In the latter part of the song there are a number of changes between duple and triple rhythm. The singer makes these changes with perfect ease and sings the groups with that exactness of proportion which characterizes the performance of most of the singers in these records.
Musically this song is strikingly adapted to the purpose for which it is intended.
Tabulation of Qualities and Characteristics.—The qualities found in the records have been tabulated under two main headings. Under the caption, “Rarely or Never Heard in Modern Music,” are listed those qualities which, so far as present research goes, are so very unusual that they may be termed musical idiosyncrasies of the race. These qualities are so eccentric that if found in several of the songs, even if the number of songs be much in the minority, the qualities may be accepted as characteristics.[3]
To receive recognition as a characteristic, any quality found under the other heading, “Commonly Heard,” would necessarily have to show that it quite persistently occurred throughout a large majority of the songs.
The columns of the large table, when read horizontally, show which qualities appear in a given song. Read vertically they show the degrees of dominance of the various qualities.
The songs are grouped under two heads, those given by men and boys, and those given by women and girls. This will facilitate comparison of the degrees of dominance of the qualities found in the songs of each.[4] Page 475
Qualities
Numbers have been put down in some of the columns of the table. These figures indicate the number of times the quality appeared in the song. If the song has several verses on the record, and the quality appears the same number of times in each, then the tabulation gives the number of times in but a single verse. If the verses vary in the use of the quality, then an average has been struck and figure put down in the tabulation. In those songs where a certain quality occurs with such irregularity that it was impossible to represent the average without fractions, only the mark X has been put down in the table, simply to indicate that the quality was present. Such qualities as Tonality, Character, Structure, Scale, etc., naturally, with few exceptions, run through the whole song, and they are indicated by the X. Some songs have both of two opposed qualities. When this occurs, it is shown by checking both qualities.[5] Some qualities which were present, but indeterminable are indicated by an interrogation-point.[6]