In identifying the modal character of the "gapped" tunes I have
deemed it advisable to proceed by an entirely arbitrary method, free
from any sort of theoretical connotation. Should a missing tone be
presupposed to make either a major or minor, perfect or imperfect,
interval with the tonic, there arise at once ambiguities of
modality. For purposes of harmonic treatment it is quite necessary
to decide upon which particular mode a gapped tune suggests, but in
studying the purely melodic aspects it is reasonable to accept the
tune as an entity, considering it in its actual tonal structure and
not with regard to its possible modal permutations. To accomplish
this purpose I have evolved a chart, based on methods used by Cecil
J. Sharp in his _English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians_,
which for the great majority of the tunes in this collection is an
adequate system of classification. The arrangement of the chart is
very simple: there are five columns, each beginning with one of the
five pentatonic scales. Immediately below each pentatonic scale are
four hexatonic scales which are formed by the addition of the
missing tones, singly and in their variable positions. The system
permits these variables to be read in terms of natural and flatted
tones. Lastly in each column are three regular heptatonic modes
which are the outgrowth of supplying both missing tones
simultaneously and in variable combination. The gaps in the
pentatonic and hexatonic scales are indicated by slurs and the
numerical positions from the tonic of the missing tones. The
supplied missing tones are indicated by black notes, and in fitting
any given tune to any scale on the chart I have endeavored where
possible to let these black notes indicate the weak tones. Since it
was possible, so far as the _actual tonal structure_ of the tunes
was concerned, to have a choice in the placing of them, the device
of indicating weak tones was a happy solution to a more careful
classification. Above each tune in this book I have indicated the
modal and, following this and in parentheses, the tonal pattern of
the tune with the heptatonic scale as a norm, that is, treating
gapped tunes arbitrarily as broken-down heptatonic tunes. A Roman
numeral indicates a major or perfect interval with the tonic; an
Arabic numeral a minor interval. In event of augmented or diminished
fourths or fifths I have used conventional signs. A gap is indicated
by a dash.
As a practical example of classification let us take at random, say,
'Weeping Savior', a song of the present collection. Counting the
tones of the melody we find six with the sixth degree missing. We
observe that the tune has a major second, minor third, perfect
fourth and fifth, no sixth, and a minor seventh. By transposition we
see that from a standpoint of the tonal pattern alone the tune can
be listed either as Hexatonic, Mode 2, A or Mode 4, b. But the
examination of structural detail shows clearly that 3 being a strong
tone and 2 being decidedly weak gives preference to the first
classification under Mode 2.
While pentachordal and hexachordal tunes (which do not conform to
this system of classification) may be perfect entities, I have,
nevertheless, for purposes of uniformity classified them on a
heptatonic basis, that is, as heptatonic tunes with the sixth and
seventh, or seventh alone, missing respectively. Similarly, while it
is somewhat tautological to say, for instance, a tune is heptatonic
ionian, I have prefixed the term heptatonic to facilitate
identification and to balance the constantly recurrent pentatonic
and hexatonic.
An examination of these spiritual folk-tunes reveals a great
predominance of gapped scales. Only 23 per cent of them use the full
seven-tone series; 44 per cent are hexatonic; 23 per cent are
pentatonic; and seven tunes use only from 1 to 5 of their scale.
The incidence of the different modes has been impossible to ascertain.
We are sure of a mode, as Mr. Rufty has noted, only when the scale
tones are all represented in the melody. Proceeding however in
questionable instances according to the more or less clear modal
_implication_, I have found that about 52 per cent of these tunes may
be interpreted as ionian (major), about 30 per cent as aeolian, 7.5
per cent each as dorian[12] and mixolydian, and three tunes as
phrygian.
I leave the interpretation of the significance of these figures to
others. I venture to suggest however that they will be found to
indicate a survival of gapped and modal tunes that is unique in the
folk-music of today among peoples of European stock.[13]
A modally constructed tune is, as I have indicated, almost sure to be
a folk-tune. And if a melody shows the characteristic gaps, its folk
nature is quite assured. Indeed, the complete filling-in of the gaps,
creating two half steps, is a sign, though not always a sure one, of
art influence.[14]
The above paragraphs show in a general way a few of the more important
and evident _features by which American folk-tunes may be
recognised_.[15] Their presence or absence in specific cases has
helped me to decide as to the fitness of a tune for acceptance into
this collection.
