14 HJALMAR THUREN. 
in order to bring a group of beats in time with a definite melodic 
motif, then the drum rhythm seems to part again from the rhythm 
of the melody. 
Tones. Often the East Greenlanders recite their compositions, 
the rising and falling of the voice being more marked than in daily 
talk. The rhythm here is just as clearly formed as in the melodies. 
An example of this recitative is given in No.1, where I have endea- 
voured to reproduce the approximate distance between the tones 
uttered: | 3 
== awa Fre 
а 
use- а. jartina 
авг 
Ц is often difficult to determine when the recitative ends and 
the real singing begins. The introduction not rarely consists of 
ordinary speech, which after a few strophes rises into song, to sink 
back again into recitative, which then continues in the rhythm of 
the song. 
№. 4 shows an interesting, intermediate form between recitative 
and true melody, of frequent occurrence. The word-sounds here 
have a strongly melodic character, but it is only in a few cases 
that the tone can be definitely determined. In the first strophe the 
speech used in the recitative corresponds to some extent with a third 
in the first seven syllables, the eighth syllable is given with a sound 
which may almost be said to be a C, the ninth is clearly sung on 
a D, and the tenth to thirteenth repeat the melodic’ third of the 
introductory recitative. 
— > = £ ENE 
ser ere A es ани На 
Siva р mn ЕЙ ae и РЕ DE I 
In No. 5 there is a definitely formed melody in the first six 
periods, then the singer changes to a regular recitative. In No. 2 
there is only a singie note which can be distinctly separated from 
the recitative. 
The recitatives of the East Greenlanders are as a rule carried on 
at a definite pitch of voice, round which the rising and falling of the 
words and sentences are grouped. This pitch becomes the perma- 
nent mean tone (tonus currens) in the melodic recitative.! The tonus 
currens runs like a thread through the melody, which sometimes rises. 
above it, sometimes — and as a rule, most often — falls below it. 
1 T. Norlind, Spraket och Musiken (Lund 1901). 
