Chapter VII. Minor Variations and Characteristic Rhythms

CHAPTER VII

MINOR VARIATIONS
AND CHARACTERISTIC RHYTHMS

 

Vagaries in the Minor Scale — The Sharp Sixth —
Orientalism — ^The "Scotch" Snap — A Note on
THE Tango Dance — Even and Uneven Meas-
ures — Adjusting Words and Music

 

The frequent aberrations from the major scale in the
songs of the American negroes, which I have pointed out,
serve effectually to disprove Wallaschek's contention that
they are nothing more than injiitations of European songs —
"unmistakably arranged" o/ "ignorantly borrowed" from
the national songs of European peoples. There is but one
body of specifically national song with which the slave of
the United States could by any possibility have become
familiar — the Scottish, with its characteristic pentatonic
scale and rhythmical snap; but the singing of Scottish
ballads was not so general in the South that their pecu-
liarities could become the common property of the field
hands on the plantations. The negroes in the Antilles
and South America were in a very different case. Reci-
procal influences were stronger there, where social lines
were more loosely drawn and where the races amalgamated
to an extent which threatened the institution of slavery
itself; but even there the impress of African music is
unmistakable and indelible. Spanish melody has been
imposed on African rhythm. In the United States the
rhythmical element, though still dominant, has yielded
measurably to the melodic, the dance having given
way to religious worship, sensual bodily movement to
emotional utterance.

The demonstration of independence of European in-
fluence is still more striking in the case of the minor songs
and those of mixed or vague tonality. The variations
from the minor scale which I have classified are those dis-

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

closing the major seventh (the leading-tone), the use
of the major sixth and the absence of the sixth. Other
aberrations are not pronounced enough to justify being
set down as characteristic features.

There is no special significance in the prevalence of -the
leading-tone in minor melodies (it was found in nineteen
songs out of sixty-two), beyond the evidence which it may
offer of the influence of the European system in which the
seventh step of the minor scale is arbitrarily raised a semi-
tone for the sake of a satisfactory harmonic cadence. To
avoid the abnormal interval of a second consisting of
three semitones European theorists also raise the sixth,
thus obtaining the conventional ascending minor scale —
the melodic minor. It cannot be without significance
that what I am prone to consider a primitive melodic
sense seems to have led the negroes to rebel at this pro-
cedure. In thirty-four out of sixty-two minor melodies
the troublesome sixth (the avoided fourth in the major
mode) is omitted entirely, and in eight it is raised to a
major interval without disturbing the seventh. The major
sixth in the minor mode presents itself as an independent
melodic element, the effect of which is most potently felt
when it is left unharmonized — which is not the case in one
of the illustrative examples which I present.* The minol:
tunes with the major sixth are thus without the leading-
tone, and the physiological effect of the errant interval is
even more striking than the flat seventh in the major tunes.

No one who heard Miss Jackson, the contralto of the
original Fisk Jubilee choir, sing "You May Bury Me in
the East,"2 without accompaniment of any sort, is likely
to have forgotten the clarion sound of her voice on the
word "trumpet." This was the only song of its kind in
the repertory of the Jubilee Singers, the other minor songs
either having no sixth or having the leading-tone. A fine
example in my manuscript collection excited the admira-
tion of M. Tiersot, who sets it down in his brochure as an
illustration of the first Gregorian tone. It is a revival
hymn, "Come tremble-ing down," and in it the "wood-

* See "Come tremble-ing down," page 85.

* See page 86.

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MINOR VARIATIONS; CHARACTERISTIC RHYTHMS

 

"Come trembleing down"

 

AllesMtto

 


ffVJv^

 

C

 

Come tremble-ing' doWDig-o shout-ing- home,Safe in the sweet arms of

 

^

 

S

 

i i i J'

 

I Ml U

 

JT^ j ii

 

lJ^ J '

 


Je -, sus,ComeJe - sus;'Twasjust cuboutthebreakofda^Eing' Je-susstolemy
1^

 


heart a-wayj^TVas just ar-bontthebreak ofda^Eiiig Je-sus stolemy hearta-way.

