INDIAN MUSIC — DENSMORE 543 



and the bytones had been eliminated, leaving a clear, pure tone, with 

 intervals comparable to those of our musical system. It is not re- 

 quired that all the sounds produced by our own singers be shown in 

 the notation of a song, and it seems reasonable to make a similar 

 allowance when expressing the singing of Indians. The alternative 

 is to devise an elaborate graphic system, based upon hearing the 

 records or upon tone-photography. Such a system must of necessity 

 be mastered by those who desire information on the subject. To be 

 accurate with respect to Indian music as a whole, the system should 

 be applied to different renditions of a song by the same singer, and 

 to renditions of the same song by other singers. If carried to a con- 

 clusion, such a system would produce a vast amount of data, with 

 small variations which are not essential to the song itself. For these 

 reasons, the graphic presentations in my work are limited to "plots" 

 showing the principal progressions of melodies, in order to compare 

 the structure of various classes of songs,* and diagrams which show 

 the results of tabular analyses.^ These were discontinued when it 

 was believed their purpose had been attained. Occasionally a mu- 

 sician or other person with a keen musical ear has been asked to com- 

 pare the records of the songs with their transcriptions; they have 

 invariably expressed the opinion that the transcriptions were 

 adequate. 



In order to test the pitch discrimination of the Indians, a series of 

 tests was made among the Chippewa, Sioux, Mandan, and Hidatsa 

 Indians, using a set of tuning forks kindly lent for the purpose by 

 Dr. C. E. Seashore. The results were tabulated and submitted for 

 examination to Dr. Seashore who expressed the opinion that "the 

 abilities here shown are about as good as one would find among the 

 average American whites under similar circumstances." 



A graphic analysis of one of my records was made by means of 

 phonophotography, showing the possibilities of that method. This 

 analysis was made by Dr. Harold Seashore (1934) in the psycho- 

 logical laboratory at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.^ In respect 

 to pitch, the graph made from the tone-photograph was substantially 

 the same as the transcription by hearing. 



In order to test the accuracy of certain observations concerning the 

 relative rhythms of voice and drum, the phonograph, with a selection 

 of records, was taken in 1918 to the laboratory of Dr. Dayton C. 

 Miller, head of the department of physics, Case School of Applied 

 Science, Cleveland, Ohio. The sound was recorded graphically by 



* Densmore, Frances, Teton Sioux Music. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 61, 1918 ; Northern 

 Dte Music. Bull. 75, 1922 ; Mandan and Hidatsa Music. Bull. 80, 1923. 



"Teton Sioux Mu.sic, pp. 40-51, Bgs. 1-18. 



" Seasliore, Carl E. and Harold, The place of phonophotography in the study of primitive 

 music. Science, vol. 79, No. 2056, pp. 485-487, flg. 1. 



