DENSMORE] CHIPPEWA MUSIC II 3 



is not always present. Key is defined by Webster as "a system or 

 family of tones based on their relation to a keynote," also as "the 

 total harmonic and melodic relation of such a family of tones," 

 impl^'ing an harmonic as well as a melodic test. In recorded Chip- 

 pewa songs the relation of the tones to a keynote is usually evident, 

 the tone-material of the key bemg present, and what might be 

 termed the "melodic relation" being satisfactory, but the sequence 

 of tones in many of the songs is such that the ''harmonic relation" is 

 extremely complicated, if, indeed (in some instances), it can be said 

 to exist. Thus most of the songs close with a simple tonic chord, not 

 with tones wliich can be harmonized by a cadence, and the openhig 

 phrases of many major songs are characterized by minor intervals 

 and those of minor songs by major intervals. There are, however, 

 ill all the songs, the rudimentary elements of key. The persistence of 

 the third and fifth above the keynote, the correct intonation of the 

 octave, and the frequent occurrence of the tonic triad, ma}^ be noted. 

 Tlie term "tonality" is employed therefore in this work, its use 

 seemingly being warranted by the definition in the Standard Diction- 

 ary (1910) : "Tonality, the quality and peculiarity of a tonal system." 



In determining the keynote of a song a test by the ear seems 

 permissible and the tonality of the song is determined by the distance 

 of the third and sixth above this keynote. The third occurs in about 

 97 per cent of the songs under analysis. A song is classified as major 

 in tonality if the third is a major third (two whole tones) above the 

 keynote, and as minor in tonality if the third is a minor third (a whole 

 and a half tone) above the keynote. According to this basis of classi- 

 fication 57 per cent of the songs are major in tonality and 42 per 

 cent minor, while three songs show a change from major to minor 

 or from minor to major by altering the pitch of the third, the keynote 

 remaining the same. These songs are Nos. 189 and 192 in Bulletin 45, 

 and No. 6 of the present work. The sixth occurs in 81 per cent 

 of the songs, and is found to be a minor interval in songs that contain 

 a minor third between the tonic and mediant, and a major interval 

 in songs having a major third between these tones. In contrast 

 with the frequent occurrence of the third and sixth it is found that 

 the seventh occurs in only about 9 per cent of the minor songs. 

 In one-third of these the seventh is a semitone below the tonic, 

 as in modern musical usage (No. 79 of Bulletin 45, and Nos. 36, 100, 

 and 119 of the present work), while in the remainder the seventh is a 

 whole tone below the tonic — the interval which occurs in most of the 

 ecclesiastical modes and in scales formed by the addition of two 

 tetrachords (Nos. 19, 126, and 150, Bulletin 45; Nos. 9, 50, 85, 

 100, 119, and 124 of the present work). 



Having determined the probable keynote of the song, this keynote is 

 used as a basis for further examination, noting in Table 2 the relation of 