 


A spiritnal from Boyle Co., Kentucky, transcribed from the singing of a former slave for
the anthor by Miss Mildred J. Hill, of Looisville. A. fine ezan(|le of the raised sixth in the
minor mode, Airadged by tiie author.

 

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

 

You May Bury Me in de Eas'

 

Lento

 


LYoumay bur-y me In de Kas', you may bur -y me in de Wes', But I'u

 


hear de trumpet soun'_ in dat mom - in'; In dat morn - in',myLord,

 


How I long- to go For to hear de trumpet soun' in dat morn - In',

 


2. Father Gabriel in dat day,
He'll take wings .ind fly away^
For to hear de trimipet soun'

In dat mornin'.
You may b.ury him, etc.

 

■3. Good ole Christians in dat day,
Dey'll take wings and fly away,,
etc.

4. Good ole preachers in dat day,
Dey'll take wings, etc.

 

5. In dat dreadful jttdgmen' day
I'll take wings, etc.

 

, ^'I'^iy from "The Story of the Julilee Sinffers"; arrangement for this work bv H T Bur-
leigh. One of the finest examples extant of the effect of the major sixth in the minor mode.

 

[ 86 ]

 

MINOR VARIATIONS; CHARACTERISTIC RHYTHMS

note wild" has a barbaric shout of jubilation to which
correct verbal accent has been sacrificed:

Come tremble-ing down, go shouting home,

Safe in the sweet arms of Jesus.
'Twas just about the break of day-
King Jesus stole my heart away.

Concerning the text of this song it may be said that it
is scarcely to be wondered at that the amorous sentiment
of many Methodist and Baptist revival hymns finds its
echo in the hymns of the negroes.

The interval containing three semitones, which the in-
ventors of modern Occidental harmony avoided by arbi-
trary alteration of the minor scale, is so marked an element
in the music of Southeastern Europe and Western Asia
that the scale on which much of this music is based is
called the Oriental scale in the books. It is found in the
melodies of the Arabs, of the peoples of the Balkan penin-
sula, of the Poles and Magyars. The ancient synagogal
hymns of the Jews are full of it. In some cases it results
from raising the fourth interval of the minor scale; in
others from raising the seventh. In many cases, of which
the "Rakoczy March" is a familiar and striking example,
the interval occurs twice. The peculiar wailing effect of
the Oriental scale, most noticeable when the intervals are
sounded in descending order, is also to be heard in the song
of the priestesses and their dance in "Aida" and in Rubin-
stein's song, "Der Asra."

One of the songs in my manuscript collection shows a
feeling for the augmented, or superfluous second, as
Engel calls it, though the interval is not presented directly
to the eye or ear because of the absence of a tone which is
a constituent part of it — the sixth. It is the baptismal
hymn, "Freely Go" (see page 88), which makes a startling
effect with its unprepared beginning on the leading-tone.
An instance of the creation of the interval by the raising
of the fourth is found in the extremely interesting song
"Father Abraham," in the arrangement of which Mr.
Burleigh has retained the effect of a unique choral ac-
companiment as sung at the Calhoun school. (See page 90.)
Notable, too, in this song is the appreciation of tone-

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

 

Baptizing Hymn

 

Allegro moderato
alia marcia

 


march- iog' a • long*, bown in -to the wa . ter,

 


Free • Ij:. go, marchisg- a-long-,Like Zi-on's sons and dau^rh-ters,

tf - II J I M

 


SE

 

L JiJijjJ Jip

 

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MINOR VARIATIONS; CHARACTERISTIC RHYTHMS

 

Ev -'ry time I look up to the House of God,

 

The

 


An - gels ciy out Glo • ryt Glo-ry be to my Gud whf>

 


^ Jji'ij^J

 

J i j J

 

rtt.

