- thought, contained new words, is merely an exact duplication of the middle phrase of the first part, although an octave lower, or again on the fifth of A flat. The final phrase, as if to balance the ideas involved in C and yet to remain true to the prevailing B character, combines the two; and, perhaps for the sake of finality, a coda appears for which there are no words, as if only the sound of the pounding hoofs filled the silence, again coming in on the lowest A flat. The sequence of measure-formation is as follows, and confirms the correctness of the present analysis. There are two distinct rhythmic patterns in the song combined by various types of connectives. These are indicated by the line of braces beneath the staves. 332 332 32 332 332 We may now turn to the subject of closer analyses, or those which depend largely for the value of their results upon the study of tonal content and relationships. As has already been indicated, to properly conduct these, some method of measuring tones and accurately expressing their pitches is very desirable when first transcribing. Then, to fully appreciate and understand the resulting scales, it is necessary to discover what may have been the instruments used, if any, and how their tones compare with those employed in singing. Until we know something about this, and possess a number of records of the same song produced under conditions already mentioned, which would determine accidental and invariable pitch-selections, generalizations on any supposed "off" singing are apt to be based on misconceptions, and indeed even practically worthless. The influence of instruments, not only in the selection of scales, but in the styles of composition, - primitive, classical, and modern, especially in the matter of transpositions and inversions,1 has never been adequately investigated, although Helmholtz has proved beyond doubt that the scale systems of all those peoples whose music he has studied were worked out with their aid. The argument may be adduced that this refers to instrumental music only; but this is refuted by his remarks upon the psychological effect of sound-variations on accustomed and unaccustomed hearers, on the appreciation of finer nuances of tone among people employing many divisions of the octave, and on the effect that the piano has had on the production and enjoyment of tempered, even mistuned intervals, rather than true ones, physiologically speaking, among singers and musicians who can control the tones of their instruments to the finest shades of pitch. This may account for Miss Densmore's statement that it was repeatedly noted that intervals of the second and minor third were sung too small, particularly if she was judging these by piano intervals. 1 The song chosen as the second illustration in this article is a case in point. It required a voice with falsetto register. Op. cit., part 3, chapter XVI, pp. 323-327. Chapter entitled "Method of Work and Analysis," p. 6. It cannot be sufficiently emphasized, however, that primitive music of the Western Hemisphere involves a problem somewhat different from that of the Eastern; and that is the absence of stringed instruments, which prevented the opportunity of playing with and deriving from them scales of fine shades, which their flexibility suggests. The flute or other windinstruments and tympanic devices are all that the Indian had. With the former, some shades of tone are possible with misplaced stops and varying embouchure. But these instruments, as pointed out by Von Hornbostel,1 are apt to be copied as exactly as possible by measurement, in making others; so that variation in tone-relationship or actual pitches are probably small, and not likely to have been so often observed. Consequently it must be realized that scales studied by Helmholtz have had a different history from those of the New World, a history of centuries of theoretical experiment on at least one prevailing type of instrument, which offers at once all possible divisions of the octave, and leaves an æsthetic selection entirely to the artist. The voice, although capable of the finest tone-gradations, is apt to follow the scales of instruments, if these are much used. The five five-toned scales of Helmholtz referred to by Miss Densmore as having been observed among the Chippewa and Sioux were all of the same tone-material, with each tone in turn serving as an arbitrarily fixed tonic. It is needless to remark that the resemblance between these and Indian scale systems is only external, and that the tones found in a song do not always represent all the tones of a scale. It is a question as to how far we may go in assuming tonics for Indian homophonic music, or how we may discover them if they exist, since they may be governed by other rules than those which we have adopted. For convenience' sake we can at present do nothing but assign melodies to keys as we use them, and to major and minor tonalities as we understand them, with reservations and explanations such as the author has made. In discussing tonality in the tables, she says, "Since we are considering the music of a period in which what we now designate scales and keys was not formulated, the terms 'major tonality' and 'minor tonality' are used in preference to the common terms 'major key' and 'minor key."" It is, however, not a matter of "period" at all. American Indian music, particularly the older songs, cannot, in the absence of history, be assigned to any period of development, implying that it was in an evolutionary stage or period of musical growth similar to that already experienced in Europe, for instance, or that its development, such as it was, would ever necessarily have covered the same ground subsequently as that of European music. The two sets of tabular analyses given in the book are alike in their headings and plan. The first compares old and modern Sioux songs. Table I classifies them into major and minor tonalities, in which it appears for both groups that there is a slight preponderance in favor of the minor. Tables II and III give the first and last notes in relation to a tonic identified by the rules of European harmony, in which the fact is revealed that the fifth above was a favorite opening note, but that in newer songs this has deferred to the tonic and octave to an appreciable degree. There is a wide range of initial tones; but the final notes are practically confined to the tonic triad, and in more than half of the cases to the tonic, in both groups. The chapter which is based on these observations is extremely interesting 1 "Über ein Kriterium für Kulturzusammenhänge" (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1905). in its outline, and suggests a definite change in several directions from old music to new. The second set of analyses covers all the songs in a general survey. The first three tables deal primarily with keynotes and with the relation of other tones in the song to them. Although these are established in accordance with European ideas, the proof of their correctness can probably only be established with direct information from the people. The next two tables indicate the range of voices and trend of melodies by giving compasses and the relation of the last note in the song to the compass. Table 6 gives tone-material, and reveals a preference for four different