The Hindu orchestra is sometimes large and sometimes small. Its dances are lively and vigorous, and very seldom slow and romantic. Nevertheless they have many kinds of songs, some lively and some not, such as: songs in honor of Krishna (one of their principal gods), official odes, war hymns, love songs, evening songs, wedding songs, cradle and patriotic songs. In some, the Arab seems to have influenced the Hindu music, because they have the lively rhythm and the variety of the Arab music, yet it is difficult to know which one influenced the other. The Arab music has the variety and luxurious soft beauty in popular dances equal to anything our modern musicians or poets have composed. The playing of instruments, accompanying songs with Sanskrit texts, was supposed to give energy, develop heroism, make a peaceful heart, and drive away harm and impurity. The members of the different castes or sects had and still have meetings held sometimes in private houses and sometimes in the temples, when they sang religious hymns. Among the higher classes, they went to the expense of having good musicians and of giving artistic performances, but among the common people, their idea was that the greater the noise the more they showed their devotion, so they sang, beat drums and blew whistles without any regard for time or melody, and you can imagine the effect was pandemonium. NOTATION It is impossible to write the Hindu music in European notation, because instead of dividing the scale into semi-tones or half-steps, they use quarter tones. Margaret Glyn, in her book, _Evolution of Musical Form_, writes: “In the East notation is in an elementary condition, the staff being unknown. The Hindus, Chinese, and Abyssinians have ancient note-signs, consisting of a kind of letter to which some indication of time is added, but in this respect the Chinese system is wanting, having practically no time-notation. Probably note-signs existed in Persia and Arabia, but these do not appear to have survived. The modern Arabic notation is but three hundred years old, and is said to have been invented by one Demetrius de Cantemir who adapted the letters of the Turkish alphabet for the purpose. This has eighteen tones to the octave (we have twelve), and is used in Turkey and other countries of the near East.” The Hindus seem to like both triple (3 beats) and duple (2 or 4 beats) rhythm. The scheme changes according to the poetry of the song, and the pitch and the length of tones are shown by Sanskrit characters and special signs or words. INSTRUMENTS