16 HJALMAR THUREN. 
We may now consider the purely melodic material. A number 
of the recitative melodies" only embrace two tones, as for example 
No. 27 (range: a second with the highest tone as tonus currens) and 
Nos. 5 and 15 (second, with the lowest tone as tonus currens). 
Such recitatives with only two tones are also found in F. Boas?: 
a ee eee Cie, Па im One Bok lod 
ia = $ == etc., further in the Eskimo melody 
which was noted down by the American North Pole Expedition of 
Bessels °: 
3 times PÆN 
CRT Ber nm == I Ten Se] 
| == —3 = oo uam I m — 
De a re Е Е РЕ 
| eee eee 
FA mt HE: ae ae Ei 
a ø © — АА 
One of Parry’s two melodies also begins with 8 bars of purely 
recitative character (В flat and С with В flat as tonus currens).* 
A typical recitative melody is shown in No. 116 of our East 
Greenland collection of melodies. The tonus currens is A; the 
melody rises to B and falls to G#. In No. 26, FÉ is the tonus currens; 
the rise is marked by a fourth. In Nos. 4, 9 and 117 the melody 
rises a whole tone above the tonus currens, and falls a minor third. 
I may refer furthermore to the recitative melodies Nos. 6, 10, 14, 
18, 24, 25, 28, 30, 33. 
The melody No. 12 is peculiar and can only figuratively be 
called recitative melody, as there is no text connected with the tones. 
It consists of a few lulling tones which the mother sings to her child 
to soothe it to sleep. She dwells long on a B (tonus currens) and 
ends on a note which is about 1/4 tones higher. Such long sus- 
tained, lulling tones are not uncommon. For example, I have found 
a cradle-song from Little Russia which ends as follows”: 
Andante en. 
— —_ eN — nn mn 
eva БИ SE Pe 
Se a le ee m mm 
In these lulling tones we have an example of the case of a third 
which lies between the major and minor third.® 
1 | may expressly remark, that I distinguish between speech-recitative, i.e. rhythmic, 
strongly modulated speech, and melodic recitative, i. e. melodies with distinct 
tonus currens and tones corresponding to the rise and fall of the voice in speaking. 
> The Central Eskimo, р. 648. 
> ibid. р. 658. 
* W.E. Parry, Journal, р. 530. 
5 Die Musik VI, р. 45. 
% Major and minor are used in the sense of great and small, not as dur and moll. 