 

lives on hig'ht To save a soul from dan • ger.

 


f!rom Boyle Co., Kentucky. Collected for the asthor by Miss Mildred J. Hill, of Loaisrille;
liarmonized by Henry Holdea Hnss. An extraordinary instance of a feeling; for the scale of
Oriental peoples, with its augmented second. The effect of this interval may be observed by
sounding D-sharp, C and B at the beginnias- The interval of the sixth, Cisseduloosly avoid-
ed in the iBiaor portion of the melody.

 

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

 

Father Abraham
"TeU it"

 

Andante

 

Fa - ther A - braJiam sit-tin down side.a ob de ho - ly Lamb,

 


Waj up on de moim-tain - top; My Lord spoke an' de

 

TeU it, teU it,

 

^y-, ^ ' > f f ^ !-J^

 

teU it, tell it,

 

ffi rr

 

tell it, teU. it,

 

/ f J ^ tf

 

char- lot stop, Sit-tin' down side-a ob de ho -ly Lamb; Fa-'Uier

 


A - bra - ham. sit -tin' down side - a ob de ho - ly Lamb.

 


TTiirds and melody from "CaUioim Plantation Songs". Collected and edited by Emily Hal-
loWell (Boston, C.W. Thompson & Co.]. Published here by permission. Arranged byH-ltBor-
leigh. An example of the use of the Oriental interval called the augmented, or svperflooasMC*
ond(C{-Bl>J.

 

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MINOR VARIATIONS; CHARACFERISTIC RHYTHMS

painting exemplified in the depiction of the sojourn on the
mountain-top by persistent reiteration of the highest note
reached by the melody.

I have no disposition to indulge in speculations touching
the origin of either the conventional scales or the departures
from them which I have pointed out in these songs. There
are other variations, but they do not present themselves
in sufficient numbers or in a sufficiently marked manner
to justify their discussion as characteristic of the music
of the people who employed them. They may be sporadic
and due only to some personal equation in the singer who
sang them to the collector. In no case, however, do they
occur in songs which are commonplace in structure or
sentiment. I should like to say that the melodies which
seem to be based on the Oriental scale prove the persistence
in the Afro-American folksongs of an element, or idiom, re-
tained from their original Eastern home or derived from
intercourse between the ancestors of the black slaves and
some of the peoples of western Asia to whom the scale Is
native; but to make such an assertion would be unscientific;
we lack the support here of such a body of evidence as we
have to prove the African origin of the aberrations from the
major scale which I have discussed. Nevertheless, it is
significant in my eyes that the few songs which were
gathered for me by Miss Hill in Kentucky and the songs
collected by Miss Hallowell also presented themselves
to the apprehension, though not to the comprehension, of
the collectors of the "Slave Songs of the United States."
The intermediate collectors — those who made the Fisk
and Hampton collections — having a more popular purpose
in view were, I fear, indifferent to their value and beauty.

It is a pity that students are without adequate material
from which the natural history of the scales might be
deduced — a pity and a wrong. Governments and scien-
tific societies backed by beneficent wealth are spending
enormous sums in making shows out of our museums.
For these shows men go to Africa actuated by the savage
propensity to kill, «nd call its gratification scientific re-
search. Who has gonfe to Africa to capture a melody? No

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

one. Yet a few scores or hundreds of phonographic records
M music would be worth more to science and art to-day
than a thousand stuffed skins of animals robbed of life
by the bullets of a Roosevelt.

