Polynesian Mythology · 26 of 26

On the Native Songs of New Zealand (II)

First, that an enharmonic modulation might; exist is admitted by many modern writers. Mr Donkin, for instance, author of the able article on Ancient Music in Dr W. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, observes (under the title of Music) of the different genera less frequently named 1, ‘that it would be wrong to conclude hastily, that the others would he impossible in practice, or necessarily unpleasing’; and of the enharmonic he says: ‘but it is impossible to form a judgment of its merits without a much greater knowledge of the rules of composition than seems now attainable.’

Mr Lay Tradescant having shown the differences of interval of the Chinese instruments from the intervals generally in use in Europe, adds: ‘It will therefore very readily appear from the respective rules, that the character of the music, or, if you please, the mood (he should have said genus), must be very different from our own, and that none of our instruments (he should have said keyed or bored) are capable of doing justice to any air that is played on the kin’ (or scholar’s lute). He subjoins: ‘In my travels I sometimes wrote down the airs that I had heard among the natives, but though I took much pains to learn them accurately,

I always found they had lost something of their peculiarity when played upon the violin.

‘The reason of this defect seems to have been that the intervals of the Indian music did not agree with those of Europe.’ 1

Mr Tradescant might have added, that there will always be some difference in an air played on the guitar and on the violin, though the intervals used are esteemed the same; and, again, perhaps the learned traveller did not take care to divide the scale of his violin mathematically, like that of the kin, before he tried the effect,; he might also not have noted the right interval. He concludes: ‘There is, however, a connection between the Chinese and old Scotch music, so that when any highly-admired airs of Scotland happen to fall within the compass of the kin, they seem at home when played upon this instrument.’

Mr Lane says the ‘canoon’ of the Arabians had twenty-four notes. Dr Russell to Burney says that the Arab scale of twenty-four notes was equal to one octave. But Mr Lane adds that ‘the most remarkable peculiarity in the Arab system of music is the division of tones into thirds.’ Hence, from the system of thirds of tones, I have heard the Egyptian musicians urge against the European systems of music that they are deficient in the number of sounds.

The same remark was made to me by Selim Agar, a Nubian, when singing some Amharic songs: ‘Your instrument’ (piano), said he, ‘is very much out of tune, and jumps very much.’

Mr Lane adds: ‘These small and delicate gradations of sound give a peculiar softness to the performances of the Arab musicians, which are generally of a plaintive character; but they are difficult to discriminate with exactness, and therefore seldom observed in the vocal and instrumental music of those persons who have not made a regular study of the art.’

Had Mr Lane been describing the character and difficulties of the ancient Greek enharmonic or chromatic, he could not have used other terms; they are almost the words of Aristoxenus, Vitruvius, Plutarch, and other ancient writers on these genera; and yet, he adds: ‘he took great delight in the more refined kind of music’, and found ‘the more he became habituated to the style the more he was pleased with it.’ He continues: ‘He was perfectly charmed with the performance of some female singers, and that the natives are so fascinated as to lavish considerable sums on them.’

Precisely so the Greeks of old.

We must not suppose that the Greek enharmonic was a consecutive gamut of quarter-tones—no; we are told distinctly by all authors (except, perhaps, Salinas), that there was a quarter-tone, then another quarter-tone, then a great interval completing the fourth; or reversely, a great interval of two major tones, or about our third major, the quarter-tone, another quarter-tone, thus completing the fourth.

So with these nations, and especially in the Chinese airs I have heard, there is either the two quarter-tones, then an interval of about a third, or, the interval of the third, and then the two dieses or quarter-tones, or it is a mixed genus, and adds a tone or half-tone at either extreme.

I here beg to state that, though with great care and the assistance of a graduated monochord, and an instrument divided like the intervals of the Chinese kin, I have endeavoured to give an idea of those airs of New Zealand which I heard, yet so difficult is it to discover the exact interval, that I will not vouch for the mathematical exactness: neither will I pledge myself not to have written a chromatic for an enharmonic interval, or vice versa.

I must also, in justice to myself, add, that the singer did not always repeat the musical phrase with precisely the same modulation, though, without a very severe test, this would not have been discernible, nor then to many ears; the general effect being to an European ear very monotonous.

But I may say that, when I sang them from my notation, they were recognised and approved of by competent judges; and that the New Zealander himself said he should ‘soon make a singer of me’.

I may also add that I have studied the subject for more than twenty years, and have read something out of almost every book of note that has been written on it; but yet I only offer these airs as an approximation, and if anyone shall be found who may do more justice to them, I shall be delighted to hear of the result.

The notation that I have adopted is, for the enharmonic diesis, the St Andrew’s cross or saltier , quarter tone or half sharp; the usual for the sharp; and for three-quarter sharp. In like manner, the for quarter tone or half flat; for the flat; and (or I might have said: ) for the three-quarter flat.

In the Arab ternal division I should use-one third sharp, ; two-third sharp, ; one-third flat, ; two-third flat, .

In my notation, also, it must be observed, that a sign or never conveys its influence beyond the note to which it is attached; thus would read E half-flat, E natural, E half-sharp, E natural; and is a delicate expression of the chromatic or of the diatonic I now give the airs as best I can.

One word as to time. Though I have timed the airs I have given, I am free to confess there was neither metre nor rhythm of any marked character discernible in them; and even in the divisions of the lines or verses, the singer seemed to stop indifferently now at one, now at another word. I have, however, followed in my divisions those given in the book, taking it for granted that the learned author, who has given himself so much pains about the matter, will have chosen the most authentic.

James A. DAVIES 1

Formerly of Trin. Coll., Camb.

Late Private See. to H.R.H. Prince Leopold,

Count of Syracuse, Naples.

17, Great Ormond Street, Queen Square,

September, 1854.

Mr McGregor gives the following specimens of Arabian Music (see his Eastern Music)

Which I represent thus:

or thus, perhaps clearer:

The run at the end is also met with in the New Zealand songs. The cadence is mixed, i.e. enharmonic and diatonic.

The Chinese Air sung under my window in London:

No. 1

Reduced by James Davies. Page 30 1

This last bar would perhaps be better written:

but I have avoided as much as possible or as being so very unusual, and it is evident to the musician that D three-quarters sharp is equal to E quarter flat, at least sufficiently near in practice.

No. 2

NO. 3

NO. 4

CHILD’S SONG, TO TEACH SINGING