Music 465 



Near the opening of the first 2/4 movement is shown a group of 

 five notes given in the time of four, — a rhythmic effect few trained 

 musicians can execute well. 



Of the various performers who took part in making the fourteen 

 records, this singer shows the best voice technic and control. 



The fact that the singer scarcely repeats a single motive through- 

 out the extent of the song, but is constantly introducing new tonal 

 ideas argues an extempore performance. It would be interesting to 

 have for comparison another record of the same song made at another 

 time. 



Song of a Spirit 

 Record E. Sung by a medium when possessed by a spirit. 



Melodically this song is quite in contrast with the Dawak. This 

 one is distinctly melodic in structure, though there are suggested har- 

 monies. These harmonies are mostly tonic and dominant alternating 

 one with the other. 



Using a two-measure motive, which he announces at the very 

 start, the singer works the material over and over, first in one har- 

 monic mode and then in the other, frequently changing the form of the 

 motive through embellishments or altered metric values, but always 

 leaving an impression which harks back to the original motive. 



Arrange the various tones of this melody in any order that we will, 

 we cannot make them conform to any diatonic scale used in modern 

 music. If, however, we ignore the C°, which occurs twice in the song, 

 it gives us an incomplete ascending melodic-minor scale in D b . But 

 the song is not minor in mode. It is distinctly major in tonality. It is 

 formed mostly of the four tones D^, E b , A*, and B 5 '. All of these be- 

 long to the pentatonic major scale of D*'. This gives a very marked 

 pentatonic flavor, yet the song is not in the pentatonic scale, for the 

 singer introduces half steps, and there are no such intervals in the 

 pentatonic scale. 



Casting about among the scales used by various peoples, the near- 

 est approach I find to the tonal succession of this song is one of the 

 numerous scales or "tunings" used by the Japanese. It is that known 

 as the "Hirajoshi." To make comparison easy, I have transposed this 

 Japanese koto-tuning into the same key as that of the song. Along 

 with it I show the tonal material of the Tinguian song arranged in cor- 

 responding sequence. 



