Toward the Comparative Analysis of British-American Folk Tunes

Abstract

T H E comparative study of folksong necessarily involves quantitative as well as qualitative data. Where dependable answers can be reached only by subjecting a large number of items to detailed statistical analysis, machinery makes practicable a variety of frequency tabulations and studies of manifold correlations, and thus invites questions hitherto at once too large and too minute. It hardly needs saying, however, that such procedures are employed to best advantage where the records are both abundant and of comparable homogeneity. The following queries may point to representative uses. Historical Questions. Are there, in particular eras, predominant phrasal schemes, and if so, what are they? Similarly with refrain schemes? Rhythms and metres? Are there different habits and preferences in melodic range and mode at different periods of history, and what is their relative strength? Geographical Questions. What are the characteristic differentiae of specific regions? Are there rhythmical preferences? Modal preferences? And to what degree of intensity? Are there other stylistic idiosyncrasies as between localities, subject to objective tests? (National or ethnological implications herein can be developed at will.) Typological Questions. What are the prevailing melodic forms within a given area of study? Do tunes in a particular mode tend to conform in other respects as well? For example, are there correlations of rhythm and melodic mode? Of phrasal cadences and mode? Are there favorite correspondences between the cadence-notes of different phrases? Between the initial upbeats and other parts of a tune or group of tunes? Are certain phrases of a given body of tunes habitually less stable than others? Are certain accent points of a phrase firmer than others? What are the stigmata that most essentially identify a melodic type? Obviously, many interconnections are latent among the questions suggested above. The method of recording factual data of various kinds about each tune, by means of code punches on a separate card, provides an extremely flexible means of sorting and re-sorting in a great variety of ways the elements and combinations of elements chosen for investigation, and of tabulating the results with a minimum of effort, a minimum of error, and with maximum speed. Flexibility, accuracy, and speed are the features of this method that especially recommend it. The summary outline above will have suggested the scope and implications of the method that I shall now attempt to describe as briefly as possible. To