Notes in Group, Beats in Measure, or Measures in Period.—Groups of five seem to have no terrors for these people. In modern music it is extremely unusual to find notes grouped in fives, or measures having the rhythmic value of five beats, or periods made up of measures in fives. A study of the tabulation shows that the Tinguian have a rather natural bent for groupings in this number. It seems easy for them to drop into that metric form. I consider this trait, evidenced in their melodies, one of the marked characteristics of their music.[7]
Groups of notes, beats, or measures in seven are so few in these records that we are not warranted in accepting it as a characteristic.
Jog.—An over-emphasized short-appoggiatura with always either the tonic or dominant of the key as the principal tone. The first tone is usually an eighth or sixteenth in value, and must stand on the next Page 478degree above the principal tone. The principal tone is usually a quarter note or longer in value.
In singing the jog, the short note is given a very pointed accent, the voice dropping quickly with a sort of jerk to the second, unaccented, sustained tone. It is executed without sliding, both tones being well-defined. To be most effective, it should be given two, three, or four times consecutively without intervening tones.
This device was heard very frequently in the Igorot songs; in fact, some of their songs consisted of little else than the jog sounded first on tonic two or three times, then the same number of times on the dominant, then again on the tonic, then on the dominant, and so on back and forth.
It would be interesting to know just how commonly this device is used in the singing of the Tinguian and also in the music of other tribes of these Islands. From it we might learn something of the contact of other tribes with the Igorot.
Japanese Scales.—For structure of these scales, see analysis of those songs using one or another of the Japanese “tunings” or approximations to them.
Tonality.—That entire group of harmonies which, intimately related to a foundation or “tonic” chord, may be considered as clustered around and drawn to it.
Major Tonality. That tonality in which the upper two of the three tones constituting its tonic chord, when ranged upward from its foundation tone, are found at distances of four and seven semitones respectively from it.
Minor Tonality. That tonality in which the upper two of the three tones constituting its tonic chord, when ranged upward from its foundation tone, are found at distances of three and seven semitones respectively from it.