LIBRARY OF

WELLES LEY COLLEGE

PURCHASED FROM
Bimting F-und

Serbo-Croatian Folk Songs

NUMBER 7

IN

THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDIES

IN

MUSICOLOGY

Serbo-Croatian

FOLK SONGS
Texts

and

Transcriptions of

SEVENTY-FIVE FOLK SONGS

from

the

MiLMAN Parry Collection

and a Morphology of

SERBO-CROATIAN FOLK MELODIES

by

BELA BARTOK

^W ALBERT

B.

LORD

with a Foreword by George Herzog

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

NEW YORK

-1951

'

2'm'y

^3

COPYRIGHT 1951, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS,

NEW YORK

PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN, CANADA, AND INDIA BY GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON, TORONTO, AND BOMBAY

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO THE

MEMORY OF

MILMAN PARRY

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in

2011 with funding from

Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries

http://www.archive.org/details/serbocroatianfolOObart

"BOARD OF EDITORS
OTTO KINKELDEY
PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF MUSICOLOGY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Honorary Chairman

PAUL

H.

LANG

PROFESSOR OF MUSICOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Executive Chairman

ARCHIBALD

T.

DAVISON

PROFESSOR OF CHORAL MUSIC, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

GEORGE

S.

DICKINSON

PROFESSOR OF MUSIC AND MUSIC LIBRARIAN, VASSAR COLLEGE

CARLETON SPRAGUE SMITH

CHIEF OF THE MUSIC DIVISION,

NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

Foreword
Homeric
MiLMAN Parry,
thought that
inspired

genesis of

formed,

Harvard University, had the

to form a picture of the
great
Homeric
chants
and how they were perthe

we should observe

the

scholar at

if

life

we wanted

of folksong

where

it

has best survived

on the Balkan peninsula. The heroic epic songs of

Yugoslavia, the so-called "men's songs," come nearest in that region to
the type of tradition which was probably the foundation of the Homeric
epics. So Professor Parry made in the thirties prolonged collecting trips
to Yugoslavia and with the assistance of Dr. Albert B. Lord gathered a
vast collection of songs, especially in the jagged mountains of Bosnia,
Hercegovina, Montenegro, and South Serbia. In addition to the epics,
many "women's songs" lyrical songs were collected; these are less
outstanding in the historical and literary perspective, but their melodies
have a wider musical appeal than the chant tunes of the epic poems. In
order to make a lasting record of the songs in the form in which they are
actually performed and to make their study possible also from the musical
to the present day,

angle, the expedition recorded a large

number

Mr. Parry

after his return to this country,

of songs

on

disks.

But soon

died, in a tragic accident.

Research on the music of the collection was for a long time hampered by
the unavailability of a real connoisseur of the folk music of eastern Europe.

This need was remedied when the late Bela Bartok came to this country.

Bela Bartok

is

known

posers of our time,

to the musical world as one of the foremost comand one whose creative inspiration was deeply rooted

in folk music. In his earlier works, especially, he often uses a

vocabulary

inspired by the clear spirit of folk melodies, while later the folk elements
became more and more integrated and absorbed in his own personal idiom,
which they helped to expand. His settings of Hungarian, Slovak, and
Rumanian tunes and dances, produced over a long span of years, reflect
an intimate familiarity with this material. Time and again he came back
to the challenging problem of translating it for the musical audience of
the city, and he evolved a variety of solutions. But it is less well known
that Mr. Bartok was also a devoted student of folksong, indeed, an inter[

ixl

Foreword
national authority in this
his creative

work was

field.

entirely

Much

of the folk

unknown

until

music incorporated into

he discovered

it,

in the

course of laborious collecting trips to villages off the beaten track, to

places that were "behind the back of God," to use a

The

Hungarian phrase.

Hungary

at the onset
and
of the twentieth century awakened a strong interest in folk life and folklore. The patient search conducted by Mr. Bartok and his colleague, the
composer Zoltan Kodaly, soon revealed that what had been accepted as
Hungarian national music, through the effusive Rhapsodies of Liszt and
Brahms which followed in the wake of the sparkling "alia Ungharese"
movements by Haydn and others, had little to do with the folk themselves. It was merely an inflated elaboration of the popular entertainment
music of the town, propagated by the Hungarian gypsies. But the countryside still possessed an entirely different body of old melodies, simple and
sturdy, practically unknown in the Hungarian cities. It was a situation
[much like that in this country when the ballads of New England and of
the Southern Mountains had to be "discovered" for a public nurtured on

national renaissance in

intensive cultural

Stephen Foster.

