The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine TribeCole, Fay-Cooper
Religion
The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe
Cole, Fay-Cooper
Tinguian (Philippine people)
At three places where the singer uses one or the other of the tones
foreign to the pentatonic scale, he makes half-step progressions.
In the fourth line of the song we find the single instance in these
records, where the performer takes an upward glissando. It is on the
two-note embellishment F-natural G-flat shown in the last measure of
that line. It is immediately followed by a downward glissando.
Balalognimas
Record II.
Two singers are heard on this record. They seem to be women. Possibly
there are more than the two voices. As the song has such a well-defined
swing and such a martial character, it must be wonderfully inspiring
when given by a large company of singers.
It is cast in the natural minor diatonic scale of C-sharp, though it
is strongly pentatonic in character.
The rhythm is partly 5/8 and partly 4/8, but it swings along so
naturally that it seems as if it could not be otherwise.
The distribution of the accents, sometimes falling on the first
and third beats and again on the second and fourth, helps to give
it a character which puts it in a class by itself. It has the most
character of any of the women's songs in this group.
There are several verses to the song almost precisely alike in words
and music.
_Da-Eng_. Boys and Girls Alternating.
Record I. Sung while dancing in a religious ceremony.
This song is in two distinct movements or parts varying one from the
other in meter, in tempo, and in general style.
Part 1
There are at least two voices discernible in this part. They seem to
be the voices of girls or women.
It is cast in the relative minor (C) of the pentatonic scale of E-flat
major. The tones of this scale given in order are C, E-flat, F, G,
B-flat, and then the octave C. The tones D-natural and A-flat are
missing, thus avoiding the half step between D and E-flat, and between
G and A-flat (see remarks in pentatonic scale under _Definition of
Qualities_, p. 480).
The A-flat shown in the third from the last measure of this part is
written there to define more clearly that particular glissando which
seems to be of slightly different rhythmic construction than the one
in the corresponding measure above. The fact that the tone is passed
over glissando eliminates it from the scale.
In the fourth measure of each line we find a peculiar splitting up of
the parts, one voice holding the C, while the other skips to the E-flat
above, thus producing the harmony-interval of a minor third. This
behavior seems to be intentional on the part of the performers, as
it occurs precisely the same in each of the four lines of the song,
though not quite so well defined the last time owing to the fact that
the upper voice does not come out so strong on the E-flat. This is
indicated in the notation by a small square note.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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