Native Americans: 22 Books on History, Mythology, Culture & Linguistic Studies. James Mooney

No. I “tekto´roti´kelek´tlune,” instead of “tektorotikelektlu´ne,” &c. Such displacements of the accent, however, are avoided if possible, and in the best and most popular songs they hardly appear at all.

      The construction of the songs corresponds entirely with that of the music, inasmuch as every melody and every rhythmically spoken song is made up of musical, that is, rhythmic, phrases which are divided by cæsuræ. Repetitions of the same phrases are very frequent. The adaptation of the melodies to our divisions of time and measure is also somewhat arbitrary, as they frequently consist of a mixture of three and four part phrases. It is for this reason that I have noted down some songs without any division into bars or measures and in those cases have only marked the accented syllables.

      Among the twenty melodies and rhythmic poems we find ten of binary measures, five of triple measures, and six of mixed ones. Of the whole number, nine begin on the full bar, eleven on the arsis.

      The melodies move within the following range: In a fifth (No. III), one; in a minor sixth (Nos. VII, IX, X), three; in a major sixth (Nos. II, IV, XVII), three; in a seventh (Nos. XII, XIV), two; in an octave, (Nos. I, II, V, VIII, XI, XVI), six; in a minor ninth (No. VI), one; in a major ninth (No. V), one; in a tenth (No. XIII), one.

      These may be divided into two very characteristic and distinct groups. The first, which would coincide with our major key, contains the following essential tones:

      The fourth and the sixth occur seldom, and then only as subordinate tones. This key is identical with the Chinese and many of the Indian ones.

      In the second group, which corresponds to our minor key, we frequently find the fourth, while the sixth only appears twice and then as a subordinate tone (in No. XV). We furthermore find the major seventh in the lower position leading back to the beginning, i.e., the key note. The essential components of this key are:

      Professor R. Succo calls attention to the fact that the relation of the melodies to their key note resembles that of the Gregorian chants, especially the psalmodic ones among them.

      If we, in accordance with our ideas, suppose the melody—No. XIII, for example—to begin in C major, it nevertheless does not conclude in the same key, but in E. We would say that No. XIV is written in A minor; still it ends in E. We find the same in the Gregorian chants. They also resemble the songs of the Eskimo in the retention of the same note during a large number of consecutive syllables.

      On the whole the melodies, even to our musical sense, can be traced to a key note. However, changes often occur as well (see No. VI). A very striking construction appears in No. XIII, where the oft-repeated E forms a new key note, while at the conclusion the melody leaps back without any modulation to C through the peculiar interval, ḇ, c.

      I. Summer Song

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      II. The Returning Hunter

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      III. Song of the Tornit

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      IV. Song of the Inuit Traveling to Nettilling

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      V. Oxaitoq’s Song

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      VI. Utitiaq’s Song

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      VII. Song

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      VIII. Song

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      IX. Song of the Tornit

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      X. The Fox and the Woman

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      XI. The Raven Sings

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      XII. Song of a Padlimio

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      XIII. Ititaujang’s Song

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