Traditional Hopi Songs - online book

Native American Songs With Sheet Music, Notation & Commentary

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	MAN A                                              225 Through the dissolving form of the song three segments can be discerned, each presenting the familiar outlines of a high movement, a, a descent,and a coda, the singer closing within a fourteenth tone of the lower octave of his opening note. Both the form of the song and its adherence to pitch appear more precise on closer examination. One chief refrain is discoverable in all the a's ; thereveal an^identity, andcopies the close of The opening movement ofmarks out an exact major trichord; begins with a redundant one at approxi­mately the same pitch, thereupon modulated upward a major third and repeated a moment later, its components in a new sequence. The extension of a major trichord to a tetrad by a pendent tone is already illustrated in this music (Maihai-katcina, A3, Sumyacoli, B2); and to this more complex group the singer gives a languid approximation, com­pressed within a fourth, in the initial movement of the song, forthwith lifting up his voice to a more vigorous reading spread to a sixth. Ris­ing a major third, he then descends two fourths in ft, the first empty, the second a nearer approach to a major trichord than he has yet attained. In a! he recommences the tetrad theme at the pitch and with the span of the previous bolder rendering, but rests on its second interval as if without heart to finish; and rising a major third above its highest note, re-performs the same broken combination, first in the more vigorous and then in the more languid form, after another moment of hesitation substituting for the latter a varied reading of the fuller type. The same rise of a major third which led from a to ft now leads from a to ft', the following descent spanning a semitone more than ft, and augment­ing its time in a still larger ratio. The major triads that succeed in y, and are reflected in ft", brighten the melody for the moment. Taking up in a" the same incomplete refrain at the same pitch, the singer develops it into a minor trichord at a tone above (g'-e'-d') the same interval of advance that separates the initial movement of the song from its repetition. Thereupon in he executes two downward fourths, not superposed as inbut lapped and apparently complicated by a dependence on previous pitches. The song ends in y" upon the final major triad ofextended nearly to an octave.