Tintinnalogia

As can be heard, the droning chord sounds almost the same as an Indian tambura. This is due to the reliance on octaves and fifths above the low C note. A more conventionally tambura-like ‘strumming’ pattern can be heard in the bass in the opening of the section The Bagpipe and the Drone (though the tambura association is less instantly striking than the chordal example above).

The chords appear to represent the sound of battle drums being rhythmically beaten – the section The Flute and Droome solely uses the chord in the left-hand with a solo voice, representing a flute, in the right.

It seems doubtful that Byrd took any inspiration from Indian music, although it not completely out of the question since trade with the east was well established by the time of writing. Therefore some instruments may have made it to Europe as curiosities. It’s likely that such instruments and music (if ever heard) would have been thought of as ‘rude’ and primitive by the Western ear – for example, see Kepler’s reaction to Turkish chant (section 2.7). That said, the octave-dominant harmony of a well-tuned tambura would be instantly recognisable to the Western ear, and the rich overtones generated by the instrument would probably have left a deep impression on the sonic imagination of a perceptive listener.