Under the
Kodaly, in the

influence of the
first

school of composition.
especially

Hungarian peasant tunes, Bartok and

decade of the century, began to develop a new national

But the

by Bartok. His

regional confines were soon transcended,

scholarly interests also expanded, to embrace

the folk music of the nationalities surrounding the Hungarian island.

his last recording expeditions the search for peasant

Turkey and

On

music took him as

by the time he came to this country,

shortly before the war, the experience and the detailed knowledge of
Eastern European folk music which he had amassed was equaled by no
one. It was most fortunate, then, that through the warm interest of the
Music Department at Columbia University arrangements could be made
with Harvard University for the musical study of the Parry Collection to
be delegated to him. On his part, it gave him deep satisfaction that while
he was finding his roots in a new country, which he knew chiefly as a
modern technological civilization, he could once more immerse himself in
a musical dialect from one of those regions of Europe where old rural

far as

Algeria. Thus,

culture has not yet fully disappeared. This book, appearing posthumously,
is

one of the results of

this

work.

Mr. Bartok's contributions

to our

knowledge and understanding of folk

[xl

Foreword
music are the

an indefatigable activity and industry. In the days

phonograph he preserved, on records or by writing them
thousands of folk melodies. To their collating and study he
fruits of

of the cylinder

down by

ear,

devoted a scholarship so painstaking and minute that

it is

not easy to

fathom how he could have found the time and the energy for it, in the
midst of a fully creative life as composer, pianist, and teacher. The monumental corpus of Hungarian folk music which he prepared with Mr.
Kodaly was to have been published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, when the war intervened. He was the author of the monograph
Hungarian Folk Music, a model of methods of analysis, and of basic
investigations on Rumanian and Slovak folk music, besides many shorter
studies and theoretical articles. In a territory charged with old political,
national, and cultural aspirations and tensions, these writings are distinguished by an objective and international outlook one important
essay traces the cross-influences between Hungarian folk music and that
of the neighboring peoples. He liked to stress the fact that there are no

true folksongs in this region that express national prejudices or antag-

onisms of the peasant groups, and he

alive artificially

by

pride in being a citizen of

over,

and

felt

that such attitudes were kept

and school-taught songs. He took equal

the world, taking an interest in music the world

ofiicial cliques

in being a

member

of a particular national culture, for the

music of which he had the special attachment of one born in a small town,
not too far from the "soil."

combination of creative musical genius of the very

persevering and detailed scientific activity

and

is rare.

first

rank with

Bartok looked upon

of the composer as
Those of the collector, he felt, were to gather and present
the material exactly and faithfully, without any patronizing emendations
or collated versions of the sort which were current in Europe and are still

the tasks

responsibilities of the collector

and

entirely distinct.

popular in this country. In his settings of folk melodies he often submitted

also the notations of the tunes as they

were recorded from the folk singers,

compare the two and see the material in its prisgave no opus numbers to those
compositions which were based chiefly on folk tunes. At the same
time Mr. Bartok manifested some of the same traits both as composer
and as scholar: integrity of purpose, a complete lack of capacity for compromise, subordination of the subjective element to what he felt were the

so that the reader could

tine form. Characteristically, perhaps, he

[xi]

Foreword
dictates of his material,

which, no matter

how

and a

workmanship with regard

careful

to details

large the framework, was so exacting as to result

almost in self-abnegation.

He made

it

an intimate
which he
the arduous task of

his task to acquire

familiarity with the general folklore of the national group in

worked and

sufficient

knowledge of the language

for

recording and studying thousands of song texts.

mode

of workmanship that in order

book of seventy-odd melodies
with a broader basis, Mr. Bartok made a systematic analysis and a
melodic index of thousands of Yugoslav melodies, practically all that have
It

is,

perhaps, characteristic of his

to provide the general observations in this

appeared in print so

far.