It is unfortunate that musical scholars are unable, for
want of material, to deduce a sound theory concerning
the origin of the scale; it is also unfortunate that a knowl-
edge of African languages and dialects does not come to
our assistance in accounting for the most marked rhyth-
mical characteristic of the songs of the American negroes.
This characteristic is found in the use of a figure in which
the emphasis is shifted from the strong to the weak part
of a time-unit by making the first note of two into which
the beat is divided take only a fraction of the time of the
second. This effect of propulsion when frequently repeated
becomes very stirring, not to say exciting, and, as has been
disclosed by the development of "ragtime," leads to a
sort of rhythmical intoxication exemplified in the use of
the device not only in the first beat of a measure, but in the
other beats also, and even in the fractional divisions of a
beat, no matter how small they have been made. When
this species of syncopation, known as the Scotch, or
Scot's, snap, or catch, became popular in the Italian opera
airs of the eighteenth century it was held to be the offspring
of a device commonly found in the popular music of
Scotland. It is a characteristic element of the Strathspey
reel, and the belief has been expressed that it got into
vocal music from the fact that Burns and other poets wrote
words for Scottish dance-tunes. "It was in great favor
with many of the Italian composers of the eighteenth
century," says J. Muir Wood (writing in Grove's "Diction-
ary of Music and Musicians") "for Burney, who seems to
have invented the name, says in his account of the Italian
opera in London, in 1748, that 'there was at this time too
much of the Scotch catch, or cutting short of the first
two notes in a melody.' He blames Cocchi, Perez and
Jommelli, all three masters concerned in the opera 'Volo-
geso,' for being lavish of the snap." Adding to his article
on the subject in the second edition of Grove's work, he

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MINOR VARIATIONS; CHARACTERISTIC RHYTHMS

says: "In the hands of Hook and other purveyors of the
psuedo-Scottish music which was in vogue at Vauxhall
and elsewhere in the eighteenth century, it became a
senseless vulgarism, and, with the exception of a few songs
... . and the Strathspey reel, in which it is an essen-
tial feature, its presence may generally be accepted as,
proof that the music in which it occurs is not genuine."

What Wood here remarks about the pseudo-Scotch
music of the eighteenth century as it was cultivated in the
music halls may be said of latter-day "ragtime," which,,
especially in the "turkey-trot" and "tango" dances,
monopolizes the music almost to the exclusion of melody
and harmony. There is no reason why drums and gongs
should not give these dances all the musical impulse they
need. Though it is at the expense of a digression, it is
not out of place to point out that in this year of pretended
refinement, which is the year of our Lord 1913, the dance
which is threatening to force grace, decorum and decency
out of the ballrooms of America and England is a survival
of African savagery, which was already banished from the
plantations in the days of slavery. It was in the dance
that the bestiality of the African blacks found its frankest
expression. The Cuban Habanera, which has an African
rhythmical foundation (the melodic superstructure having
been reared by the white natives of the southern countries
of America), grew into the most graceful and most polite
of the Creole dances. Concerning it and its depraved
ancestor, the tango, Friedenthal says in his "Musik, Tanz
und Dichtung bei den Kreolen Amerikas" :

But the habanera is not only danced by the cultivated Creoles, but also
by preference in the West Indies by the colored plebs. In such cases not a
trace of grace is longer to be found; on the contrary, the movements of the
dances leave nothing to be desired in the line of unequivocal obscenity. It
is this vulgar dance, popularly called tango (after an African word "tangana"),
which sought vainly to gain admission to our salons under the title of "tango,
argentino," by way of Argentina. It was shown to the lower classes of Ar-
gentina last year — the jubilee year of the republic. To the honor of the great
country on the Silver River it may be said at once that there the habanera
is never danced except in the most decent form. It is indubitable, however,
that the Cuban tango was the original product and the danza-habanera its-
refined copy prepared for cultured circles, the Creoles having borrowed not
only the rhythms but also the choregraphic movements of the dances from,
the Africans.

