Music 485 



I realize that to examine exhaustively and then tabulate the 

 characteristics found in the music of just one of the many peoples 

 of the globe would be something of an undertaking; but neverthe- 

 less I believe the work should be undertaken in this large way, and 

 when it is, I am sure the results will justify the experiment. 



I appreciate that there is an intangible something about music, 

 which may prove baffling when it comes to reducing it to cold 

 scientific symbols and descriptions. Take, for instance, quality of 

 tone. Each one of us knows perfectly the various qualities of the 

 different speaking voices of friends and acquaintances, yet how 

 many of us can so accurately describe those qualities to a stranger 

 that he also may be able to identify the voices among a thousand 

 others. The tabulation of such elusive qualities would have to be 

 in very general terms. Such indefinable characteristics would, to 

 some extent, have to depend for comparison upon the memory of 

 those workers who had received first-hand impressions. It would 

 be something like a present-day musician identifying an unfamiliar 

 composition as belonging to the "French school," the "Italian school," 

 or the "Russian school;" and yet, this same musician might not be 

 able to point out with definiteness a single characteristic of that par- 

 ticular so-called "school." 



Though I have held these opinions for several years, I am more 

 than ever convinced, since examining these few Tinguian records, 

 that something really tangible and worth while can be deduced 

 from the music of various primitive peoples, and I trust this branch 

 of ethnology will soon receive more serious recognition. 



Manifestly it would be unwise to draw any unalterable conclu- 

 sions from the examination of but fourteen records of a people. 

 But even in this comparatively small number of songs, ranging as 

 they do over such a variety of applications and uses, it is possible 

 to see tendencies which the examination of more records may con- 

 firm as definite characteristics. 



While it would be presumptuous at this time to attempt to formu- 

 late a Tinguian style, I trust that what I have tabulated may prove 

 valuable in summing up the total evidence, which will accumulate as 

 other surveys are made; and if perchance, the findings here set down 

 and the conclusions tentatively drawn from them help to clear up any 

 obscure ethnological point, the effort has been well spent. 



Albert Gale. 



