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)
In this song we again have the interval of a fourth without the sixth
above. It occurs four times, each time followed immediately by the
less primitive and more harmonious interval of a minor third. The
minor third harmony also occurs in three other measures,--in these
without preparation.
These minor thirds are all the same,--B-D, the foundation of the
tonic chord of the key,--evidence that the singers have a keen sense
of the minor tonality.
The tempo alternates between 96 and 108. The first half of each line
is given at 96, but the second half is taken more rapidly at 108 beats
per minute. Each of these rhythms is very evenly preserved, the time
being well marked by accented notes and pulsations of the voice as
shown in the score. The figures at the ends of the lines indicate
the number of beats rest actually taken by the performers. Twice
they take the normal number four, which, if preserved throughout,
would place the song in the regular eight-measure form. Some of the
measures are 4/4, and some are 3/4.
In each verse of this song we find an example of the characteristic
which I have termed a "jog." It is seen in each next-to-last measure
with special sign beneath. The jogs in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th measures
are the best defined (see table of special signs under _Introduction_,
p. 444).
There are three qualities in this song, which indicate that it is of
more modern origin than either of the other two which belong to the
same ceremony. The frequent and undoubtedly intentional use of the
raised fourth giving the half step E-sharp to F-sharp; the persistent
recurrence of the hardly primitive, minor-third harmony; and the fact
that the song is not cast in the pentatonic scale, as are the other
two records of the same ceremony, point to a more modern origin.
It may be that in the earliest practice of this ceremony the girls
or women did not participate, their parts having been a later
addition. This could not be determined musically, however, without
examining more records of songs from this or similar ceremonies.
_Bogoyas_
Record K. Sung by a woman.
This is a woman's song of praise, complimentary to the host at a party.
The singer makes use of all the scale tones of the major key of E-flat,
except the D-natural. The B-natural found in the next-to-last measure
is a passing tone, and does not affect the scale or tonality. At that
point the suggested supporting harmony is an augmented triad upon
the tonic leading into the subdominant. With the exception of this
one measure, the song is in the five-note scale. Notwithstanding that
this measure contains two A-flats and also the passing tone B-natural,
both of which tones are foreign to this particular five-note scale,
the song is not robbed of its pentatonic character.
The rhythm of this song is interesting. It alternates throughout
between 4/4 and 5/4. It might have been notated in 9/4 time instead,
in which case it would have but five measures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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