combinations; although others occur that sometimes involve the same number of tones as one of these, but different degrees and relationships. The four preferred are what we know as a major and a minor pentatonic scale, the major or minor triad, and a complete diatonic scale, presumably of either major or minor tonality, although the table and explanatory remarks do not make this clear. The purpose of the summary in percentages (p. 44) is doubtful. It divides the songs into groups according to the number of scale degrees used, irrespective of the fact that utterly different tonal selections may be thus represented. No attempt has been made to combine the tonematerial into a few scales. For instance, if one set of songs contains a major triad and sixth, another a major triad and seventh, another a major triad and fourth, another a major triad and second, it is probable that all are related to the triad as a foundation, and to one larger scale of which they are merely temporary selections. Surely it cannot be that forty-one different scales exist, although it is probable that there are more than one. Table 7 A records accidentals. Since their appearance with major and minor tonalities is not differentiated, its value is partly lost, for the significance of the presence of semitones depends somewhat on this. A raised sixth in minor, for instance, is quite different melodically from one in major. Table 8 A classifies the songs from an harmonic standpoint, and shows that less than half of the melodies could be regarded as so constructed. This is as might be expected in homophonic music. Helmholtz has discussed the futility of associating all music with an harmonic basis as a necessary condition. While the author by no means commits herself to such procedure, and indeed meets an opposite situation in these studies, she does not sufficiently emphasize it, and gives an impression of an harmonic bias, if the term may be allowed, in her analyses as a whole. The next four tables give the direction of first progressions, the total number of them in all the songs, and the kind of intervals taken upward and downward. The results indicate a pronounced preference for downward movement and small intervals. In discussing the latter, the author remarks that the comparative infrequence of the semitone would indicate that smaller intervals are not habitually used! The meaning of the following paragraph,' therefore, is not clear: "It is admitted that they frequently produce vocal sounds which differ from one another by a number of vibrations less than that comprised in a semitone; but the writer finds no evidence, on phonographic records of about a thousand songs, that such sounds are part of a system consciously used 1 Op. cit., p. 253, a, b. * See p. 47. by the Indians. Animals express emotion by means of sounds which glide from one pitch to another. Such expression is primal, but into song there enters an intellectual element which tends to produce definiteness of tonal intervals." Possibly Miss Densmore has in mind speech or howling cries; but the controversy over the use of intervals of less than a semitone, so far as the present writer knows, has been confined to song. Table 13 gives the average number of semitones in an interval. It is not clear what such an average could prove, since no such interval, composed of 3.021 semitones, is stated to have been used. The major second, both in upward and downward progression, occupies, as might be expected in a diatonic system, the most conspicuous place. Table 14 A lists exact keys, and indicates voice ranges. The remaining tables introduce rhythmic questions; No. 15 A, the method of attack. It cannot be said, however, as Miss Densmore states on p. 48, that, because the majority of songs begin on the principal accent (and on the tones of the tonic chord), a clearness of musical concept on the part of the Indian is thereby suggested. Surely such clearness cannot be denied to the classical composers of such pieces as dance-suites, in which well-defined rules were prescribed for beginning such dances as the Courante, Allemande, Gavotte, Bourrée, and Passepied on weak beats; nor to the composers of countless compositions of other descriptions thus beginning; nor to recent composers like Schoenberg, who seem to make a point of avoiding the tonic chord whenever possible. Tables 16 A and 17 A are covered by previous remarks. The rhythm of the first measure is usually to be mistrusted above all others, because of the difficulty of starting easily and correctly, which is experienced by singers, both primitive and otherwise, when singing into the phonograph. The term "rhythm" should be replaced by "metre" as a heading in 16 A, since this is the feature tabulated. The remaining tables are all descriptively interesting and useful. The graphic devices for illustrating points brought out in the tables are helpful for a quick appreciation of values, but the plots of melodies are perhaps the most valuable of all. Miss Densmore has by this means discovered several well-defined types of tunes, all of which, however, show downward trend. The theoretical part of the book closes with a descriptive comparison o Sioux and Chippewa songs, an account of a test of pitch discrimination in which the results were about on a par with those of average white subjects, and a short discussion of music as a cultivated art among the Chippewa and Sioux. It is clear that certain esthetic standards prevail, particularly in the matter of rendition. The investigation as to composition has developed only along the lines of inspiration, not of method. The statement is made that progress in musical matters is evinced by the younger singers, who, in singing old songs, changed the irregularities of measure-lengths and otherwise unified them. Probably this is due to the influence of the white man's music. The standards of excellence in rendition may be compared favorably with our own; but it is not yet safe to make this a general assertion in regard to the whole Indian race, since in music, as in other features, we may find rather conspicuous differences among the various culture groups. HELEN H. Roberts. NEW YORK. OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY (1919). President, Elsie Clews Parsons. First Vice-President, E. C. Hills. Second Vice-President, Walter Fewkes. Councillors, For three years: Phillips Barry, A. M. Espinosa, C. M. Barbeau. For two years: J. R. Swanton, E. K. Putnam, Stith Thompson. For one year: R. B. Dixon, E. Sapir, A. L. Kroeber. Past Presidents: Pliny Earle Goddard, Robert H. Lowie, C. M. Barbeau. Presidents of Local Branches: Charles Peabody, A. M. Tozzer, D. L. Thomas, Miss Mary A. Owen, Haywood Parker, Reed Smith, Clyde C. Glasscock, John M. Stone, John Harrington Cox, Alexander Fraser, E. Z. Massicotte. Editor of Journal, Franz Boas, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. Associate Editors, George Lyman Kittredge, A. M. Espinosa, C. M. Barbeau, Elsie Clews Parsons. Permanent Secretary, Charles Peabody, Cambridge, Mass. Treasurer, Alfred M. Tozzer, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY (FOR THE YEAR 1919). BOSTON BRANCH. Frederick W. Lehmann, St. Louis, Mo. ANNUAL MEMBERS. President, Charles Peabody. Mrs. Monroe Ayer, Boston, Mass. Mrs. G. A. Collier, Boston, Mass. * Deceased. |