6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. // 



third above it is usually major or minor, but the intonation is clearest 

 on the fifth above the apparent keynote. An interesting peculiarity 

 o£ intonation was noted in the song connected with medicinal herbs, 

 occurring on the progressions transcribed as C-B natural — B flat. 

 The singer divided the whole tone between C and B flat into four 

 small intervals of about equal size, thus singing approximately 

 " quarter tones." This did not occur in any of the other songs and 

 does not appear to be important ; no attempt is made to indicate it in 

 the transcription. The freedom which characterizes all the music of 

 the Tule does not suggest that they have an elaborate musical system 

 containing fractional divisions of tones. 



A distinct peculiarity of Tule music is a prolonged tone, occurring 

 usually at regular intervals in the melody. For example, this pro- 

 longed tone in the song connected with medicinal herbs begins on 

 the measures of the transcriptions which bear the following numbers 

 (referring to the dictaphone space bar) : 2, 4. 6, 8, 10, 11^, 13, 15, 

 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42. 44, 45, 46J, 48, 

 50, 52, 52^, 54|. The length of the prolonged tone varies from two 

 half notes to three half notes and a quarter note, this tone being 

 followed by a pause which varies from a quarter to four half rests. 

 The prolonged tone is usually the same throughout a song, and is 

 generally the keynote which, as indicated, is the lowest tone except 

 for an occasional, unaccented appearance of the tone below the key- 

 note. In the wedding song there was music by flutes and rattles dur- 

 ing the prolonged tones of the melody. It was said that flutes were 

 similarly played, during the prolonged tones of other songs and it is 

 probable that the rattles were used with the flutes. The use of pro- 

 longed tones at regular intervals suggests a chant but the Tule songs 

 bear no resemblance to chants. Instead, they suggest melodic speech 

 in which the rhythm is determined by the accents and lengths of ' 

 the words. 



Tule songs are not thematic in character. There are no recurrent 

 phrases in the two songs transcribed in their entirety but we find 

 two such phrases in the song entitled " Where the river begins," 

 the phrases doubtless occurring with certain repetitions in the words. 

 A short phrase occurs many times in the wedding song, but its con- 

 nection with the words is not clear. The music follows the words 

 which are usually a simple, continuous narrative. Accents were 

 clearly given and the measure-lengths of the transcriptions are ac- 

 cording to these accents. It will be noted that the measure-lengths 

 include 2-4 and 3-4, as well as 3-8, 5-8, 6-8 and 7-8. The song with 

 medicinal herbs contains five dift'erent measure-lengths. 



