ROBERTS] 



ANALYSIS OF SONGS 415 



lower c (counting the time value of all the lower e's in the song) 

 received M}4 beats. Lower e was therefore arbitrarily given a 

 standard value of 100, and in order to show its relative importance 

 in the entire scale of tones used in Song 1, was written as a whole 

 note. In representing a scale of tones occurring in a melody it is 

 misleading to make no distinction between tones which are important 

 in the melodic structure and those which are ephemeral. Some 

 plainly constitute a permanent framework of a scale; others are 

 mere embellishments and in the course of several renditions by the 

 same singer or different singers may never appear more than once. 



After the most important note has been determined it is necessary 

 to calculate the time devoted to the other tones of the song in relation 

 to it and to one another. The number of beats consumed on each of 

 the other pitches of the song are counted and their ratio to the number 

 covered by the most important tone is then calculated, but instead 

 of being given in percentages, is represented directly for the different 

 pitches in notes, the denominations of which themselves stand for 

 relative time values. To anyone familiar with the rudiments of 

 notation this system instantly conveys the relative importance of 

 different pitches in the scale of tones occurring in any song, and, I 

 venture to think, is preferable to a table of percentages for purposes 

 of quick visual comparison, even to readers not familiar with notation, 

 especially since the e.xact number of beats accruing to each note dur- 

 ing the course of the song is written above it in the scale. 



A pitch having half, or approximately half, as much prominence as 

 the chief tone, is wTitten as a half note. Since the whole thing is 

 relative and the study requires only a rough presentation of the actual 

 values, this system serves admirably. Dots and double dots after 

 notes of different denomination make it possible to give the values 

 somewhat more accurately, since one dot increases by half the value 

 of the note to wliich it is attached, while a second dot adds half the 

 value of the first. In other words the two together add to a note 

 three-fourths of its face value. Notes so unimportant as to cover 

 less than one thirty-second as many beats as the standard tone are 

 WTitten without stems, since it seems unnecessarily meticulous to use 

 denominations smaller than a tliirt^y-second in value. The diatonic 

 intervals of the scale are represented sufficiently far apart horizontally 

 on the staff to permit of writing between them all notes requiring 

 chromatic signs or other diacritical marks for designating their 

 pitches as intermediate between adjacent staff degrees. More such 

 intermediate pitches may occur between some adjoining lines and 

 spaces (diatonic scale tones) than between others in these songs, 

 which explains why more horizontal distance is allowed on the staff 

 between some notes a whole step apart than between others the 

 pitch interval of which is the same. 



