at the same time, the extreme notes of the melodic compass, i.e. when the melody simply descends from the upper end of a fourth or a fifth to the lower one. The richness of simultaneous sounds differing in pitch as compared with unison may strike singers even when the divergence is accidental, and may then be kept in reserve and used only as a final effect. As a matter of fact final fourths and fifths often occur, e.g. in Wanixa songs, not as a result of overlapping, but by the chorus dividing into two to execute the dichord. Further, this manner of increasing the volume of sound is not always confined to the last note, but extends over several notes at the end of the phrase, and occasionally over the whole of the last line of the stanza (e.g. in Wanixa and Wanyamwezi songs).1

2

The musical form arrived at in this way is well known from the sacred music of the early Middle Ages; it is the organum in parallel motion which represents a primitive stage of polyphony. In the tenth and eleventh centuries freer forms, in which the voices deviated from strict parallelism, grew out of the organum; and the same thing occasionally happens in East Africa (Wasukuma). Here, too, only the three most consonant combinations of sound, octave, fifth, and fourth, are used. This kind of polyphony also is based on pure melody, and has nothing to do with harmony as we understand it. This is clear from the fact that the accompanying voice, which generally lies above the principal one, pursues its parallel motion regardless of tonality; it only increases the volume of the sounds in about the same way as a powerful partial tone would, and gives them a different timbre. It does not, however, change the notes of the melody into 'chords', with their special functions which differ from those of purely melodic notes. Thus the melodic structure of the occupation song given as Example 1 rests on the relation of the fourth and fifth which exist between the principal notes (A, E, D) and between the extreme notes (C-G, B-E, G-D) of the three phrases. In the formula appended to Example 1 as an illustration of the melodic structure these relations are indicated by square brackets, the connexion between predominants and the notes leading up or down to them, by slurs,

1 Anthropos, iv. 781 ff., 1909, Ex. 1.

2 Bull. de l'Acad. d. Sciences de Cracovie, Sc. nat., 1910, 711 ff.

and the different melodic weight of the notes by different time-values. The third phrase (c) is a fifth below the first one (a); the notes F, E, D, in their function, correspond to C, B (!) A; the second phrase (b) shows that the fifth B (!)-E is an essential element of the tonality. In spite of this, the parallel motion at the end is not in fifths, but in fourths-thus involving B which is alien to the tonality.

I. Weule. (47, 52, 53.) Nyamwezi. Occupation Song.

The organum in parallel motion has no doubt prepared the way for harmony by making the ear familiar with the effect of simultaneous sounds. The decisive step would be in the apperception of thirds as consonant intervals, and above all as constituents of melodic structure. In this case simultaneous thirds are used, the salient point being that the motion is not in mere parallels but varies between major and minor thirds, according to the requirements of the scale. Simultaneous thirds are, indeed, employed in this fashion in several parts of Africa; but one cannot, as yet, say for certain if this practice has grown out of negro music spontaneously or if it is due to European influence. In any case no race is so well prepared for, and so susceptible to, European influence as the Negro. How dangerous this influence is in music as elsewhere can be judged from present conditions among the Zulus, who have hardly preserved any African characteristics even in their melodies. The harmony of thirds and triads necessarily destroys the faculty for conceiving the melodic tonality which is based entirely on the relation of fourths and fifths: and so the large variety of shades represented by the modes is reduced to nothing.

But where the process of transformation is less advanced, the Negroes themselves seem to know what is typical of the music of the white race, and alien and inadequate to their own. A Luvemba song provides a delightful illustration of this. An English cattle dealer's man sang: ‘Tjapalapata (the European's proper name) is a European, "the real thing"." The chorus snatched the last word (tjine) off the soloist's lips, emphasizing it by means of a musical Europeanism: solemn chords consisting of progressions of thirds (and even triads, if my ear was not deceived) in observance of the key instead of the usual ending in parallel fourths. In the tonal structure of the melody (G-D, D-A, E-A) these chords are ridiculously out of place for they add lower thirds to the melody-notes, and sound like a caricature of European sacred music, which in fact may well be intended.

In Africa, the introduction of harmony would check the natural development of polyphonic forms from antiphony. This would be all the more regrettable as African music has already developed considerably in a great variety of forms, and might be expected to put forth numerous new shoots if it were but allowed to grow without interference. All these forms, indeed, are very simple according to

The texts of the songs registered by the missionary Herr Bachmann have been identified from the records by a native catechist. The help of a Native is the only way of obtaining the words and adjusting them to the tunes after the original performance. The texts have been examined and translated by Professor Dr. B. Struck.

our ideas; but even for us they have the charm of things primitive and of natural growth. The most frequent form of antiphony is the song with refrain: where the chorus answers the varying executions of the solo with a fixed conclusion. The two phrases are mostly kindred in form and rhythm, but contrary melodically. Either of them may form the bulk of the melody. The overlap varies from a mere instant (the final and starting note) to the entire duration of the tune (solo and chorus singing simultaneously throughout). The result is a number of polyphonic forms in every possible stage of transition. The refrain, according to its nature, leads to a close on the tonic. It may even have the tonic as its only note, giving variety to it only by subdividing it rhythmically; it thus forms a drone.

3. Weule. (40.) Makua. Women's Dancing Song.

d.

-100. (Accompanied by wind instruments.) Solo and Chorus.

When the refrain displays a greater variety of notes it develops into what is known as an ostinato; in the following example the tonic is ornamented with its upper and its lower leading note, and is hereby expressly established. The ostinato phrase which is repeated twice in a section is, in point of form, a free variation of the first solo phrase, but at variance with it by half a bar; at the same time it is a continuation of the second solo phrase. The simultaneous sounds which result from this are again fourths, fifths, and octaves only; it is worth noting that they occur in the order given, i.e. increasing in consonance towards the end.

4. Schwellnus. (3.) Mashona. Dirge, ‘Džemaņa ku tšema”.

= 88. Woman.

(accompanied by women's trill)

Men, chorus.

F

Again the chorus may simply repeat the phrase given out by the solo singer (who is sometimes replaced by a second chorus) at full length, and the two parts may overlap by exactly half the phrase. Thus a form is arrived at in quite a natural way which we, owing to its European development, are accustomed to think of as being highly artificial; namely, the canon (catch). In comparing the following example with the two preceding ones, it is evident at first sight that the tunes, in all three cases, are nearly the same. Antiphony and the tonal structure of the songs, from their own nature, as it were, result in one of the polyphonic forms.

5. Laman. (II. 81.) Bateke. Dance Song. (Transcribed by M. Kolinski.) Boys, 1st Chorus. = 108.

and Chorus.

&c.

This is also helpful in learning to understand African melody. A structure consisting of two halves, the first one resting on the upper fifth (dominant), and the second one built analogously on the tonic is typical of it. The following Bahutu chorus,' owing to its intricate rhythm (which will be discussed later on), is particularly difficult for us to comprehend. But by inference from the preceding examples we must suppose that the way in which the bar-lines have been distributed marks its structure correctly. The solo phrase, again nearly identical with the chorus phrase in Example 4, is repeated by the chorus a fifth lower, but is extended by an arsis (fifth crotchet) already belonging to the chorus part. There would be no obstacle

I In Czekanowski, l.c., No. 17.

2 In another version of the same song (Czekanowski, No. 3) it is left to the solo.