Also, in his introductory essay he has presented

a unique and searching discussion of the difficult problems of notation,

classification, and analysis in the study of folk m^usic. In his methods,
Bartok was influenced by the so-called Finnish school of folklorists, who
attempted to cover their national folklore systematically and in great
detail.

The

large

amount

of material

which they amassed called

for devel-

oping effective techniques for analyzing, classifying, and indexing tunes,

and these have been used

fruitfully in the

study of Eastern European folk

is given in this book to matters such

and its relation to the tune, the structure and tonal range of the melody, and various other features. Musical
rhythm is treated more briefly, since its patterns in Yugoslav folk music
are free, very rich, and even diffuse; the basic structures are overlaid by
a free, rubato performance and luxuriant ornamentation. But the details
of this ornamentation and of the plastic fluctuations of time and of intonation were caught and notated by the author, as in his other transcriptions
of folk melodies, with an exactitude practically photographic. This was
possible only for a musician with an unusually discriminating and well-

music. Thus, detailed consideration

as the metric structure of the text

trained ear.

Doubts have been

of notation, since

raised about the value

and the

reliability of this

type

no musical notation can supplant for the reader the

actual auditory experience and

many

small details of delivery vary in a

truly alive folk tradition from performance to performance, even

by the

same singer. But a simplified notation, which is the alternative, robs a

folk melody of its true flavor; it unavoidably introduces subjective judgments as to what is important and what may be dispensed with, so that
at least for scientific purposes only a detailed and faithful notation is
[xii]

Foreword
satisfactory. It can be combined, however, with a simplified picture of

the melody, as

is

done here by means

The more

of the skeleton notations.

exact transcriptions expose the construction of a melody in microscopic

detail,

but to follow

it

along places a

demand on

author envisaged as a serious student.

Much

the reader,

whom

of the discussion,

the
too,

work before pleasure. It may be

first book written by the author
in English; the publishers felt that his personal style and organization
should not be altered appreciably after he could no longer authorize
couched in a formulistic

style, calls for

kept in mind, however, that this

changes.

Many

is

the

of the findings in this study are of interest primarily to

the specialist, but

it is

of

more general

interest in that

it is

the

first sys-

tematic discussion of Yugoslav folk music. (The standard collection of

Yugoslav folk melodies published

has

many

in the eighteen eighties

by F. X. Kuhac
and excellent

of the faults of the early folksong collections,

recent compilations, such as those of V. R. Djordjevic, contain

little

musical analysis.) The student of folksong and folk music will find this

method

of analysis full of suggestive leads,

and the frequent comparative

remarks on folk music are very valuable. The general reader will be

rewarded by the interesting melodies and poems.

South Slavic folk music has an especial appeal. This may well be due
between the essential simplicity of its basic materials and

to the contrast

the pulsing quality of

life

achieved through an abundance of expressive

devices, including the ornamentation. This ornate treatment

due to an

old,

general European

mode

of

is

partly

no

folk singing; partly,

doubt, to the various Oriental influences which impinged on the Balkan

peninsula, the Turkish domination being only the latest. This mixture of
simplicity

and

of artistic elaboration pervades also the poetry, as

may

be

seen in the decorative arrangements and repetitive patterns in the second

part of the book. While the latter was planned so as to be subordinated

to the musical study

detailed

treatments of the literary side of this

yet we are given here a

tradition will be published separately

full

and

valuable background for the musical analysis; a picture of the recording

expedition at work and of the singers, a collection of annotated authentic

texts

which

will

and translations which

they are unpretentious and faithful to the

be welcomed by the

are as pleasant to read as

specialist,

original songs. Studies devoted to the heroic epic poetry in the

Collection of

Harvard University and

[

xiii

its

Parry

music, on which Mr. Bartok

Foreword
worked intensively, will appear in the future. Meanwhile, this book represents an important addition to the study of South Slavic folklore and to
our knowledge of the rural culture of southeastern Europe it is a modest
memorial to a great artist and a sympathetic scholar.
;

george herzog

Indiana University

xiv

Preface

THE

MAIN OBJECT

slavia in 1934-35

of Professor

was

Milman

Parry's journeys to Yugo-

He

and to record as many

poems still in existence.

to study, to collect,

as possible of the Serbo-Croatian heroic

recorded about 350 heroic poems, collected from 90 different singers

in 23 villages,

on some 2,200 double-faced

limited to this type of

poem

only.

