Evening star., 1909-05-05
INDIAN AIRS CANNED"
Making Permanent Records of
Chippewa Music.
MISS DENsMORE's TASK
Transcribing the Weird Songs Of the
Aborigines.
SINGING INTO A PHONoGRAPH
Possible Relation Of Rhythm and
Mental Suggestion in the Music
of the Medicine Men.

Before the old Indian music dies out
or gets contaminated and mongrelized
SO to speak, by intertribal commune
cation, the bureau of ethnology wants
to get as complete record as possible
of all tribal airs. To this end it has
put scientifically trained musician
on the job. 1t may seem to the lay
man little remarkable for any one to
take a thorough course of musical edu-
cation, Brahms and Beethoven and the
like, as a preparation for transcribing
Indian medicine songs, yet this is the
sort Of preparation that Miss Frances
Densmore had for the peculiar work
she is now doing for the bureau. 1t
Is about the strangest work that a
civilized musician ever undertook, but
she says. that it is fascinating and 1t
promises to yield valuable scientific
results.
Preparing for. Her Work.
Miss Densmore is not Washington
woman, but she has done great deal
of field work for the bureau and has
spent the past week here, lecturing at
the Cosmos Club and preparing for
fresh field campaign. Her preparation
for the work was interesting, though
she did not make it originally with a
view to devoting herself wholly to
the study of savage music. She stud
led Beethoven under Carl Baerman In
Boston, Brahms under Leopold God0W-
sky and counter-point under the late
Prof. John Payne Of Yale. She wrote
for the magazines, lectured and gave
recitals and was in all respects i'm
tshed but thoroughly conventional mu-
sician till the study of tribal music
began to appeal to her. She lived In
Minnesota and heard good deal of
II from the semi-barbarous Indian set
tiers there, and then went regularly
into the work, making study of 1t
and tabulating the results for the ben
eft Of the ethnologists Of the bureau
who might not have a musical ear but
who know the value of statistics when
they are once set down and tabulated-
Use Of the Phonograph.
While a studied musician, Miss Dens-
more did not have the contempt that
many musicians have for canned music,
and she boldly called the phonograph TO
her aid as musical notebook. She went
among the Indians. and by living among
them, cuitivating and humoring them and
exercising all sorts of diplomacy she got
them to sing for the Dhonograph. Then
she carried the records back nome ana
transcribed them. writing out the words
with the aid of Indian interpreters and
setting the phonograDh records In piano
score form.
1t was about the most curious work
that musician ever tried, bu. she says
that il has been well worth the trouble
The songs run both TO melody and har-
mony. and some of them are really beau
tiful though most of them are plaintlve
Miss Densmore does not think of them as
line possible basis for any great Ameri-
can symphony or anything of that sort,
but SAYS that they are beautiful and en-
pertaining in themselves, and are no more
ft 10 be popuiarizsd for general use than
Wild flowers are TO be planted In g hot
house.
She has made about 300 phonograph
records. most OF which have already been
transcribed All her work SO far has
been among the Chippewas. though after
thoroughly mastering their tribal songs
she wants to extend her work to the other
tribes, using the Chippewa music as a unit
Of measure and standard of comparison.
Most Of the tribal songs are now the
property of the old people and the medi-
cine men. She says the younger genera
tion Is careless and learns easier songs
from the neighboring tribes. especially
the Sioux.
Curious Shorthand Records.
The Chippewas have curious sort Of