680 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



which have become to ns of secondary importance, but which to the 

 primitive peoples are of infinite significance. These are the percus- 

 sion instruments. 



We might here extend our investigation from the circle of prunitive 

 peoples to the entire territory of living orientals. The Orient has 

 done remarkable things in the invention of percussion instruments, 

 and it is astonishmg how capable of modulation arc even the drums 

 and kettledrums that are in use in the Orient. They can crash like 

 a fanfare or sound as dull and hollow as a dirge. The monotonous 

 rattling of a pair of castanets, when correctly played, can suggest 

 whole melodies. The cymbal and also the gong originated in the 

 Orient. There is no sharper contrast than the strong voluptuousness 

 of the cymbal, which so well accentuates the sensuous moods (for 

 example, the Venusberg scene in "Tannhauser"), and the dull, hol- 

 low vibration of the gong. 



But we will confine ourselves to the primitive peoples. A favorite 

 classification recognizes two groups of percussion instruments in the 

 meager scores of these peoples: The percussion instruments proper, 

 and the rattles and clappers. In the first group we have three sub- 

 divisions: (1) Sticks, which are struck on the ground, or against 

 primitive sounding boards, such as hollow trees, shields, and the 

 like; (2) suspended sound plates to strike against; and (3) the great 

 and most important group of the drums. 



In our folk music the percussion mstruments hold an important 

 place, to give a firm structure to the music. The drums, cymbals, 

 and kettledrums of our military and dance music compel the melodies 

 to proceed in an orderl}^ manner; they mark the rhythm to an extent 

 often almost comic to persons of fine sensibilities. Thus it happens 

 that in many books on music the percussion instruments are simply 

 entered under the heading of "rhythmical instruments," a designa- 

 tion in which, for example, the department of the German Museum 

 at Munich, which is concerned with them, acquiesces. 



The effect of music characterized by the unpretentious percussion 

 instruments is unmistakable. A strong rliythmical music helps 

 with work and with play ; if we may make use of a modern expression, 

 it is ''Schrittmacherdienste." It is used effectively in activities 

 which require regularly recurring movements of the body, in marches, 

 in dances, in special kinds of work, such as threshing and hammering, 

 or, to choose a somewhat less definite example, in the old-time 

 spinning rooms. The output of power will be regulated througli the 

 rhythm. A certain common atmosphere, a mass spirit, will be pro- 

 duced which will react on the individual. 



This purely rhythmical value of the percussion instruments is so 

 highly developed and dominant in the melodies of savage tribes, 

 that we appear already to have reached the center of all archaic and 



