densmoke] 



TETON SIOUX MUSIC 



475 



song arc larger than in a majority of these songs, but the intervals in 

 the tail of the song are small. The time was not so strictly main- 

 tained in this as in many other songs. Thus in the first rendition the 

 final tone in the third measure was sung as a half instead of a quarter 

 note, and there was also a slight hastening of some measures in one or 

 more of the renditions. 



See plot of this melody on page 484. 



No. 197. Song of the Grass Dance (b) (ratalogue No. 594) 

 Sung by Kills at-Night 

 Voice J=z100 



Drum not recorded 



-#- -»- 



I 



I 



Analysis. — The phonograph cylmder contains three complete rendi- 

 tions of this song, followed by four incomplete renditions from which 

 the fii-st and second measures, and also the sixth measure from the 

 end, are occasionally omitted. The first tone in the transcription is 

 not regarded as part of the melody, but seems to be a mannerism of 

 the singer. The writer recorded the songs of an Hidatsa at Fort 

 Berthold w^ho sang the octave below the opening tone of a song in the 

 same manner, but this is not a common custom among Indian singers. 

 The progressions of this melody are such as to suggest either E or G 

 as a possible keynote, placing the song in either the second or fourth 

 five-toned scale, but as the only accented tones are G and D, the song 

 is analyzed as havmg G as its keynote and being in the fourth five- 

 toned scale. This indicates its tonality as major, yet the major 

 tliird is not present, and about one-third of the intervals are minor 

 thirds. This is one of many instances in which the term/ 'key" can 

 scarcely be applied to an Indian song with the fuU significance of the 

 term as it is used by white musicians. 



