416 PICURIS CHILDREN'S STORIES 



lETH. ANN. 43 



After the scales for each song and its various renditions have been 

 calculated in the keys in which the songs were originally sung and 

 written, they are all transposed, so that the principal tone of each 

 song falls on c in the small octave (i. e., on the second space of the 

 staff). It might seem that the mere factor of greater prominence of 

 a note in a melody is not sufficient cause for consideiing it as the 

 pivotal or fundamental tone about which to group the other scale 

 tones and according to which to range the scales of the different 

 songs in a table. (See pp. 445-447.) But it happens that in practi- 

 cally every song the most prominent tone is not so merely by the pre- 

 ponderance of a few beats, but that nearly always it outweighs in 

 value of beats any other scale tone several times over. In some 

 songs it outweighs in prominence practically all the other tones 

 together. Thus mathematically, as well as from decided auditory 

 impression as the song is sung, it appears to be the general level about 

 which the melody revolves and to which it frequently returns. In 

 18 out of 34 renditions or in 6 of the 11 distmct songs it is the tone on 

 which the song ends. In 16 renditions or 5 distinct songs it is for all 

 practical purposes the lowest note in the song, although in three of 

 these the melody drops to within a whole step below it and one song 

 ends on the lower tone rather than on the so-called tonic. But the 

 value of these lower tones is always slight as compared with the other 

 scale tones and in each case other renditions of the same melody 

 merge these lower tones with the principal tone, showing that the 

 drop below was not an important part of the melodic scheme and 

 possibly inadvertent and to be discounted altogether. Therefore, 

 from the standpoints of principal time value, of being the lowest 

 not« in the scale of tones, and of being the final note in the song, it 

 seems likely that this chief tone has a fundamental value for more than 

 half of the songs and may justifiably be taken as a pivotal point 

 around which to range the various scale tones of the different songs 

 for the purpose of comparing them as groups. 



This chief tone, now transposed to lower c in all scales, is not the 

 final nor the lowest tone in the remamder of the songs. On the 

 contrary, for most of these it occupies almost a central position m the 

 complete range of pitches. However, in practically all of them its 

 prominence far outweighs that of the other tones and in audible 

 rendition it seems to be as fundamental to the melodic structure as 

 in the first examples. So I have retained it as a pivotal tone by which 

 to compare the scales of the songs in which it is not the lowest nor 

 the final note with those in which it is, and have grouped these songs 

 to follow immediately the scales of the first groups, with the prmcipal 

 tone c placed in the same vertical line for all the scales. The letters 

 b, t, and e will be observed under certain notes in each scale. The 

 note under which b is placed represents the beginning tone of the 



