Musical Myths and Facts Volume I Part 3

"19. Any open hand-drums with one parchment only (like our tambourine)?

"20. Are the drums beaten with sticks or with the hands?

"21. What wind-instruments (trumpets, flutes, etc.) have they?

"22. Any trumpets with sliding tubes (like the trombone)?

"23. How are the flutes sounded? is there a plug in the mouth-hole?

"24. Any nose-flutes?

"25. What is the number and the position of the finger-holes on the flutes?

"26. What tones do the flutes yield if the finger-holes are closed in regular succession upwards or downwards?

"27. If the people have the syrinx (or Pandean pipe), ascertain the series of musical intervals yielded by its tubes.

"28. Do the people construct wind-instruments with a vibrating reed, or some similar contrivance, inserted in the mouth-hole?

"29. If they have a reed wind-instrument, observe whether the reed is _single_ (like that of the clarionet) or _double_ (like that of the oboe.)

"30. Have they a kind of bagpipe?

"31. What musical instruments have they which are not used by them in musical performances, but merely for conveying signals and for such like purposes?

"32. Have they stringed instruments the strings of which are sounded by being tw.a.n.ged with the fingers?

"33. Any stringed instruments tw.a.n.ged with a plectrum?

"34. Any stringed instruments beaten with sticks or hammers (like the dulcimer)?

"35. Any stringed instruments played with a bow?

"36. If there are stringed instruments with frets on the neck (as is the case with our guitar), note down the intervals produced by the frets in regular succession.

"37. What are the substances of which the strings are made?

"38. Is there any peculiar contrivance on some of the instruments in the arrangement and situation of the strings?

"39. Are there stringed instruments with sympathetic strings (_i.e._, strings placed under those strings which are played upon. The sympathetic strings merely serve to increase the sonorousness)?

"40. What are the musical intervals in which the stringed instruments are tuned?

"41. Do the people possess any musical instrument of a very peculiar construction? If so, describe it minutely.

"42. Give the name of each instrument in the language of the country.

"43. Describe each instrument, and give ill.u.s.trations, if possible.

"44. Give some account of the makers of musical instruments; of the woods, metals, hide, gut, hair, and other materials they use; of their tools, etc.

"45. What are the usual adornments and appendages of the musical instruments?

"_Compositions:_--

"46. On what order of intervals is the music of the people founded? Is it the Diatonic Major Scale (like _c_, _d_, _e_, _f_, _g_, _a_, _b_, _c_)? Or the Diatonic Minor Scale (in which the third is flat; like _c_, _d_, _e flat_, _f_, _g_, _a_, _b_, _c_)? Or the Pentatonic Scale (in which the fourth and the seventh are omitted, thus _c_, _d_, _e_, _g_, _a_, _c_)? Or some other order of intervals?

"47. Is the seventh used sharp (_c_-_b_), or flat (_c_-_b flat_)?

"48. Does the superfluous second occur in the scale? (In the example _c_, _d_, _e flat_, _f sharp_, _g_, _a flat_, _b_, _c_, |__________| |______| the steps from the third to the fourth, and from the sixth to the seventh, are superfluous seconds.)

"49. Does the music contain progressions in semitones, or chromatic intervals?

"50. Are there smaller intervals than semitones, such as 1/3 tones, 1/4 tones?

"51. Are there peculiar progressions in certain intervals which are of frequent occurrence in the tunes? If so, what are they?

"52. Do the tunes usually conclude on the tonic (the key-note, or the first interval of the scale), or, if not, on what other interval?

"53. Do the tunes contain modulations from one key into another? If so, describe the usual modulations.

"54. Are there certain rhythmical peculiarities predominant in the music? If so, what are they?

"55. Is the time of the music generally common time, triple time, or irregular?

"56. Are there phrases or pa.s.sages in the melodies which are of frequent re-occurrence?

"57. Have the airs of the songs re-occurrences of musical phrases which are traceable to the form of the poetry?

"58. Have the people musical compositions which they regard as very old?

and do these compositions exhibit the same characteristics which are found in the modern ones?

"59. Are the compositions generally lively or grave?

"60. Describe the form of the various kinds of musical compositions.

"_Performances:_--

"61. Have the people musical bands or orchestras?

"62. Which are the instruments generally used in combination?

"63. Which are the instruments commonly used singly?

"64. What is the number of performers in a properly const.i.tuted band?