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===American Indian music<!-- USING HERE AS THE TECHNICAL TERM, NOT THE ARCHAIC TERM. PLEASE SEE ARTICLE TO NOTE WHY "Native American" IS NOT NECESSARILY THE PREFERRED TERM IN THIS CONTEXT -->===
===American Indian music<!-- USING HERE AS THE TECHNICAL TERM, NOT THE ARCHAIC TERM. PLEASE SEE ARTICLE TO NOTE WHY "Native American" IS NOT NECESSARILY THE PREFERRED TERM IN THIS CONTEXT -->===


Tetratonic scales were common among the [[Plains Indians]], though less common than the [[pentatonic scale]].<ref name="Merriam2011">{{cite book|author=Alan P. Merriam|title=Ethnomusicology of the Flathead Indians|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=KLlzxAkV_0gC&pg=PA325|accessdate=22 June 2012|date=19 August 2011|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-4244-0|page=325}}</ref> Amongst the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow, Omaha, Kiowa, Pawnee and Sioux, as well as some Plateau tribes, especially the Flathead, the tetratonic and pentatonic scales used are anhemitonic (that is, they do not include semitones).<ref name="NettlLevine(ii)">Bruno Nettl,
 Victoria Lindsay Levine, and 
Elaine Keillor (2001), "Amerindian Music", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (professor of music)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan Publishers, §2(ii).</ref> Tetratonic scales have also been noted among the music of the [[Creek Indians]],<ref name="NettlMyers1976">{{cite book|author1=Bruno Nettl|author2=Helen Myers|title=Folk Music in the United States: An Introduction|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=uPE5xUMEjX0C&pg=PA38|accessdate=22 June 2012|year=1976|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-1557-6|pages=38–}}</ref> and in the [[Great Basin]] region among the Washo, Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone.<ref name="NettlLevine(v)">Bruno Nettl,
 Victoria Lindsay Levine, and 
Elaine Keillor (2001), "Amerindian Music", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (professor of music)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan Publishers, §2(v).</ref> The [[Navajo people]] also largely used the pentatonic and tetratonic, occasionally also tritonic scales.<ref name="Society1954">{{cite journal|author=Bruno Nettl|title=North American Indian Musical Styles (sections 3, 4, and 5)|journal=Journal of American Folklore|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4nILAAAAIAAJ|accessdate=22 June 2012|year=1954|volume=67|issue=265 [July–September]| pages=297–307}}. Citation on 305.</ref>
Tetratonic scales were common among the [[Plains Indians]], though less common than the [[pentatonic scale]].<ref name="Merriam2011">{{cite book|author=Alan P. Merriam|title=Ethnomusicology of the Flathead Indians|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=KLlzxAkV_0gC&pg=PA325|accessdate=22 June 2012|date=19 August 2011|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-4244-0|page=325}}</ref> Amongst the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow, Omaha, Kiowa, Pawnee, and Sioux, as well as some [[Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau|Plateau tribes]], especially the Flathead, the tetratonic and pentatonic scales used are anhemitonic (that is, they do not include semitones).<ref name="NettlLevine(ii)">Bruno Nettl,
 Victoria Lindsay Levine, and 
Elaine Keillor (2001), "Amerindian Music", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (professor of music)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan Publishers, §2(ii).</ref> Tetratonic scales have also been noted among the music of the [[Creek Indians]],<ref name="NettlMyers1976">{{cite book|author1=Bruno Nettl|author2=Helen Myers|title=Folk Music in the United States: An Introduction|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=uPE5xUMEjX0C&pg=PA38|accessdate=22 June 2012|year=1976|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-1557-6|pages=38–}}</ref> and in the [[Great Basin]] region among the Washo, Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone.<ref name="NettlLevine(v)">Bruno Nettl,
 Victoria Lindsay Levine, and 
Elaine Keillor (2001), "Amerindian Music", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (professor of music)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan Publishers, §2(v).</ref> The [[Navajo people]] also largely used the pentatonic and tetratonic, occasionally also tritonic scales.<ref name="Society1954">{{cite journal|author=Bruno Nettl|title=North American Indian Musical Styles (sections 3, 4, and 5)|journal=Journal of American Folklore|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4nILAAAAIAAJ|accessdate=22 June 2012|year=1954|volume=67|issue=265 [July–September]| pages=297–307}}. Citation on 305.</ref>


===Inuit===
===Inuit===

Revision as of 23:08, 22 June 2012

A tetratonic scale is a musical scale or mode with fournotes per octave. This is in contrast to a heptatonic (seven-note) scale such as the major scale and minor scale, or a dodecatonic (chromatic 12-note ) scale, both common in modern Western music. Tetratonic scales are not common in modern art music, and are generally associated with primitive music.[1][2]

Distribution

American Indian music

Tetratonic scales were common among the Plains Indians, though less common than the pentatonic scale.[3] Amongst the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow, Omaha, Kiowa, Pawnee, and Sioux, as well as some Plateau tribes, especially the Flathead, the tetratonic and pentatonic scales used are anhemitonic (that is, they do not include semitones).[4] Tetratonic scales have also been noted among the music of the Creek Indians,[5] and in the Great Basin region among the Washo, Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone.[6] The Navajo people also largely used the pentatonic and tetratonic, occasionally also tritonic scales.[7]

