This song is written in the scale represented by the white keys of a pianoforte beginning on A, and the peculiarly quaint effect of it is due to the unusual intervals of that scale as compared with our common scale forms. There are various modes[3] called "Phrygian," "Dorian," etc., each having its own peculiar quality. This quaintness and characteristic quality to be observed in modal folk-songs almost entirely disappears when an accompaniment of modern harmony is added, as is often done.

Folk-songs occupied a much more important place in the lives of the people who used them than is commonly supposed. When we consider that at the time the earliest of them were written few people could read or write, that books were printed in Latin, and that there were no newspapers, railways, or telegraphs, we can understand how large a part these old songs played in the scheme of life. The strolling singer was the newspaper of the time. Furthermore, the general illiteracy of the people made of the folk-song a natural vent for their feelings. With a limited vocabulary at their disposal, it was natural that they should use the song as a medium of expression for their joys and sorrows. Gesture was also part of their language, and in a modified way, as a means of expression, may be said to have performed something of the function of song. Many of the oldest melodies existed as an adjunct to dancing and religious ceremonials, and were, therefore, to some extent utilitarian. But so intimate was their relation to the ideas and feelings of the people who used them that, in spite of the crudeness and simplicity of the medium employed, the songs of the various nations are entirely distinct from each other, and to a remarkable degree express the characteristics of the people who produced them.

The songs used with this chapter are chosen chiefly to illustrate the various methods (already described) of attaining variety and unity in music. If little space is devoted here to other considerations, the reader must bear in mind that our purpose is to lead him finally to as complete an appreciation as possible of the masterpieces of instrumental music, and that this appreciation must begin with a perception of the relationships between the various parts of a primitive piece of music.

II. AN ENGLISH FOLK-SONG.

In Figure V is shown the old English song "Polly Oliver."[4]

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FIGURE V.

This is a traditional song handed down without any record of its origin, from generation to generation. Its unknown composer has managed very deftly to make it hang together. A good deal is made, in particular, of the characteristic little motive of three notes which first occurs at the beginning of the third measure.[5] In the very next measure, the fourth, this is "transposed" to a lower position. Going on, we find it coming in again, most effectively, in measure 7, this time transposed upwards; and it occurs again twice at the end of the melody. Thus a certain unity is given to the entire tune. Again, the device of repetition after contrast is well used. After measures 1-9, which state the main idea of the melody, measures 9-13 come in with a pronounced contrast; but this is immediately followed up, in measures 13-17, by a literal repetition of the first four measures, which serves to round out and satisfactorily complete the whole. We thus see illustrated once more the scheme of form which, in the last chapter, we denoted by the letters A-B-A.