CHIPPEWA MUSIC-II 



By Frances Densmore 



ANALYSIS OF CHIPPEWA MUSIC 



Three questions will be considered in the present section, namely : 

 First, What do the Chippewa sing; Second, How do they sing; and, 

 Thu-d, Why do they sing? The material under analysis in Tables 

 1 to 22 (pp. 18-33) comprises 340 songs, recorded by the phonograph 

 and transcribed in ordinary musical notation with the addition of a 

 few special signs. The songs were collected on the principal Chip- 

 pewa reservations in Minnesota and on the Lac du Flambeau Reser- 

 vation in Wisconsin. All the leading classes of songs in use among 

 the Chippewa are represented: The songs of the ]\iide'wiwin (Grand 

 Medicine), dream songs, war songs, and love songs, songs of the 

 moccasin game, songs of the woman's dance, of the begging dance, 

 and of tlie pipe dance, songs connected with gifts, songs for the enter- 

 tainment of children, and a limited number not classified. This col- 

 lection does not include all the available material, the purpose of the 

 work being to preserve the oldest songs and those connected with 

 tribal history, custom, and ceremony. The songs included in Bulletin 

 4.5 of the Bureau of American Ethnology are classified according to 

 geograpliic distribution, those from each reservation being considered 

 as a group and subdivided according to use. In the present work 

 the principal tabulated analysis is made on the basis of the class or 

 use of the song, the material in Bulletin 45 having been rearranged 

 and combined with material collected at later dates. 



Before entering on the analysis of the songs, it is desirable to show 

 that a Chippewa song has identity. This identity was established 

 by the following tests : First, a song was recorded by the same singer 

 at different times; second, a song was recorded by different singers 

 on the same reservation; and, third, a song was recorded by different 

 singers on widely separated reservations, only the titles of the songs 

 being given when tlie duplications were obtained. These tests were 

 repeated at various times and witli a number of songs. In every test 

 a comparison of the phonograms showed the identity of the song, 

 though the renditions were not always uniform in every respect. 

 The rhythm was repeated more exactly than the melody, the latter 

 67996°— Bull. 53—13 1 



