Songs of the Copper Eskimos 405 



music which knows nothing of keys as such. In Indian music with which I have 

 become acquainted, however, modulation is extremely rare. Indian songs 

 modulate from major to minor, either the relative or more rarely the tonic 

 minor, but this on the whole appears to be more accidental than habitual. In 

 Eskimo songs there are so many examples of this that it is one of the features of 

 the music. 



While the tonic is by no means established in the music 'of the Indians 

 e^ept in certain types of songs, like ceremonial sets, the feeling for it is certainly 

 4Pwell developed, generally speaking, as with the Eskimo, if not more so, for 

 with the latter, there is a much stronger appreciation of the third as a resting 

 place, a condition also much more accidental in appearance in Indian music 

 than habitual. 



It has been frequently said that Indian songs have a downward trend. In 

 fact, some writers have intimated that this is an almost universal phenomenon 

 with them. Such is by no means the case, for there are examples, in great 

 number, of songs which are level in movement and even of tunes which end with 

 a melodic ascent. Nevertheless, songs with a downward trend, which begin 

 rather high are certainly very common and tend to create such an impression. 

 These Eskimo songs, on the other hand, have impressed me by their com- 

 paratively low beginnings, with a considerable rise in the course of the melody 

 and a return to somewhere near the starting point, if not the actual starting 

 tone. Thus the melody describes a rather large upward curve and returns. 

 Many songs also show inverted curves as well. The upward curve is sufficiently 

 frequent, however, to be called a characteristic feature and to place itself in 

 contrast to the large number of Indian songs which have a falling melody. A 

 glance at the scales will partially reveal this tendency in the Eskimo songs, 

 where the beginning and ending tones are indicated by the small letters b and e 

 directly over and beneath the notes which are so employed. 



The tendency to fuse two or more songs has already been noted. This, so 

 far as it is known, is a comparatively rare phenomenon in Indian music. No' 

 doubt the fusion of songs and modulation have interacted considerably in 

 Eskimo tunes and accustomed the singers to more radical departures than are 

 usually encountered in the course of a single song in Indian music. 



Perhaps the beauty and melodic richness of Eskimo songs as a whole can 

 be mentioned again without over-emphasizing a truly remarkable gift of this 

 people who live in a land where there might seem so little to inspire them. What 

 arctic regions may lack in warmth and vegetation is perhaps more than compen- 

 sated for in the beauties of a frozen world. However that may be, artistic 

 expression in tone has not been denied these people who live for a considerable 

 part of the year almost in darkness. We find plenty of single songs here and 

 there in Indian music that are beautiful, along with many that are not, but 

 from the country where it is nearly always winter is brought a collection of 

 songs that for their generally high musical merit, for real loveliness, it is hard 

 to find a counterpart in more favoured lands. 



