ROBERTS] 



ANALYSIS OF SONGS 



403 



the tabular analyses of these songs I have made no attempt to list the 

 order of changing time signatures, for in most of the songs it seems to 

 be quite random and a repetition of the order occurs only as the result 

 of repeating the whole musical division, and not always then. Neither 

 have I designated anj' rhythmic values, for while striking rhythmic 

 groups are found here and there, and any succession of notes creates 

 some rhythmic grouping, there is little or no evidence in any song of a 

 particular rhythmic group creating a controlluig design in rhythm 

 other than a repetition incidental to the restatement of a word phrase 

 and usually of the melody as well. 



The first song, the Traveling Song of the Elf in the Magpietail 

 Boy myth (see p. 303), has a three-phrase structure which is repeated 

 in its entirety once, after which the first and third phrases occur again 

 and serve as quite an eft'ective coda. The A phrases contain tkree 

 sections, carrying the ternary idea stUl further. The B and C 

 phrases have only two sections each, but the second section of each 

 phrase contains three measures instead of two, while in the second 

 section of the C phrase two of the three measures are in three-four 

 time, as if to give a fuial emphasis on the side of a structure built 

 chiefly on the principle of three. 



Tabular Analysis No. 1 



The question has been raised as to whether some Indian songs may 

 not be based on certain metric and rhythmic patterns. To consider 

 first the possibility of a metric pattern for Song No. 1, the tab- 

 ular analysis No. 1 will show that while the phrases approximate 

 one another in total number of beats, they are not absolutely the 



