The very beginning of a folk-tune has characteristic marks. The first
accented note is usually the tonic of its scale. In almost all cases
this first-accent note is preceded by an up-beat note which also is
usually a tonic. The upbeat note coming second in frequency is the
lower 5 of the scale, with the higher 3 even less often thus employed.
The interval, if any, between the up-beat and the first accented note
is thus either an ascending fourth, an ascending third (in those cases
where these first two notes are 1 and 3) or descending third. And
these intervals, though small, are often broken or bridged by an
unaccented intervening note. Tunes beginning with an interval of a
fifth (ascending 1 to 5 or descending 5 to 1) are quite rare. Common
folk-tune beginnings are thus:
As to melodic trend within the body of the tune, I shall speak only
briefly. It is a broad subject, too broad to be discussed adequately
in this connection. A survey of my tune-thematic card catalog reveals,
however, a few characteristics of this melodic trend. The first is
that the tunes assume usually an initial upward trend. Another is that
the steps or intervals employed are small, predominantly seconds,
thirds, fourths, and fifths. Greater intervals are found however at
the juncture of two phrases. From these observations we may assume
that the American folk-singer does not like big intervals.[11] This
assumption, based on recorded tunes, is strengthened when one listens
to folk singing and notices their anticipatory slides or scoops in
approaching a tone that is only a little higher or lower than the one
just sung, a practice which may be interpreted as an anticipation of,
and an attempt to master, that which is vocally difficult. But while
the individual jumps from note to note are not as a rule great, the
pitch compass of the entire tune is often surprisingly wide. The
melodies usually end in a descending cadence to the tonic.
Along with the great variety in form which we meet among American
folk-tunes, there are certain melodic formulas which seem to be
favorites and reappear with unimportant variations as the tonal
vestment of many different songs, so many indeed that they might well
be looked on as wandering tunes (reminding one of the familiar
wandering stanzas in folk texts) or, since they are not identical from
song to song, tune families.
In the present collection I have come upon six tune families of
different sizes and have named them in each instance after the song
which seems to be the most representative member of the family. They
are the 'Lord Lovel' family, cast in the ionian mode; 'I Will Arise',
aeolian and ionian; 'Hallelujah', mixolydian; 'Kedron', aeolian; 'Babe
of Bethlehem', dorian; and 'Roll Jordan', ionian. The tunes in this
collection and elsewhere belonging to the 'Lord Lovel' family are
listed under the song 'Dulcimer'. Those belonging to the other
families are listed under the songs for which the family is named.