Music of Acoma, Isleta, Cochiti, and Zuñi Pueblos - Flutopedia.com

112 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 165
note, while 28 percent begin on the keynote (table 2). Forty-five
percent end on the keynote and 32 percent end on the fifth above the
keynote (table 3). This outlme of the melodies resembles that of the
songs in the cumulative group. In the relation of the entire melody
to the final tone, this group differs widely from the large group. The
final tone is the lowest tone in only 50 percent of these songs (table 4),
while 68 percent of the songs in
the large group and on the lowest
tone of the compass. The final tone is approached by an ascending
progression in only 4 of these Pueblo songs, while the large group
contains 184 songs (about 12 percent) with this ending.
In the Pueblo songs, as in the large group, a feeling for the simplest
overtones of a fundamental is sho^vn in the compass of the melody,
the songs with a compass of an octave constituting 27 percent of the
series, while 10 percent have a compass of 10 tones (table 5). The
largest compass among the pueblo songs is 11 tones, while the cumulative
group contains 23 songs with a compass of 14 and 17 tones.
The proportion of songs on the second and fourth 5-toned scales
(minor and major pentatonic) is 20 percent in the Pueblo songs
(table 6) and 28 percent in the cumulative group.
The general trend in the 1,553 songs comprised in the cumulative
analysis is downward, 60 percent of the intervals being descending
progressions. This test was applied only to the 40 Acoma songs in
which the intervals were counted. It was found that 57 percent of
the intervals were descending progressions. In the 82 Pueblo songs
under analysis, the descending trend begins with the opening interval
more frequently than in the large group, 46 percent of the Pueblo
songs having this initial progression (table 7) which occurs in 41 percent
of the cumulative series.
The tribes under analysis differ widely in the opening rhythm
(meter). Seventy-seven percent of the Pueblo songs begin on the
accented part of the measure (table 8), while only 55 percent of the
combined group have this beginning. The tribes in the large group
vary from 45 percent in the Menominee to 64 percent in the Northern
Ute songs with this initial rhythm.
Double time is preferred in the opening measures of these Pueblo
songs, 60 percent beginning in 2-4 time (table 9) .
This opening varies
in the cumulative group, in which the highest percentage is 71 in
the Yuman and Yaqui songs, and the lowest is 50 percent in the
Chippewa songs.
A change of measure lengths occm-s in 97 percent
of these Pueblo songs (table 10) and in only 80 percent of the combined
group. The Sioux are next to the Pueblo songs in frequency of
a change of measure lengths, 92 percent of the Sioux songs having this
varied rhythm. The Pawnee and Yuman and Yaqui are lowest in