Scan 36
Musical Courier 1900-10-31: Vol 41 Iss 1075, 1900
51 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Oriental Music.
3From Our Indian Correspondent, Ganpatras T. Padwal.
5(Introduction.)
7BEFORE taking up the study of the technicalities of Oriental music it will be interesting to glance over what is known of its history and supposed origin. So far, with very few exceptions, it has been very little studied by Western artists. One great difficulty, of course, has been the want of a definite system of notation. In 1893 one devoted student carried through part of a splendid scheme to place the music of his land within the reach of all.
9Upon him seemed to have fallen the whole labor of carrying out the vast scheme of weeding out from the indigenous system all extraneous growth, to publish in English and vernacular the fundamental principles, to translate the Sanskrit slokas into Latin hexameters, and, greatest and most valuable of all, to reduce the music to staff notation. The obstacles he met with were enough to make even the most ardent hesitate, for the historical records are scanty and no systematic written literature is known to exist. True, the Maharajahs of Tanjore, Mysore and Travancore had formerly convened great assemblies, where none but musicians of the highest repute were heard, in order to prevent the degeneration of at least some of the music by systematizing it. What the results were are not known to exist in book form, so that the value of the meetings was lost.
11To have similar gatherings is one of the dearest wishes of this great admirer of his country's music, A. M. Chinnaswami, M. A. (Mudaliyar), but he will have first to educate his fellow students out of their inherent tendency to secrete before they will give out with the generosity of Western genius their inspirations and knowledge. To do so would involve serious religious innovations revolting to Oriental disposition, because music is the medium by which they pour out their deepest feelings of adoration and worship, embodying them in melodies that they would naturally regard as too sacred to be profaned by the comments of a critical world. To the Oriental it is the "Divine Art," its very name being "Sarasvati," from Sarasvati, the great divine goddess—teacher.
13A thousand years ago music was in a more highly cultivated state than to-day, but to try and trace it back along the ages without missing a single link is an involved task demanding enormous attention and concentration. It is the secretiveness of the Hindu that proves the greatest barrier, for old people who possess priceless works of the old masters would rather tear them up than part with them, still less let them be used for the benefit of all. The masters themselves, too, cared far more about preserving the secrecy of their methods than imparting them to make the disciple as proficient as himself. He demanded from them large sums of money as well as faithful service, then kept them years practicing the same thing, so that what they did gain from the master during their period of tuition would be stolen by listening to him when he played in the privacy of his own dwelling.
15It is wonderful indeed to find that Hindu music has been perpetuated from century to century by the memory. Today even their power to memorize is remarkable. They took perhaps one of the modes, and working into it any embellishing concept of their own, they remembered it, looked upon it as their own, which no one else had any right to play, or learn even. It might be suggested that they should have allowed their work to be put into such form as would make it available to all students, but the difficulties in the way of this will be made clear later.
17Oriental music is apt to be ridiculed because it seems to emerge from the hoary past under a religious garb, and has kept closely parallel with religion always right up to the present time, which has kept it vague and mystical, two things abhorrent to the Western mind. A. M. Chinnaswami says that endeavors will be made to furnish adequate explanations for all that appears arbitrary, mystical or superstitious in the system, for a deep, scientific meaning always underlies everything disguised under a religious garb.
19Like the "Great Tone" of the Chinese, the tones that go to form the Indian gamut were wrested from nature. It was the old Rishis (Divine Teachers) of the forests who noted the tones uttered by various birds and animals at particular seasons and times. The first seven notes, or tones, have been expanded into the twelve semi-tones of the vina and piano, and now the Indian gamut recognizes sixteen different varieties developed from these. Some Western investigators declare that they divide the octave into twenty-two exactly equal parts, called sruti, a special name being given to each part. A major tone is said to be made up of four srutis; a minor tone of three; a semi-tone of two, though the exactness of this is not assured. A scale of seven steps, nearly similar to ours, is constituted out of these three intervals of major tone, minor tone and semi-tone, with the semi-tones in the same places.
21The keynote familiar to us as Do is to the Hindu Sa, and though not used in exactly the same way as are our keynote, still it is predominant over the others. Scales can be obtained by using any one of the other six as keynote, which correspond very closely to the seven Gregorian scales of the old church music; one, indeed, appears to correspond to the Phrygian mode, that is, if E is used as the tonic and all white keys are played.
23According to some the first system of Hindu music was constituted by these seven scales; a second system preserved the names of the notes, yet they could be raised or dropped by a sruti; and a third system, in which five or six step scales were produced by the omission of one or two notes. More than a thousand scales are thus produced, to which the Orientalists give a strange allegorical origin. There were six sons of Brahma and Sarasvati, called Ragas, who represented the passions. The six principal scales were named after these, with the designation of Rags, and as there is always a feminine side to everything in nature, the feminine or sub-scales were called Raginas. Then the numbers, 5, 6 and 7, became typical of the divisions of the year, days of the week, the number of the planets, &c. For instance, there are five dozens of minutes in an hour, five so-called elements, five principal metals, senses and figures; five black keys in the piano; five minimum notes in a Raga (melody mold); five Jatis, or species of time. Then there are seven days in the week; seven colors in the rainbow; seven principal planets. It is notable that the ancient Egyptians used the names of the seven planets for their notes: Si = Saturn; Do = Jupiter; Re = Mars; Mi = Sun; Fa = Venus; Sol = Mercury; La = Moon. Also seven nerves, strings of the vina, notes in the gamut, talas, or time measurements. Again, with twelve, there are:
25Twelve hours in the day.
26Twelve months in the year.
27Twelve signs of the zodiac.
28Twelve causes of bodily pain.
29Twelve sthanas on the vina.
30Twelve semi-tones in an octave.
31Twelve chakras (cycles) of modes.
33It is exceedingly interesting to note that if proceeding by fifths from the tonic the same keynote with a sharp is reached, when seven revolutions have been made, and by the time twelve revolutions exactly have been made the original tonic is arrived, at e. g.:
35From C to G = 1.
36G to D = 2.
37D to A = 3.
38A to E = 4.
39E to B = 5.
40B to F sharp = 6.
41F sharp to C sharp = seven.
42C sharp to G sharp = 8.
43G sharp to D sharp = 9.
44D sharp to A sharp = 10.
45A sharp to F = 11.
46F to C = twelve.
48Noting also that seven are natural notes and the remaining five are sharp. This practically amounted to a system of notation which has almost died out, but there is a great number of melodies, or phrases we might call them, existing, which have been founded on the various ancient modes and scales, called Rags and Raginas, which proves their origin, for these names were used formerly only for the scales. I do not think that Western musicians will call these Ragas tunes (some of which will be given in full later), but would rather class them as phrases, either brief or extended. These Ragas have been somewhat arbitrarily classified, certain ones being appointed for certain occasions, emotions, festivals, times of the day, seasons of the year, and so on. The musician can use them, and combine them under the restrictions imposed by his caste.
50The royalty of India has largely contributed to keeping alive its music. No prince's education was complete unless he were a skilled musician. Periodically at the kings' courts were held the enormous gatherings, and they kept always a whole legion of professional musicians, each of whom took special delight in some particular Raga, making it his life study. There are many pretty stories illustrative of the perfection to which a Raga might be carried, and the jealousy with which each guarded his pet study. One player was called "Todi" Sitaramayya, because of the wondrous skill he displayed in singing the Raga "Todi" (with four flats). Once when one of his rela
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.