to the modern analytical musician.Google Scholar
∗ Absurd as this statement may sound, I make it in all seriousness, and go even so far as to claim that for those who are interested in the investigation of psychic phenomena, the râga opens up a new field. The superphysical forms of the râgas are of course believed in among all Hindus who have not been too much affected by Western materialism, but patient experiment will reveal them to anyone who will take the necessary trouble.Google Scholar
∗ See for instance an article by Reginald de Koven in the North American Review, November, 1907, on “The Modern Revolt in Music.”Google Scholar
† Needless to say that the tâlas are usually allied with tune, but they can also be studied as a separate artGoogle Scholar
∗ A variety of Indian drum, consisting of a pair.Google Scholar
∗ Meaning of signs: —– strong poise; — weak pulse. The numbers refer to the number of mâtrâs, or equal divisions of time, in a “bar.” Each of these examples represents one “bar.” O represents the “closed,” empty, khali effect, which continues to the end of dots. The perpendicular line is another kind of weak accent. When conducting, the singer usually expresses these accents as follows: —– right palm clapped (with or without noise) on left. — A finger of right hand tapped gently on the left palm. He begins by the little finger, and works on to the first, one finger to each beat; then, if necessary, back to the little finger. In Jhampa tâla, for instance, at O the fingering would be : 4, 3, 2, 1, 4, 3. | Indicates the right hand thrown out from the left palm into the air. Khali is usually indicated in conducting by a noiseless, persuasive pressure of the right on the left palm.Google Scholar
∗ × means pulses, both in the tâla and in Beethoven's rhythm—main and subsidiary. 
is sam, the chief accent in a phrase or stanza, and an important part of tâla. A comparison of the following tâla with the example will show how perfect is the identity. Adi tâla —– — — — —– | —– |Google Scholar
∗ I cannot agree with Captain Day's statement (“The Music of Southern India,” p. 10) that “the theoretical part of Hindu music when compared with that of Europe is naturally very simple, as it treats entirely of simple melody and measure.” Anyone who himself tries to produce râga and tâla according to Hindu theoretical standards must at once discover the complexity of the art.Google Scholar
† The pulses fall on the horizontal strokes. There would be three in adi, and two in rupaka tâlas, and so on.Google Scholar
∗ It is true that modern musicians often exaggerate this concentration and deaden, rather than enthral, their listeners. But before sweeping aside as monotonous the system which they profess to represent, we have to ascertain whether monotony is really part of that system, or is due to inertia and convention. I have not as yet come across any dogmatic assertion in any authority on Hindu music as to the necessity for remaining in one râga until everyone is tired of it. On the contrary, according to the noblest traditions of the art, the musician is expected always to know the psychological moment at which to change his râga, and this I have heard accomplished on several occasions with fine results. Studied from the deeper traditional viewpoint, then, râga becomes as free as key, though it is inevitable that it should not usually be changed as often as the latter, since the genius of mode does not demand it.Google Scholar
∗ Compare the accents and expression marica in this example with the outline of the râga itself, p. 56.Google Scholar
∗ See for instance, A. M. Chinnaswami Mudaliyar, “Oriental Music,” pp. 12, XII., 13, 32. “No quarter-tones exist, as such, in the Dravidian scheme of mêlas or modes.” “Academy of the Divine Art” by the same author.Google Scholar
† In actual musical practice the number is not a matter of importance, where microtones are used as graces. One more or less here and there may render the theorist hot in dispute, but is a matter of complete ndifference to the performer!Google Scholar
∗ See Shiva and Rhythm, pp. 45, 46. I have analysed these forms in detail elsewhere.Google Scholar
∗∗ In most of these examples the outline of the tâla was beaten throughout on the tâbla with the left hand, and the tambura accompaniment or drone was kept up by the right hand, whatever the tala, in the following time:Google Scholar
∗ See S. S. Wilson's “Ariana Antigua,” pp. 121–2, 135.Google Scholar