Method of Work axd of Axalysis 



The method of collecting the Sioux songs was similar to that used 

 in connection with the Chippewa work.* Songs were recorded by 

 means of the phonograph, and a transcription was made from the 

 phonograph record, care being taken that the speed of the instrument 

 was the same when recording the songs and when playing them for 

 transcription. Ordinary musical notation is used for the transcrip- 

 tion, with the addition of the special signs used in Bulletin 53. 



The transcriptions of these songs should be understood as indi- 

 cating the tones produced by the singers as nearly as it is possible to 

 indicate them in a notation which is familiar by usage and there- 

 fore convenient for observation.' 



As several liundr(>d records were made, there were some accidental 

 dupUcations of songs. In five instances (Nos. 125, 132, 133, 151, 

 173) these are transcribed, such being considered sufficient to show 

 the slight differences which appear when a song is sung by several 

 singers of equal ability, or at different times by the same singer. 

 Other duplications examined by the ^v^iter show fewer points of dif- 

 ference than those wliich are transcribed. It occasionally happened 

 that a song was known to have been imperfectly rendered, and in 

 this case another record was made by a better singer, the second 

 record being, of course, the only one taken into consideration. 

 Indians distinguish clearly among good singers, indifferent singers, 

 and totally unreliable^ singers. The wTiter has had experience with 

 them all, and in the absence of information from the Indians, it is 

 usually possible to distinguish them by comparing the several records 

 of a song on the phonograph cylinders. As frequently noted in the 

 descriptive analyses, the renditions of a song by a good singer are 

 usually uniform in every respect. An effort was made to employ only 

 the best singers. In sekn-ting the principal singers, as well as inform- 

 ants, the ^^Titer ascertained a man's general reputation at the agency 

 office and, in some cases, at the trader's store, as well as among his 

 o^\Tl people. In a few instances material wliich appeared to be inter- 

 esting has been discarded because the informant was found to be 

 unreliable. On one occasion a man was brought to the writer by an 

 informant with whom she was acquainted. ^Ir. Higheagle was 

 absent, but another interpreter was secured and data concerning the 



' See Bulletins 45 and 53. 



■ Ilelmholtz, The Sdnsations of Tone (trauslaled by A. J. Ellis), pt. 3, p. 260, London, 188.5. Translator's 

 tootuote: ".\11 thase [scale.s] are merely the best representatives in European notation of the sensations 

 produced by the scales on European ears." 



4840°— Bull. 61—18 3 5 



