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54 HOPI SONGS
of that employed in the Zuiii melodies, its application in the four cases of comparison being as follows: —
1. Whenever the reproduction was accepted without difficulty by the ear as a unison with one of the harmonium semitones, the note corresponding to the latter was written alone.
2. The sign (-) was used whenever the reproduction could by an effort, yet not without effort, be regarded as in unison with one of the harmonium semitones. In these instances I found it possible to make either one sound higher by simply choosing that it should. The sign was written under or over the note corresponding to the harmonium semitone in question, according as a fresh comparison without predetermined result after a few moments' rest made the reproduction above or below it.
3. The sign - was used whenever it was impossible either to regard the reproduction as a unison with any harmonium semitone or to regard it as nearest to any but one. The sign was written under or over the note corresponding to the nearest semitone, according as the reproduction sounded below or above this.
4. The sign = was used whenever there was doubt as to which of two adjacent harmonium semitones was the nearest to the reproduction. In these instances it proved possible to make either one sound nearer by simply choosing that it should. The sign was written with the note corresponding to that of the pair on the harmonium to which a fresh double comparison, after a few moments, without predetermined result, made the reproduction seem nearer, and over or under it according as the reproduction sounded above or below this.
The suggestion for such a symbolism is to be found in the use by Hauptmann and Hehnholtz of a bar under or over the letter for a certain step in the diatonic scale, to indicate divergence from this step in the minute interval of the comma. Applied in notations of music, the device may be said to add others to the list of accidentals, which make of our European notation a symbolism partly natural and partly conventional. While the lines and spaces of the common musical staff represent up and down in pitch by higher and lower on the written |
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