Traditional Hopi Songs - online book

Native American Songs With Sheet Music, Notation & Commentary

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	THE ROTE-SONG OF THE HOPI                        17 be called the mutation of figure, and defined as a repetition in which other pitches are substituted for certain only of those employed at first. The change is of two kinds: a larger shift of about a semitone, which may affect any of the notes of a phrase, and which is illustrated in almost all of the melodies; and a smaller and less frequent shift of about a quarter tone, affecting only notes whose central position or office as starting-points distinguishes them as axes or bases. The larger mutation may be spoken of as compound or simple according as the shift occurs in both senses about such a cardinal note, or moves all the notes affected in the same sense. Simple mutation may terminate either by the return of the shifted notes, or the advance of the others j or, as they may be called, reentrant and progressive muta­tion ; to which may be added incomplete mutation, in which neither happens. The smaller mutation may be interpreted as a mark of the sympathy of the whole structure in the displacement of a part. Com­pound mutation is illustrated in Snake Song No. 3, where a triad con­tracts, expands, and contracts again upon a constant mediant in four out of five recurrences of a melody; and in Anoshkaey and Maihai-katcina, where a movement in a fourth is repeated in a fifth, and then returns to a fourth (in Anoshkaey through a representative in the same tract). Reentrant mutation is illustrated in Snake Song No. 1, where a semitone rise of the summit of a triad is repeated after a like intro­ductory movement, the base being periodically raised a sixth tone throughout the song; in Snake Song No. 8, where the base of a triad descends a semitone in repetition and is restored at the outset of a third performance; and in Shiashtasha, where the mediant of a triad gives and reacts a quarter tone as a semitone shift of the extremes makes the triad alternately major and minor, the rest of the fabric tending to fol­low them. Pi'ogressive mutation is illustrated singly by Qoydhim-katcina, where the basal triad rises a semitone as the song proceeds, the fourth upon it first rising accordingly, then lapsing and again rising, the mediant of the triad yielding and reacting in harmony; and by Jakwaina, where the upper boundary of the main theme first rises inter­mittently, later the lower boundary, and finally all the notes perma-