On the Eskimo Music. 95. 
East Greenlanders. The song was chanted very slowly and in hushed 
tones. It has undoubtedly been the singer’s intention to produce an 
impression of awe, not only by means of the text but also through 
the melodic treatment, and even on Europeans the effect of the 
dirge is sombre and depressing. Otherwise we must be very careful 
in drawing conclusions from the effect a primitive melody has upon 
European hearers. 
To the present group of melodies belongs one of the melodies 
which J. Fabricius has recorded!; but the somewhat remarkable 
conclusion should not be included. With regard to the tonometric 
study of the melodies in this group, see above p. 20. 
It is by no means uncommon that we find melodies in primitive 
music with the same basis as the group here discussed. Among the 
Laplanders, for example, a number of melodies are constructed on 
the first, fourth and fifth?; as also a number of songs among the 
Indians and Mongolians.” In order if possible to find points of con- 
nection with the Greenland songs, I have examined the music of 
the Samoyedes; a quantity of the music of this tribe has been 
recorded on the phonograph and is preserved in the Finnish collec- 
tion of folk-songs at Helsingfors. This material exhibits a much 
higher stage of development than that of the Greenlanders, and there 
are several instruments which have been of importance for the 
musical development of the tribe. 
Group 111. 
1. A series of melodies range over first, third and fifth. Of the 
15 melodies in this material, five have been determined tonometric- 
ally, and of these three have the major third (F—A—C), one (No. 128) 
has an interval between major third and fourth and one the minor 
third (F—A fat). The melodies noted down without the help of the 
phonograph have 7 times F—A flat—C, 3 times F—A—C. 
In this subdivision the third is almost always the tonus currens, 
but we note here and in the other subdivisions of this group a con- 
stant tendency downwards, with the first as resting point and an 
unusually strong emphasis on C, which however is the tone occur- 
ring most seldom. It is clear that the interval of a fifth pleases the 
musical feeling of the singer to a special degree. Yet we must not 
draw hasty conclusions from this regarding the feeling of tonality, 
+ Medd. om Grønland X, р. 156. 
> Armas Launis, Lappische Juoigos-Melodien (Helsingfors 1908). 
> Vierteljahrschrift für Musikgeschichte Ш, р. 300. 
* In the above list — to avoid preliminary sign — the minor third is mostly in- 
dicated by D—F. 