_Tunes of Religious and Worldly Folk-Songs Compared_
I have indicated above (page 6) that many of the present tunes were
borrowed outright from secular folk-songs. The tune-to-tune
relationships were discovered to some degree, as I have indicated, by
accident. A spiritual tune would remind me of a secular one. I would
look it up in Sharp or elsewhere, verify the relationship, and note it
under the proper song in this collection. Such accidents, however,
account for but comparatively few of my related-tune discoveries. In
most instances they came to light as the result of a methodical
comparison made possible by my having catalogued my spiritual
folk-tunes and a large number of secular folk-melodies. I shall not go
into a detailed explanation of this cataloguing method here, chiefly
because it is one which, though it answered my own purposes well,
would probably be found inadequate as a tool for students of
comparative melody in general. I shall say merely that the catalog was
a card index of tune beginnings, all transposed to a key which had two
flats as its signature. The arrangement was based on the scale
position or relative pitch of the first few tones. At the beginning of
the catalog were those tunes which began on _b_-flat, then came those
beginning on _c_ and so on. The arrangement among those tunes
beginning on any one tone, followed the same pitch sequence, from
lowest to highest, taking into consideration the second, third, and
more notes of the tune beginnings where necessary. That is, my
lexicographical arrangement was like that of the dictionary, but with
notes on a regular staff taking the place of letters, and with the
scale steps taking the place of alphabetical sequence.
The actual working out of this scheme may be observed in the
arrangement of tunes in this collection. In each of the three parts
the tunes appear in their catalog sequence.[16]
Through a consistent comparison of the tunes in this catalog with
those in secular tune files made on the same plan, I have been able to
discover the organic relationship of upwards of 150 melodies in this
collection to an even greater number of traditional folk-tunes
associated with _secular_ texts. This greater number is explained by
the fact that one and the same tune in this collection was often found
related to a number of worldly songs. To one tune 'Pilgrim', for
example, I discovered 17 secular related melodies. The relationship
runs in degree all the way from one which is barely recognizable to
one which consists in an almost note-for-note identity.
The catalogs were also of distinct value in bringing to light scores
of interrelated tunes _within_ the collection, and thus in bringing to
light the tune families mentioned on page 14 above.
The search for kindred secular tunes was most fruitful in the case of
the ballads and somewhat less so for the hymns. Among the spiritual
songs the search yielded surprizingly meager results. The reason lay
probably in the nature of the spiritual-song tunes themselves. These
tunes--whatever their source--were often altered through the arbitrary
intrusion of refrains and choruses. Among these tunes, therefore, my
finding of secular analogies was limited usually to melodic _parts_
instead of whole tunes.
To be sure, the tune relationships, religious to secular, which I have
pointed out, touch little more than half the songs under scrutiny. But
when it is taken into consideration that the related secular tunes
were all found in a body of British Isles-American melodies not much
greater than that of the spiritual tunes themselves, then it would not
seem unreasonable to assume that a complete catalog of American
worldly folk-tunes would reveal cognates to many more, possibly to all
of the tunes presented here. The kinships already discovered, however,
warrant the assumption that _these spiritual tunes are part and parcel
of the ancestral folk-melodism of the English-speaking peoples_.
The worldly-religious tune comparison has also shed more light on the
motives which led the revival folk to borrow from the store of secular
melody and on the manner of that borrowing. We have indicated above
our belief that one motive was the crying need for rousing and
familiar tunes. Another reason seems to have been the mere fact that
the borrowed tunes _were_ worldly. Worldliness was of itself an asset.
Fighting the devil with his own weapons had its distinct advantages in
revival technics. But just how and why a _particular_ secular tune
came into the religious atmosphere is not always evident. In some
instances, however, the examination of the secular original song makes
this clear.