Songs of the Copper Eskimos 391 



CHAPTER 3. SCALES OF TONE PREFERENCES AMONG THE 

 COPPER ESKIMO AND OTHER GROUPS. 



Within the scope of the present paper it is not possible to "go very deeply 

 mto the question of the exact scales used by the Eskimos and whether or no and 

 R( what degree they may vary from those which are in common use among 

 musicians with European traditions behind them. Such an investigation 

 would be a long study in itself, if indeed it had been possible to make it in a 

 scientifically accurate manner under existing conditions. Where there are 

 instruments of fixed pitch furnishing music not only of themselves but also 

 accompanying the vocal music and probably to a considerable extent influencing 

 its development, or even confining it, it is possible with sufficiently accurate 

 mechanical means at hand for measuring each tone, to discover what are, in 

 fact, established scales. 



The situation is very different, however, with vocal music which has devel- 

 oped by itself in a given region. Not only is the human voice very variable as 

 an instrument, and often uncontrollable except as the result of much practice 

 which would not be likely to occur in such a region as that which we are study- 

 ing, but all sorts of psychic conditions, including the effect upon the Eskimo of 

 singing into a phonograph, the like of which he has never seen before, have a 

 direct bearing on the tones produced. It is impossible to measure these influ- 

 ences, as it is also to measure the variations of the phonograph. Although 

 these latter are largely rhythmic and tend to increase with the wear of the 

 record, the starting and stopping of the record and the way in which the needle 

 is removed or placed have some influence upon the tones at the beginning and 

 the end of the song, and we sometimes obtain sounds there which really do not 

 belong. This does not occur in the main part of the tune so far as my experience 

 goes. 



Considering the psychic influences which bear upbn the voice, as well as 

 others such as colds, inflexibility, old age and the like, and the fact that the 

 transcriber had no other means than an accurate ear available for noting the 

 tones actually produced, a long dissertation on scales, covering all the "off- 

 pitches" that have been heard in the course of the transcribing, to say nothing 

 of the continual flatting that characterizes the singing of some individuals 

 which certainly could not have been intentional, would not only be practically 

 without value but quite out of place. I have tried to note carefully, however, 

 all the pitches as they were sung, whether true to the degree as indicated by the 

 staff, or removed ever so slightly, and some of the quarter-tones certainly seem 

 to be intentional, or at least in certain situations habitual with the individual 

 singer. The reader will observe a number of such instances where in repeated 

 parts the same pitch variation will occur. He will also probably observe as 

 many more where in one case a pitch will be a quarter- or less than a quarter- 

 tone flat or sharp, but again in the phrase as repeated elsewhere will be found 

 to be true. Sometimes there is a play between these off-pitches and true ones. 

 All these will be observed by the reader who is sufficiently interested to peruse 

 the songs carefully and in detail. 



The' tonal content of each song, except in cases where the tonality is so 

 irregular that a collection of such tones could mean little or nothing (and these 

 are very few), has been represented in a little scale, one for each song, and these 

 have been transposed to the "common denominator" of the scale of C so that 



fiey might be readily comparable. In nearly every case all the pitch deviations 

 ave been included, but there are a few instances in which these were so numer- 

 ous and very evidently due to untrue singing, that they have been omitted and 

 the fact noted, although in the songs themselves they have been given. 



