OCR Text |
Show 2 1 0 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ BULL. 75 89, 91; 92, 90, 91, 90, 94, 93, 93, 91. The average interval is 0.92 second. Figure 5 [ pi. 16] is a diagram of the time relations of the various elements of the music drawn to exact scale, 1 millimeter being equal to - nftj- ff second. The drumbeats are marked by bars and these and the notes are marked as already described. The numbers above the notes are the intervals in hundredths of a second between the beginning of the note and the preceding or succeeding drumbeat, as counted on the photograph. The numbers, as 39, 193, etc., are the intervals between notes ( lengths of notes) in hundredths of a second. The note c is 0.39 second long; e and/ together are 0.74 second long; g and h, 0.74 second long; and Z, 0.71 second long. It wouid appear that a quarter note may be taken as equal to 0.74 second, exactly the same value as is very definitely shown to exist in the Woman's dance. The first note of the diagram is then an eighth note, the second is a dotted half note, etc. The interpretation of the length of the notes in musical notation may then be written as in the last line of figure 5 [ pi. 16]. The phrase thus interpreted is hardly long enough to determine the length of the bar, but the piece seems to be in 2- 4 time, with bars as indicated. This is in substantial agreement with the original transcription. From this study of the photograph of the Lame dance it is difficult to determine any definite relation between the drumbeats, which occur with mechanical regularity, and the voice, which has a varying accent and rhythm. Perhaps it may be said that a drumbeat follows an accented vocal note, as beats ® , ® , and ® follow the accented notes ef, gh, and jJc% On the other hand, the strongly accented note w follows beat @ after a short interval of 0.11 second. In the Woman's dance each pair of drumbeats seems to correspond very directly to the 2- 4 measure of the musical notation, and such a measure has a length of 0.29 + 0.45 = 0.74 second, which is the period of the pairs of beats. In the Lame dance the quarter note of the voice seems to be exactly the same as for the Woman's dance, 0.74 second, but in the Lame dance there is no apparent relation of this interval to the drumbeats, which are 0.92 second apart. DAYTON C. MILLER. APRIL 9, 1918. |