Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, 1, 1969

Abstract: Summary. Paul Hindemith, the notorious avant-gardist of the early 1920's, relied throughout most of his creative life on musical materials associated with remote historical periods as well as with a broad range of German folk music. Anxious to communicate effectively with the musical consumer he made use of tunes transmitted orally as well as in written form and often patterned original ideas after such tunes. But Hindemith operated within the German tradition across space as well as time. Indeed, he seemed even more aware of his musical home grounds after he had been forced into exile. Bohme's Old-German Songbook remained his constant companion to the very last and, together with Erk-Bohme's Deutscher Liederhort, acted as a readily available source for all musical occasions. Mathis der Maler contains a host of identifiable German folk songs including Erk-Bohme numbers 117a and 2030, while Der Schwanendreher draws exclusively upon Bohme numbers 163, 167, 175, and 315. In some instances, like the third organ sonata, references to folk songs appear even in the title. A very special case is the Pittsburgh Symphony, which makes use of a German-American song printed in 1951 in the collection Songs along the Mahantongo. Hindemith treated old German songs as straight sets of variations, in polyphonic settings, developmentally, etc. Occasionally, newer German songs served parodistic purposes, for example, "Ein Jager aus Kurpfalz" in Spielmusik op. 45 no. 3. But whether Hindemith employed folk tunes in a specific dramatic context, as thematic material for instrumental pieces, or humorously (never ironically in Mahler's manner), they run through his life's work literally Hin und Zuruck (hence and forth), in accordance with his maxim that only that which is rooted in tradition has claim to permanence.

Abstract: Summary. Paul Hindemith, the notorious avant-gardist of the early 1920's, relied throughout most of his creative life on musical materials associated with remote historical periods as well as with a broad range of German folk music. Anxious to communicate effectively with the musical consumer he made use of tunes transmitted orally as well as in written form and often patterned original ideas after such tunes. But Hindemith operated within the German tradition across space as well as time. Indeed, he seemed even more aware of his musical home grounds after he had been forced into exile. Böhme's Old-German Songbook remained his constant companion to the very last and, together with Erk-Böhme's Deutscher Liederhort, acted as a readily available source for all musical occasions. Mathis der Maler contains a host of identifiable German folk songs including Erk-Böhme numbers 117a and 2030, while Der Schwanendreher draws exclusively upon Böhme numbers 163, 167, 175, and 315. In some instances, like the third organ sonata, references to folk songs appear even in the title. A very special case is the Pittsburgh Symphony, which makes use of a German-American song printed in 1951 in the collection Songs along the Mahantongo. Hindemith treated old German songs as straight sets of variations, in polyphonic settings, developmentally, etc. Occasionally, newer German songs served parodistic purposes, for example, "Ein Jäger aus Kurpfalz" in Spielmusik op. 45 no. 3. But whether Hindemith employed folk tunes in a specific dramatic context, as thematic material for instrumental pieces, or humorously (never ironically in Mahler's manner), they run through his life's work literally Hin und Zurück (hence and forth), in accordance with his maxim that only that which is rooted in tradition has claim to permanence.

Abstract: Summary. In the first part of this paper, three New Zealand Maori scales and a possible fourth were derived from interval associations, using strict criteria of melodic usage. An unexplained fact is the coincidence of these three scales with the plagal forms of the medieval phrygian, ionian, and aeolian modes. Historical connection with ancient Greece seems too unlikely a hypothesis to be entertained, and exposure of the Maoris to the medieval modes through early missionary activity can also be ruled out. An alternative explanation is that the ancient Greeks and the New Zealand Maoris shared common principles in their music which led to the evolution of similar scales, but such principles seem impossible to demonstrate. The conclusion must be that there is, as yet, no acceptable explanation for the parallels observed in this paper between Maori scales and those of medieval Europe and ancient Greece.

Abstract: Summary. In attempting to classify scale formations in the folk music of various ethnic groups in Latin America, the musical evidence suggests a number of scalar concepts different from those with which ethnomusicologists are generally familiar. Melodies consisting of no more than two tones, for example, imply prescalar formations. While it is impossible to speak of true melodic motion in such cases, the author disagrees with Curt Sachs's belief that extreme pitch limitations are necessarily evidence of a primitive mode of existence. Rather, single pitch patterns may actually be of primary melodic significance. Examples 1, 2, and 3, an Indian song from Venezuela, a trumpet piece from Guatemala, and a Peruvian song, illustrate this point. Examples 4, 5, and 6 show the importance of two central tones in biphonic pieces. Distinct scalar types are associated only with three tones or more. There are regular scale types (tritonic, tetratonic, pentatonic, hexatonic) and irregular scales (identified here as triphonic, tetraphonic, pentaphonic, hexaphonic, etc.). The irregular scales based on the harmonic overtone series are used especially in instrumental music. Chromaticism is by no means unusual. The regular scales derive from the circle of fifths and are more typical of vocal music; they are found in otherwise highly divergent cultures. Example 12 presents an interesting healing song employing the harmonic overtones 8, 10, 13, and 15. The tetratonic patterns of Example 13, based on natural tones, are found throughout the Americas. A rare combination marks the tetratonic Venezuelan song in Example 15. Pentaphonic scales are characteristic of parts of the Andes inhabited by the Incas. Their intervallic structure is different from that of their petatonic counterparts, since altered pitches derived from the higher overtones are combined with unaltered pitches from the lower overtones. This is shown in Examples 16 and 17.

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Musica vulgaris, Lebensgesetze der instrumentalen Volksmusik

Felix Hoerburger

Review Author[s]: B. Sarosi, B. Sárosi

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Kinaalda: A Study of the Navaho Girl's Puberty Ceremony

Kinaaldá: A Study of the Navaho Girl's Puberty Ceremony

Charlotte Johnson Frisbie

Michigan Indian Festivals

Gertrude Prokosch Kurath

Ethnomusicology of the Flathead Indians

Alan P. Merriam