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

It can scarcely be set down to the credit of American
and English women that in adopting the tango they are
imitating the example, not of the ladies of Argentina, but
of the women of the Black Republic. Friedenthal says :

The Haytian salon dance, Meringue, is identical with the danza of the
Spanish islands; but there is this difference, that even in the higher circles
of Port-au-Prince, in which decorum and tact prevail and where the young,
light colored women are of fascinating amiability, the gestures of the dance are
never so unobjectionable as is the case with the Spanish Creoles; from which
it is to be seen that the dance, consciously or unconsciously, has a different
purpose among these peoples. All the more undisguised is the crude sensuality
among the lower classes of the Haytian population. Here every motion is
obscene; and I am not at all considering the popular merrymakings or dance
festivals secretly held partly in the open, partly in the forests, which are
more like orgies, in which the African savagery, which has outlived centuries,
has unbridled expression.

The rhythmical device under discussion is also found
in the popular music of Hungary, where it is called alia
zoppa (limping). Here it is unquestionably the product
of poetry. Dr. Aurel Wachtel, discussing the music of the
Magyars^ — says that the rhythmical construction of their
ballads is most closely allied to the peculiarity of the Magyar
language, which distinguishes the short and long syl-
lables much more sharply than any other language spoken
by the peoples of Germanic-Slavic-Romanic origin. The
character of the Magyar tongue does not tolerate that
prosodically long syllables in song shall be used as short,
or vice versa.

Now, whether the rhythms of dance-music be derived
from the songs which gave time to the feet of the original
dancers, or the rhythms of poetry were borrowed from
the steps of the dance, it would seem as if the determining
factor was the word. The most primitive music was vocal.
Poetical song had its origin in improvization, and impro-
vization would be clogged unless musical and verbal
rhythm could flow together. The rhythmical snap of the
American negroes is in all likelihood an aboriginal relic,
an idiom which had taken so powerful a hold on them that
they carried it over into their new environment, just as
they did the melodic peculiarities which I have investigated.
It was so powerful an impulse, indeed, that it broke down

* "Musikalisches Wochenblatt," July S, 1878.

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MINOR VARIATIONS; CHARACTERISTIC RHYTHMS

the barriers interposed by the new language which they
were compelled to adopt in their new home. For the
sake of the snap the creators of the folksongs of the Ameri-
can negroes did not hesitate to distort the metrical structure
of their lines. In scores upon scores of instances trochees
like "Moses," "Satan," "mother," "brother," "sister,"
and so forth, become iambs, while dactyls become amphi-
brachys, like "Nobody," "Nobody knows" (see page 96),
"These are my," "No one can," etc. A glance into any
one of the collections mentioned will furnish examples by
the score. Of the 527 songs examined, 315 contain the
rhythmical snap which is as well entitled to be called
African as Scottish.

"Another noticeable feature of the songs," says Theo-
dore F. Seward in his preface to the Fisk Jubilee collection,
"is the rare occurence of triple time, or three-part measure,
among them. The reason for this is doubtless to be
found in the beating of the foot and the swaying of the
body, which are such frequent accompaniments of the
singing. These motions are in even measure and in per-
fect time; and so it will be found that however broken and
seemingly irregular the movement of the music, it is
always capable of the most exact measurement."

Triple time is, indeed, of extremely rare occurence in the
melodies; taking as a standard the collection to which my
observations have been directed, less than one-tenth of the
tunes are In simple and compound triple time. The regular
swaying of the body to which Mr. Seward refers might
better be described as an effect than as a cause of the even
movement of the music. It is no doubt an inherited pre-
dilection, a survival of a primitive march-rhythm which,
in the nature of the case, lies at the bottom of the first
communal movements of primitive peoples; uneven meas-
ure is more naturally associated with a revolving movement,
of which I find no mention in the notes of my African
reading. The "shout" of the slaves, as we have seen,
was a march — circular only because that is the only kind
of march which will not carry the dancers away froni the
gathering-place. Pantomimic dances, like those which I

I 9S']

 

AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

 

Nobody Knows the Trouble I See

Plaintively =» p

Nobody knowsthe trouble I see,Lord, Nobody knows the

 


trouble I see; Nobody knows the trouble I see,Lord, Nobody knowsbut

 


Je-sus. Brother^willyou pray forme, Brothers.will you pray for me,

 


Brothers, will you pray for me. And help me to drive old Satan a-way?

