Note: Alan Lomax: The structural set: the texture - size, shape, blend, rhythmic pattern presents itself in the first few seconds. The melodic set. Melodic types have a remarkable layout. Cantometrics can say something about the big sets, despite vagueness of information. All of Africa characterized by the two-part litany of leader and chorus. Western Europe is characterized by the 4-square strophe, an equal contrasting passage. Spain and Italy have odd-numbered asymmetrical strophes, with 5 to 7 phases of unequal lengths. The Oriental world has a tendency to through-composed, A,B,C,D pieces. Every part has new material for a very very long time until old stuff comes back. American Indian music appears to be litanies but in fact sing a very long strophe that takes considerable musical memory to reproduce. Idea of medley very important. Melodic shape starting high moving down. Polynesians sing very narrow tunes that have a litany quality but do a great deal of melodic movement and are through composed. The effect is very close to speech. Important quality of strophe is return to the tonic note at end. Types of harmony: drone, three notes of a chord with base note at end to give sense of an ending. Litany seems oldest and most primitive and is form of children's music. (Arensberg: It doesn't necessarily follow.) Through-composition as a form that engages people's attention over a long period, as when a hunter must come back to group to tell what he has found. Another parameter: wide intervals versus narrow. Orient has narrow intervals and chromatic scales. Cultivated oriental music has wide tonal range and narrow steps. American Indian and Lapps have wide intervals. Pygmies have skips all the time of fifths and octaves, Africans have moderate intervals of our size and wider (Alan illustrates with solfege). Western music is tight, with medium octaves. In the old agricultural world, singing was a way of moving away from mother and returning to her. Tonic a statement of musical base. 4-square form can be seen as equivalent to small extended family. In Western Europe you can't go home again, in Asia you can never leave.
