28 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



very favourite tone not only for beginning the song but also for ending it, and 

 for the general level. There are, however, songs which begin and even end 

 on the fifth, a few which use the tonic, and some odd examples which are 

 noted in their place. These same tones for the minor are about equally favored. 



Summing up the pisiks, therefore, we find that in speed, metre, rhythm, 

 form of beginning and points that are usually by us associated with different 

 types of dances, there is nothing distinctive which characterizes this group; 

 nor, it may be added, the sub-groups as they have been made according to form. 

 The speed varies all the way from 76 M.M. to 130 M.M., and the same con- 

 ditions apply for the atons. The metre is predominantly two-four in most of 

 the songs, but almost always mixed with three-four and no regular succession 

 has been found. In rhythms there are no definite patterns that have been 

 proved to be characteristic. Most of the pisiks begin on the first beat of the 

 measure, but there are a large number which do not but which in other respects 

 conform to the general type, if such may be said to exist. The tonality, as we 

 have just observed, is largely major, but so it seems to be for the music of the 

 whole region and is also for that of many primitive peoples. 



In form, however, a fairly well-defined type exists, which varies within 

 limits, or rather there are two musical types, those without prelude and those 

 with. The music consists of verses divided into two parts or more, in the majority 

 of cases, each separated by refrains, and in fully half of the cases, if not more, 

 part of the verse, or a prelude, with a refrain introduces the verse proper. 

 There are all sorts of variants of this form but this is the broad general 

 structure. 



