978 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 755 



singers were careful not to disturb, as the 

 song in all religious rites was regarded as a 

 message to the supernatural. 



Section II. deals with The Phonographic 

 Method. The author says of the phonograph : 

 It " makes possible a hitherto unheard-of 

 thing, the detailed study of an individual per- 

 formance of music. It opens a field of inves- 

 tigation, that of the actual events of which 

 music consists, which has hitherto been ac- 

 cessible to observation in only a very limited 

 way — while a performance lasts, and in so far 

 as it can afterward be recalled by memory." 

 From the premise that " Music is an art of 

 interval and measure primarily, and one of 

 timbre secondarily " the author proceded to a 

 phonographic study of interval in Hopi sing- 

 ing. He say^ : 



With a series of testa not psychological but 

 physical I endeavored both to find the principal 

 limitations of the instrument by the trial of vari- 

 ous conditions of inscription and reproduction, 

 and to determine the degree of exactness of its 

 best performance. The method consisted mainly 

 in noting the amount of variation in the rapidity 

 of pulsations of sound called beats produced be- 

 tween a phonographic reproduction of a note held 

 continuously and another note known to be of 

 constant pitch. 



Then follows a lengthy account of his 

 work upon these tests and the conclusion: 



As an apparatus for the reproduction of tex- 

 tures of interval the phonograph may fairly be 

 called an instrument of precision. 



Of the " method and symbolism of the no- 

 tation " we read : 



Like the records of Zuni music these . . . are 

 the result of an attempt to judge the tones de- 

 livered by the phonograph by means of the sense 

 for difference of pitch alone, without aid from the 

 sense of interval. My aim has been to make a 

 separate estimate of the pitch of each individual 

 note of each performance, through its comparison 

 with one or more of the series of tones at intervals 

 of a tempered semi-tone, or 100 cents, given in the 

 notes of an ordinary harmonium. This compari- 

 son was made, as before, by silencing the phono- 

 graph the moment the note to be judged had been 

 reached, and immediately thereafter sounding a 

 harmonium note. . . . 



For the expression of " the minute scale of 

 fourteenths of a tone made the basis " of his 



records the author adopted modifications of 

 the historical notation by which he says : 



There is thus afforded for each of the four- 

 teenths of a tone assumed as the steps in the 

 scale of these notations a gradation of position 

 easily distinguishable from every other. 



He further remarks: 



The attempt to follow the musical practise of 

 non-European peoples with such minuteness must 

 justify itself, either on the ground that accuracy 

 of observation is a thing worthy to be aimed at 

 for its own sake, or on the ground that in this 

 branch of research such a degree of it has veritable 

 value for purposes of theory. 



Section III. is composed of the presenta- 

 tion of each of the seventeen Hopi songs; 

 given first on the usual clef, next the phono- 

 graphic record according to his plan of nota- 

 tion, then a chart showing the " Course of 

 Tone," followed by more or less elaborate 

 " Comments." In some of these latter the 

 author shows a fitne appreciation of " these 

 wild flowers of fancy, the wanton yield of 

 naive delight in the vocal production of in- 

 terval," as in connection with " Snake Song 

 No. 4 " where he says : 



The interest of the song lies in its stately 

 rhythm, occasionally delicately varied; and in this 

 deliberate ascent, as if from level to level of the 

 singers native mesa, with a pause midway in each 

 to rally loiterers. 



The volume represents much careful work 

 and is a valuable contribution to the study 

 of the phonetics of some kinds of Indian 

 singing. The quality of tone is not touched 

 upon and unfortunately the songs under con- 

 sideration do not present a wide range of 

 rhythms so that that interesting aspect is not 

 dwelt upon. All the records under examina- 

 tion are from single singers. The Indian 

 solo singer is apt to waver more in pitch than 

 when he sings with a group. A number of 

 voices not only strengthens the tone but 

 steadies the interval. Moreover, compara- 

 tively few Indian songs are intended to be 

 sung by one voice only, so that such records 

 as those presented in the volume can hardly 

 be regarded as representative of Indian music. 

 They do not picture the songs as they appeal 

 to the Indians, nor does the dissection of tones, 

 as here so ably given, assist our race to dis- 



