Folk & Traditional Music of the Western Continents
The folk & traditional music of Europe, Africa & the Americas explored.
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STUDYING THE STRUCTURE OF FOLK MUSIC 21 |
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example 2-4. Shoshone Indian Peyote song, from David P. McAllester, Fey ate Music (New York: Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology no. 13, 1949), song no. 73. Reprinted by permission from David P. McAllester and Wenner-Genn Foundation for Anthropological Research. |
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Melody and scale
We come now to the aspect of music that has been of greatest interest to the serious students of music in folk and nonliterate cultures—melody; and this aspect is probably the most difficult to study or describe. A simple approach employs consideration of the melodic contour. We need to know whether the melody of a piece generally rises, falls, remains at the same level, proceeds in a curve, or moves in large leaps, and so on. Listening to the over-all movement of the tune is thus important. We are also interested in the ambit, or range, of a tune—that is, the distance, in pitch, between the highest and lowest tones. This can be found with little difficulty by listening. Finally, we come to consideration of the scale. |
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