AMERICAN PRIMITIVE MUSIC FREDERICK- R-BURTON U..I ft\U; Urvij) \ Cthntiit itf lUrllrjsIrn I s |J (Tnllriir. «§ Pttrclfnseb from dl|r IWsfWu jfrutfr. Date Due AMERICAN PRIMITIVE MUSIC TETi-:r..\iii:rxi>rxG AMERICAN PRIMITIVE MUSIC WITH ESPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE SONGS OF THE OJIBWAYS BY FREDERICK R. BURTON Composer of "Hiawatha,"' "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," etc.; Author of "Strongheart,"' "Redcloud of the Lakes," etc, NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1909 - - : . : j.-.izi;.;".:-: :-. - ::z : ACKXOWTEDGMZXT _ _ _ Tie :; - -est: ?. ~ tie ::_":::_ : :. nine n~e re-en ::; greater than tfc gc :: _ : - .-. -. » : .. r : _".:i: : . " : : : I to magnify my en: unduly if I _ ' ".-. - 11 r —:. ie .: : t : :ie n :n.i _ : hid) Ibis 1 k is a - - record. I trei - : almost or wholly unknown to me in all p i - — -" - _ - intr I _ : * .-. H . _ r i . - . -T " - r , - - ... it is s that I count as a - _ men and women, I cannot let the occasion pass withe :: 5] vial i of appreciation for Mr. Richi: I ( ;»se sted encouragement at a critical must have been abandoned. I can wish no - than to rind i im. F. K. B. X York, September. 1909. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I. PAGE Chapter I. A general survey of the field of American Indian music, with a summary of the work done by previous investigators. Point of view of this work: The utility of the material for the purposes of art .... 1 Chapter II. Scales — A discussion of the quarter-tone question in the light of Mr. Benjamin Ives Gilman's researches — Most Indians sing the true Greek intervals — Scales deducihle from Ojibway songs 20 Chapter III. Rhythm — An examination of the phenomena of so-called con- flicting rhythms — Ethnologists in error when they assert that Indians have developed rhythm further than have civilized races 44 Chapter IV. Half-breed music — The influence of civilization on Indian music shown by analysis of Iroquois songs 67 Chapter V. Structure and means — The Indian's instrumental outfit — Quality and range of Indian voices — The evolution of formal melody which reaches its perfection in the songs of the Ojibways 78 Chapter VI. .Music from the Ojibway point of view — One word for music and poetry — Music not regarded as an art, but as a thing of daily use and necessity — Conception of absolute music shown in the survival of word- less songs 106 Chapter VII. Music in Ojibway daily life — Various incidents narrated to show music enters how into every phase of Indian activity — Pagan ideals . 124 Chapter VIII. Ojibway verse — Its compactness — Subordination to melody — Difficulties in the way of the translator 145 Chapter IX. Art value of Indian songs — An appeal for consideration of our primitive themes as a basis for a distinctive style in American musical art 177 Chapter X. Ojibway songs and their stories — A collection of Ojibway songs notated by the author, each melody accompanied by the story or attend- ant circumstances- necessary to a full comprehension of its significance . 200 Part II. A collection of twenty-eight Ojibway songs for single voice with piano- forte accompaniment and English words; and four songs arranged for mixed quartette 285 Detailed index PART I AMERICAN PRIMITIVE MUSIC CHAPTER I GENERAL SURVEY THE matter contained herein was obtained, first, by personal research while living with the Ojibways in the region north of Lakes Huron and Superior: second, during employment as musical expert in the ethnological de- partments of the American Museum of Xatural History. Xew York, and the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago; third, by incidental contact with Iroquois and Indians of other tribes, and, fourth, by reading the writings of other investigators. Bv far the greater part of these pages is a record of my own discoveries and observations, and originally it was my intention to limit the book to a consideration of what may be regarded as my especial field of work, the music of the Ojibways: but the whole significance of Ojibway music cannot be appreciated without attention to and comparison with the music of other Indian peoples, and I have, therefore, undertaken a brief resume of the general subject. I felt that I could do this with some degree of confidence owing to my unusual oppor- tunities for studving Indian music and the several vears during which I have given the best of my time and thought to the work. Moreover, the general subject has begun to 1 2 AMERICAN PRIMITIVE MUSIC arouse widespread interest, and, as infinitely more remains to be done than has yet been done, it has seemed to me that a survey of the whole field, coupled with a record of my individual research, might be stimulative to a comprehensive organization of effort for the preservation of our primitive music while it yet lingers in the memory of