36 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1935 



SPECIAL RESEARCHES 



Miss Frances Densmore, a collaborator of the Bureau, continued 

 her study of Indian music during this year, submitting disk records 

 of Indian songs made at the Century of Progress Exposition. The 

 records of seven songs were submitted, with transcriptions of two 

 Navaho and four Sioux songs, and accompanying data. These have, 

 been cataloged consecutively with her former work. Two of the 

 Sioux songs were selected by Dean Carl E. Seashore for graphic 

 reproduction by his method of phonopliotography, the work being 

 done at his laboratory at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. This 

 is the first use of this technique of graphical recording in connection 

 with the study of Indian music. Dr. Seashore states: "From a 

 single playing before the microphone three groups of records are 

 made: First, a re-recording of the song on hard disks for auditory 

 reference; second, a phonophotographic record of pitch, intensity 

 and time ; and, third, an oscillogram for harmonic analysis to deter- 

 mine tone quality." Through his courtesy there was submitted a 

 print of a portion of the original phonophotogram of one of these 

 songs, and a graph, or " pattern score " made by Dr. Harold Sea- 

 shore from the phonophotogram. A comparison of this score with 

 the transcription made by Miss Densmore corroborates the evidence 

 of the ear in discerning the pitch of Indian singing and also opens 

 interesting new avenues of investigation. Miss Densmore added a 

 chapter on a summary of analysis to her book on British Columbian 

 music, awaiting publication. 



Acknowledgment is made of the courtesy of Mrs. Laura Boulton 

 and Dr. George Herzog in providing the use of the Fairchild disk 

 recording apparatus on which Indian songs were recorded at the 

 Century of Progress Exposition. 



EDITORIAL WORK AND PUBLICATIONS 



The editing of the publications of the Bureau was continued 

 through the year by Stanley Searles, editor. In addition to the 

 current work of the office, considerable progress was made on com- 

 paring and correcting the comprehensive manuscript index of Bul- 

 letins 1-100 of the Bureau. Every entry is being verified. 



An index of Schoolcraft's work entitled " Indian Tribes ", in six 

 volumes, begun last year, is well advanced. 



Bulletin 112, "An Introduction to Pawnee Archeology ", by Waldo 

 Rudolph Wedel, was edited and prepared for printing; and work 

 has been done on other manuscripts in the custody of the editor. 

 Publications distributed totaled 11,955. 