 


» On rep6tition,"Sislers7''Motlier^"Preachers7 . ty

Words and melody from "The Story of the Jubilee Singers with their Soags" by J. B.T. Marsh.
ArrangemeDt by the Author,

 

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MINOR VARIATIONS; CHARACTERISTIC RHYTHMS

witnessed in the Dahoman village at the Columbian Exhi-
bition, in 1 893, are generally martial and consist of advances
and retreats in linear formation with descriptive gestures.

The innate rhythmical capacity of the Africans has
been sufficiently dwelt upon. In the American songs it
finds its expression in the skill with which the negroes
constrain their poetry to accept the rhythms of the music.
Two authors, the Rev. J. Richardson and the Rev. James
Sibree, jr. (the former of whom wrote on the hymnology
of the Malagasy, the latter on their children's games and
songs), agree (assuming that Wallaschek has quoted them
correctly) in the statement that the poetry of the natives
of Madagascar is not rhythmical, though their music is.
Mr. Allen writes, in his preface to the "Slave Songs":
"The negroes keep exquisite time in singing, and do not
suffer themselves to be daunted by any obstacle in the
words. The most obstinate scripture phrases or snatches
from hymns they will force to do duty with any tune they
please, and will dash heroically through a trochaic tune
at the head of a column of iambs with wonderful skill."
A glance into any collection of Afro-American songs will
provide examples of Mr. Allen's meaning; but if the reader
wishes to see how an irregular line can be made to evolve a
characteristically rhythmic musical phrase he need but look
in "O'er the Crossing" (pages 98-99), at the line "Keep
praying! I do believe." Despite its rudeness, this song,
because of its vivid imagery, comes pretty near to being
poetry of the genuine type. To learn what word it was
that in the process of oral transmission became corrupted
into "waggin' " I have hunted and pondered in vain. Per-
haps "We're a long time waggin' at the crossin' " was
originally "We're a long time lagging at the crossing."
Perhaps the word was once "waggoning." In the song
"My body rock 'long fever,"' is a line, "Better true be long
time get over crosses," which may have reflected a similar
idea, though it is all vague now. In "I've been toilin'
at de hill so long" of the Hampton collection there seems
to be another parallel; but the song is very inferior.

1 "Slave ^ongs," No. 45.

[ 97 ]

 

AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

 

O'er the Crossing

 

Andante

 


child of God, I'd g'it home bime - by.

 

Keep

 


[98 ]

 

MINOR VARIATIONS; CHARACTERISTIC RHYTHMS

 

deereao.

 

All m bZ ♦• aeerem.

 

pray-ia', I do believeWe're a long- time waggiii o' de crossjn'. Keep

 


pray-iu') I do be-lleTeWe'll git home, to hea^ez^ )>ime • by.

 


Z. O yo&der's my old mudder,

Been a-wagg-in' at the hill so long^
I& about .time she cross over.
Git home bime-by.
Keep prayiif, I do believe, etc.

 

3. hear dat lumberin' thunder
A-roll from do' to do',
A callin' de people home to G-od;
Dey'll git home bime-by.
Little chil'n, I do believei etc.

 

4. O see dat forked llghtnin'

A- jump from cloud to cloud,
A-pickin' up God's chil'n;
Dey'll git home bime-by.
Pray, mourner, I do believe, etc.

Words and melody from "Slave Songs of the United States"; arranged for the author 6y tSt-
thnr Mees.-'The following note on the song appears in the collection from which it was taken:
"This'infinitely quaint description of the length of the heavenly road', as Col. Higginson styles
it, is one of the most pecnliar and wide-spread of the spirituals. It was sung as given a!>o'v9
in Caroline Co., Virginia, and prohahly spread southward from this state variously moufle4
in different localities."

 

[ 99 ]