Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/360

 fillmore] HARMONIC STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUSIC

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��or key-note ; and the tones most nearly related acoustically to any given key-note are the tones of its triad. Then come the tones belonging to its relative minor triad and to the dominant and subdominant triads. Somewhat less nearly related are the tones belonging to the major triads of the under and over major thirds and sixths.

The following Omaha song employs the under major third :

No. 13. OMAHA.

���In this example there is a change of key within very narrow limits. The first two phrases, comprising only three measures, would seem to be clearly in the key of G, while the remaining two phrases, of two measures each, seem to be in the key of C. The A flat in the song cannot be treated as a mere chromatic bye- tone ; it is an important melodic note — it is principal, not acces- sory. A flat is the chord of the (major) under-third of C, in which key the song closes, although it begins in the key of G. The tones in this song can easily be accounted for on harmonic grounds, but not by a reference to any known form of scale.

The question of tonality in all these songs is a question to be settled by the help of harmonic considerations and not otherwise. The case becomes stronger when we come to take into account the melodies which more or less plainly imply modulation. The following Omaha choral is such an example :

No. 14. OMAHA CHORAL.

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���The song begins in the key of B flat, and there is not a single tone in the melody, except the E in the last measure but one, that is not to be found in the scale of B flat ; yet the course of

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