Indian singers. If my research contributes in any slight degree to the science of ethnology, such result should be regarded as its by-product, for this book is the work of a musician whose astonished atten- tion was attracted to the subject by hearing a party of Ojib- ways sing a rarely beautiful song, and who followed that "lead" in the hope, well founded as it proved, of discovering a type of genuine and useful folksong indigenous to his native soil. That Indian songs may be useful to civilization, that is, that they have great art value, I thoroughly believe, and I should be lacking in the courage of my convictions if I did not make such demonstration of my belief as lies in my power. To this end, in addition to a discussion of scales, rhythm, form, and other technical and non- technical matters kindred to the sub- ject, I have selected twenty-eight songs from my collection, adapted to them English verse suggested by the Indian orig- inals, and provided them with pianoforte accompaniments. Some of the songs I have also arranged for unaccompanied mixed quartette. All these will be found in the book in addi- tion to notations of the entire collection of melodies which it Mas my good fortune to find. The foregoing paragraph needs an apparent qualification, for the disavowal of any ethnological significance may be GENERAL SURVEY 3 hastily interpreted as an expression of contempt for scientific principles and method. On the contrary, although artistic enthusiasm inspired the work of which the hook is a result, the spirit, if not the method, was that of the scientist who permits no preconceptions or desires to blind him to facts. The crude and ugly in Indian music has been set down as faithfully as the beautiful, and every possible effort has been made to record an exact expression of the Indian's musical thought. There is a science of music as well as a science of ethnology; and the science of music is twofold. The subject may be regarded from its material, or acoustical side alone,, or from the side that is usually expressed by the phrase "musical theory." The latter has to do with the structure of the art; it concerns itself not with the number of vibrations to an interval, but with the artistic relations of intervals. It is ana- lytical of the aesthetic content of the art, and it is with that phase of the matter that I have to do more than with any other. As will be observed later, the acoustical side of primitive music cannot be ignored even by one who applies himself mainly to the aesthetic, and I shall feel free to dissent from the conclu- sions of some of our ethnological investigators who have ven- tured to write on the subject of Indian songs. THE FIELD. To the white man generally it is still matter for surprise that there should be any field whatever for serious study in Indian music. The facts are, indeed, amazing. Archaeolo- gists recognize on the North American continent north of 4 AMERICAN PRIMITIVE MUSIC Mexico fifty-eight distinct ethnic families of aborigines. All these in the popular view are supposed to speak dialectic varia- tions of the same language, but in reality each language of the fifty-eight is more distinct from every other than English is from German. There are common roots in English and German, to say nothing of common words that differ merely in spelling, or slightly in pronunciation. The fifty- eight Indian languages are not linked together by the pres- ence of common roots. The relations between English and German might, for the purpose of illustration, be likened to that between Ojibway and Abenaki. The languages of these peoples abound in common roots, and ethnically they are the same people, that is, Algonquin, and their languages at base are the same; yet no Abenaki could understand an Ojibway, or vice versa, without special study of the other's tongue. The habitat of the Abenaki was and still is in the east, where Maine and New Brunswick now are; the Ojibways live north, west, and northwest of Lakes Huron and Superior. Between them in the old days were, among other Indian peo- ples, the Iroquois, and contiguous to the Ojibways on the west dwelt the Sioux. There is no common root in the Ojibway (Algonquin), Iroquois and Sioux languages; and this remark- able dissimilarity applies equally to the rest of the fifty-eight families. Powell summarizes the matter thus (Seventh An- nual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology) : "It is believed that the families of languages can not have sprung from a conmion source; they are as distinct from one another in their GEXERAL SURVEY .5 vocabularies and apparently in their origin as from the Aryan or the Scythian families." Here, then, is a field for musical inquiry of abundant ampli- tude and complexity if only it be known that these fifty-eight different peoples practise the art of music to any noteworthy degree.