The fourth and the sixth occur seldom, and then only as subordinate tones. This key is identical with the Chinese and many of the Indian ones.
In the second group, which corresponds to our minor key, we frequently find the fourth, while the sixth only appears twice and then as a subordinate tone (in No. XV). We furthermore find the major seventh in the lower position leading back to the beginning, i.e., the key note. The essential components of this key are:
[[Music]]
Professor R. Succo calls attention to the fact that the relation of the melodies to their key note resembles that of the Gregorian chants, especially the psalmodic ones among them.
If we, in accordance with our ideas, suppose the melody—No. XIII, for example—to begin in C major, it nevertheless does not conclude in the same key, but in E. We would say that No. XIV is written in A minor; still it ends in E. We find the same in the Gregorian chants. They also resemble the songs of the Eskimo in the retention of the same note during a large number of consecutive syllables.
On the whole the melodies, even to our musical sense, can be traced to a key note. However, changes often occur as well (see No. VI). A very striking construction appears in No. XIII, where the oft-repeated E forms a new key note, while at the conclusion the melody leaps back without any modulation to C through the peculiar interval, ḇ, c.
[I. SUMMER SONG.]
Aja.