densmorb] 



TETON SIOUX MUSIC 



51 



songs, however, the metric units of voice and drum are different. In 

 a very few instances these are in the ratio of 2 to 3, but the difference 

 is usually too sHght to suggest any proportion. Furthermore, the 

 pulses of voice and drum do not coincide at frequent intervals, as 

 they probably would if there were a relation between them in the 

 mind of the performer. The inference in such instances is rather 

 that the voice and the drum are the expressions of separate impulses, 

 these expressions being simultaneous, but having no relation to each 

 other. (See fig. IS.) 



Summary of 'pa<jcs 4O-0I. — Thus it appears that the songs under 

 analysis resemble the music of civihzation in the use of the keynote, 

 third, fifth, and oc- 

 tave and in a unit of 

 rhythm and differ 

 from it in the irreg- 

 ularity of time and 

 in the discrepancy 

 between the tempo 

 of voice and accom- 

 panying drum. It 

 appears also that 

 these songs are char- 

 acterized by a de- 

 scending trend ; that 

 the melody tones are chiefly diatonic; and that the most prominent 

 interval is the minor third. 



Drum unit 

 shorter than 

 that of voice 

 (38 per cent) 



Drum unit 

 louger than 

 that of voice 

 (18 per cent) 



Unit of voice 

 and drum 

 the same 

 (44 per cent) 



Fig. 18. Comparison of metric unit of voice and drum. 



Graphic Representations or "Plots" 



A form of graphic representation, or "plotting," of melodies has 

 been devised by the writer and is here introduced for the purpose of 

 making the trend of Sioux melodies more apparent to the eye than 

 in musical transcription. The general method employed is similar 

 to that used in showing graphic aDy the course of a moving object. 

 The loci of the object at given periods of time are determined and 

 recorded, the several positions being connected by straight lines. In 

 any use of this method the interest centers in the several points at 

 which the object is located, it being understood that the lines con- 

 necting these points are used merely as an aid to observation. In the 

 present adaptation of this method the pitch of the accented tones in a 

 melody is indicated by dots placed at the intersections of coordinate 

 lines, the horizontal coordinates representing scale degrees and the ver- 

 tical coordinates representing measure-lengths. These dots are con- 

 nected by straight lines, though the course of the melody between 

 the accented tones would, in many instances, vary widely from 

 these lines if it were accurately plotted. The use of accented tones 