Inuit

Tetratonic music was known among the Inuit, including the Greenlandic peoples.[8]

Maori

A 1969 study by ethnomusicologist Mervyn McLean noted that tetratonic scales were the second-most common type among the Maori tribes surveyed, accounting for 31% of scales used. The most common were tritonic (3-note) scales at 47%, while the third-most was ditonic (two-note) scales at 17%.[9]

Oceania

Tetratonic music was noted as common in Polynesia and Melanesia.[10] On Guadalcanal in particular, anhemitonic pentatonic and tetratonic scales are the predominant types, although the minor second does nevertheless occasionally appear as a melodic interval. The most often used melodic intervals, however, are the major second, minor third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, and octave.[11]

Africa

The main instrument in the Lobi area of Ghana is the xylophone, some of which are tuned to a tetratonic scale.[12] In eastern Uganda, the Gwere use for their six-string harp (called tongoli) a tetratonic scale in which all the intervals are nearly equal, which to Western ears sounds like a chain of minor thirds.[13]

India

Tetratonic, as well as tritonic scales, were commonly used by the tribal peoples of India, such as the Juang and Bhuyan of Orissa state.[14]

Russia

The music of the Volga-Finnic Cheremis (Mari people) of central Russia was primarily pentatonic, but used tetratonic scales 20% of the time.[15]

Western Europe

The second-earliest scales of Scandinavian, German, English, and Scottish folk music is believed to have been a pentatonic scale, itself developed from an earlier tetratonic scale.[16][failed verification] Tetratonic scales, along with pentatonic scales, account for 54% of songs in the traditional joik repertoire of the European Arctic Sami people, where the singing range extends to a tenth or eleventh.[17]

References

  1. ^ Anthony Baines (1967). Woodwind Instruments and Their History (third, revised ed.). Faber and Faber. pp. 176–&#91, page needed&#93, . Retrieved 22 June 2012. (Reprinted, New York: Courier Dover Publications, 1991, ISBN 978-0-486-26885-9).
  2. ^ Surajit Sinha (1 January 1991). Tribal Thought and Culture: Essays in Honour of Surajit Chandra Sinha. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 131–&#91, page needed&#93, . ISBN 978-81-7022-340-5. Retrieved 22 June 2012.}}
  3. ^ Alan P. Merriam (19 August 2011). Ethnomusicology of the Flathead Indians. Transaction Publishers. p. 325. ISBN 978-1-4128-4244-0. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  4. ^ Bruno Nettl,
 Victoria Lindsay Levine, and 
Elaine Keillor (2001), "Amerindian Music", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers, §2(ii).
  5. ^ Bruno Nettl; Helen Myers (1976). Folk Music in the United States: An Introduction. Wayne State University Press. pp. 38–. ISBN 978-0-8143-1557-6. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  6. ^ Bruno Nettl,
 Victoria Lindsay Levine, and 
Elaine Keillor (2001), "Amerindian Music", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers, §2(v).
  7. ^ Bruno Nettl (1954). "North American Indian Musical Styles (sections 3, 4, and 5)". Journal of American Folklore. 67 (265 [July–September]): 297–307. Retrieved 22 June 2012.. Citation on 305.
  8. ^ Thomas F. Johnston (1976), Eskimo Music by Region: A Comparative Circumpolar Study (Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 32), Ottowa: National Museums of Canada, pp. 150, 161.
  9. ^ Mervyn McLean (1996). Māori Music. Auckland University Press. pp. 239–. ISBN 978-1-86940-144-3. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  10. ^ Mervyn McLean (1978). "Record Review of Polynesian Songs and Games from Bellona (Mungiki) Solomon Islands, Ethnic Folkways Records FE 4273. Recording, notes and photographs by Jane Mink Rossen (Danish Folklore Archives)". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 87 (2): 144–48. Retrieved 22 June 2012. Citation on p. 146.
  11. ^ Mervyn McLean (1974). "Record Review of Musique de Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, recording, notes and photographs by Hugo Zemp. One 12" 33⅓ disc. Ocora OCR 74 (Paris, Office de Radiodiffusion Television Fransaise [sic]). Notes (in French and English) 10pp., map., photos". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 83 (4 [December]): 490–91. Retrieved 22 June 2012. Citation on p. 491.
  12. ^ J. H. Kwabena Nketia (2001) "Ghana, Republic of [formerly Gold Coast]", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
  13. ^ Sue Carole DeVale (2001) "Harp, §III: Africa", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, London: Macmillan Publishers.
  14. ^ Sudhibhushan Bhattacharya (1968). Ethno-musicology and India. Indian Publications. p. 54. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  15. ^ Bruno Nettl (1960). Cheremis musical styles. Indiana University Press. pp. 7–. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  16. ^ Joel Ashmore Nevis, ed. (1989). FUSAC '88 ACEFO: Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Finno-Ugric Studies Association of Canada. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-8191-7492-5. Retrieved 22 June 2012.[full citation needed]
  17. ^ György Szomjas-Schiffert (1973). "Traditional Singing Style of the Lapps". Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council. 5: 51–61. Retrieved 22 June 2012. Citation on p. 52.

Further reading

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