Part 9 (1/2)

The motive of a song and its distinctive rhythm were determined by the emotion evoked by the dramatic circ.u.mstance. The simplest resultant of this directive emotion in music is a pulsating rhythm on a single tone. Such songs are not random shoutings, but have a definite meaning for those who sing and for those who listen, as in this Navaho ritual song.

[Music]

From this extremely simple expression the growth of the musical motive can be traced in these Indian songs through the use of two or more tones up to the employment of the full complement of the octave.[12]

[Footnote 12: A careful a.n.a.lysis of hundreds of aboriginal songs, gathered from the arctic seas to the tropics, shows that in every instance the line taken by these tones is a chord-line where the tones are harmonically related to each other. Out of these related tones the untutored savage has built his simple melodies. The demonstration of the interesting fact that ”the line of least resistance” in music is a harmonic line was made by my late a.s.sociate, Professor John Comfort Fillmore.]

[Music: A PRAYER FOR RAIN.

_Mexico. Tarahumare._

From DR. CARL LUMHOLTZ.]

[Music: SONG.

_British Columbia. Kwakiutl._

PROF. J.C. FILLMORE.]

The creation of that which we know as musical form seems also to be due to the influence of story upon song. We have already noted how the directive emotion started the distinctive rhythm and determined the order of the related tones, and so constructed the motive or theme.