Indeed, it seems as if primitive religion felt itself forced to adopt musico dramatic modes of expression.
7. Its Technical Features.—All savage music is conspicuously accentual. Usually the accents fall into definite rhythms, duple varieties being commoner than triple. The basal rhythm is made emphatic by bodily motions, noises or vocal cries. The metric patterns (schemes of long and short tones) and the larger phrase-schemes are often curiously intricate, puzzling even the trained observer.
In accompanied songs there are instances of duple patterns in the
voice against triple ones in the accompaniment.
The vocal decoration of rhythms leads directly to melodic
figures, though the latter doubtless also result from experiments
with instruments. As a rule, a given melody contains but few
distinct tones, though sometimes varied with indescribable slides
or howls. One or two tone-figures are usually repeated again
and again. Generally a rudimentary notion of a scale (or system
of tones) is suggested, though no one type of scale is universal.
Scales and the melodies made from them are more often conceived
downward than upward (as is our habit). Whether a
true keynote is recognized is often doubtful, the whole intonation
being vague and fluctuating. The total effect is generally
minor, though major intervals and groups of tones are not
unusual.
On the one hand, cases occur in which short intervals, like the semitone,
are avoided, yielding melodies that imply a pentatonic system, and
these are common enough to lead many to urge that the essentially primitive
scale is pentatonic. But, on the other, what we call chromatic
scales are also found, utilizing even smaller intervals than the semitone.
Scales approximating our diatonic type are also reported, implying a fair
sense of tone-relationship.
Just what stimulates the invention of melodies and controls their development is uncertain. In some cases the habit of improvisation seems influential; in others, ingenuity with instruments. A form of melody, once established, is apt to be tenaciously preserved.
It has been thought that ideas of harmony or part-singing are
impossible for the savage mind. But it appears that some
tribes in Africa and Australia do sing in parts and even attempt
concerted effects between voices and instruments. Such combinations,
however, are rare and do not show any real system.
