Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/630

618 which emphasised the final rhyme, and by covering two lines of the poetry with one phrase of the melody constructed a symmetrical arrangement.

It will be noted in the above example that the half-close is on the dominant harmony; and this principle, which was originally a peculiar attribute of the Volkslied, has been gradually introduced into all other kinds of music, and it is now one of the most important factors of form. [See, vol. i. p. 543.] Many of the Volkslieder were composed in ecclesiastical modes; but untaught vocalists, singing purely by instinct, soon learnt to avoid the difficult and harsh intervals common to some of the modes, and by degrees used none but the Ionian mode, in which alone the dominant principle can have full weight. If the Ionian mode (our own modern scale of C major) be examined, it will be seen to fall into two exactly equal parts, with the semitones occurring in the same place of each division:—

As C, the tonic, is the principal note in the first divisions, so is G the dominant in the second. And it very soon became a practice to make the first half of a stanza pause on the dominant harmony, and the second half to close on the tonic.

The form is generally very concise, as in Example 5, but looser forms are sometimes met with, and were probably due to the influence of the Church. To the same influence we may undoubtedly ascribe the melodic melismas which now and then occur in strophical melodies. In the Gregorian music, where little attention was paid to rhythm, the melody might be indefinitely prolonged upon a convenient vowel; and similarly we sometimes find in the Volkslied many notes given to one word, simply because it is an easy word to sing; thus—

These melodic melismas also allow the voice great scope in the so-called 'Kehrreim' or refrain. Another noticeable peculiarity of rhythm in the Volkslied is the variety of ways in which the metre is treated. In many instances the time changes with every bar, and the following example illustrates a different representation of the metre in every line of the stanza :—

The metre of the verse is always simple, usually Trochaic or Iambic: dactyls or spondees are rare. Unlike the songs of many other countries, the melody of the Volkslied maintains a complete independence of the accompanying instrument, and is therefore always vocal and never instrumental.

The Volkslied would seem to have fixed as it were instinctively our modern major tonal system; and moreover songs even of the 15th century are extant which were undoubtedly written in minor keys. The following melody clearly belongs to the old system, but the care with which the leading note G♯ is avoided, and the intervals on which the principal rhymes fall, make it evident that the A minor key was intended.

Consideration has thus far been given to the very important contributions of the Volkslied