The study of primitive music / [Charles S. Myers].

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
[1912?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The study of primitive music / [Charles S. Myers]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/22 (page 141)
    alternate groups of these beats throughout the song. Song 20 is the only song in triple time, and this song, as we have already said, is almost certainly modern. Dr. Seligmann observes, “ the words of this song are very late.” The Vedda songs contrast with several Sinhalese songs in my collection, not only in their narrower range, but also in their freedom from embellishments, which are perhaps of Arabic origin. Consisting as they do of a very few notes, they are necessarily extremely simple in construction. Nevertheless, in Songs 26 (1), 38, and 44, there are opening phrases distinct from the main body of the song; and Song 44 opens with a phrase (marked A in the transcript), which is repeated in its original form, or as at A1 in a modified form, in the course of the song. The two songs 26 (1) and 41, which have short terminal phrases, are believed by Dr. Seligmann to be of modern date. Probably the Vedda and the Miriam songs represent (in two very different forms!) the simplest primitive music that has hitherto been recorded. It will be interesting, perhaps, in a future communication in this Journal, to present specimens of more complex primitive music and to trace their relation to the very simple music dealt with in this paper. Charles S. Myers.