4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 45 



the tone C as <^iveii by the pitch pipe. Thus the pitch and the metric 

 unit of the song are identical in recording and reproducing — a con- 

 dition essential to accuracy of transcription. 



Intonation 



One of the characteristics of Chippewa singing observed during this 

 study is that a vibrato, or wavering tone, is especially pleasing to 

 the singers. This is difficult for them to acquire and is considered 

 a sign of musical proficiency. The vibrato may seem to indicate 

 an uncertain sense of tone, but the singer who uses it is ready to 

 approve the song when sung with correct intonation. He declares, 

 however, that this is not "good singing." A person unaccustomed to 

 Indian singing, even if he have a keen ear, will find difficulty in 

 recognizing a song when it is sung by a typical Indian singer of 

 the old school, yet the Indian is ready to admit that the points of 

 difference are entirel}^ in the rendition. 



A kernel of tone on true pitch is evidenced by the following experi- 

 ment : The phonograph record of an extremely harsh song was selected 

 and duplicated on an electric recording machine, producing a record 

 much softer in that much of the harshness was eliminated, and show- 

 ing a melody approaching accuracy of pitch. Another discordant song 

 was duplicated on a second phonograph, another record made from 

 this, and so on to the seventh record, which was so clear and 

 melodic as to be easily transcribed. Some of the bytones were lost 

 in each successive duplication, and what remained at last was the 

 principal tone. In each instance this must have been present in the 

 first record, though so obscured as to be almost indistinguishable. 



At present the only standard generally available for the meas- 

 urement of musical intervals is the tempered musical scale. This 

 is artificial, yet its points of difi"erence from the natural scale are 

 intervals less frequently used in primitive music than those which 

 the two scales have in common. Chippewa singers have been found 

 who sang all the intervals correctly except the fourth and seventh. 



In his Esthetics of Musical Art, Dr. Ferdinand Hand, of the Uni- 

 versities of Leipzig and Jena, makes the statement that the Swiss and 

 Tyrolese sing the fourth of the scale too high and the seventh too low 

 for our ears. He says also : ' ' Every teacher of singing admits that 

 children have special difficulty in singing these intervals. This is 

 not because they are not in accordance with nature, but are the 

 products of acute reflection and are therefore to be found only where 

 the finer development of the intellect renders them possible." 



The descending interval of the minor third occurs with frequency 

 in the Chippewa songs, regardless of the nature of the song. This 

 suggests that it may be an interval either especially pleasing or 