He

disks.

His interest was not

recorded also: approximately 205

Serbo-Croatian so-called "women's songs," on about 210 double-faced

about 14 in a Macedonian-Bulgarian dialect, on 9 double-faced

disks about 30 Turkish and 1 1 Albanian songs, on about 40 double-faced
disks; and 16 instrumental pieces on 8 double-faced disks. The Parry
disks;
;

Collection, including the amazingly large

high above

number

of heroic poems, towers

all other recordings of Serbo-Croatian folk

music in the world,

being larger than aU the rest combined.^

is based on part of the Serbo-Croatian "women's
was privileged to transcribe and to study in 1941 and
1942, under the auspices of Columbia University and with the permission
of Harvard University, the owner of the Parry Collection.
Two hundred songs are not many to represent an area as large as the
Serbo-Croatian linguistic territory. However, their importance is enhanced
by the fact that every song, regardless of its length, has been recorded in
full
a procedure not very often used in recordings of Eastern European
folk music, for various reasons (such as the high costs and lack of time)
From this point of view the Parry Collection ranks above all European
collections known to me; these generally do not contain more than the

This publication

songs," which I

first

three or four stanzas of the longer folk poems.

The material published

in this

recordings of Serbo-Croatian folk

publication of

book is based upon transcriptions of

music and is, in this respect, the first

its kind.^

According to the statements in Folklore musical, Institut International de Cooperation

Intellectuelle, Paris, 1939, pp. 205-9, these consist of: 466 (probably single-faced) disks, 348
cylinders, and 150 other enregistrements (we do not know what kind of enregistrements they
are, since disks and cyhnders are separately mentioned) scattered in several European countries. Hereafter this pubHcation will be cited as Folk. mus.
^ According to Folk, mus.,
pp. 210 ff., where no clear mention is made of material published
^

on basis the

of records.

[xv]

Preface

The
tions,

records are excellent, on the whole. The singers, with a few excepwere very well chosen. Their performance, especially concerning

the timbre of voice, tone production, and ornamentation,

is

absolutely

we should expect from peasant singers whose

performance is not yet marred by urban influences.
I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to make this study. It is
natural and exactly what

a part of a larger investigation which was undertaken under the auspices

of

Columbia University

and was based on the extensive Parry

and folk music

in 1941-43

Collection of unique materials on Yugoslav folk song

deposited at Harvard University. I wish to express

all

my

appreciation to

who helped me

in this research. Harvard University gave its full

by making the records and texts available, and by giving
permission to publish the results in the present book. Mr. Albert B.

those

co-operation
its

Lord,

who

participated in the late Professor Parry's collecting trips in

Yugoslavia and after Parry's death carried on some of his research, gave
assistance in

many ways, and

contributed the section on the texts, includ-

The Archives

ing an introduction and texts and translations of the poems.

of Primitive Music,

Department

of Anthropology,

Columbia University,

furnished duplicates of the original recordings, so that the latter were

saved from the damage due to the wearing down attendant on the laborious process of transcription into musical notation. I

am

obliged to Dr.

George Herzog, of the Archives of Primitive Music, for his helpful

ance, including going over the manuscript. Credit

is

assist-

due to Mr. Wolfgang

Weissleder for the great care he exercised in producing the excellent music
copy.

The Columbia University Press co-operated in every way in its

somewhat burdened with technical detail.

task of producing a publication

Above all, however, I am indebted to Professor Douglas H. Moore, the

Department of Music, Columbia University, and the Ditson Fund, whose
active interest

New

made

the study and

its

publication possible.

bela bartok

York

February, 1943

xvi

Contents

FOREWORD,
PREFACE, by

by George Herzog

ix

xv

Bela Bartok

PART ONE BY BELA BARTOK

:

INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE

MORPHOLOGY OF THE SERBO-CROATIAN VOCAL FOLK

MELODIES

21

REGIONS, VILLAGES, SINGERS, AND OTHER DATA

88

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME OF THE SINGERS

89

EXPLANATION OF THE SIGNS USED IN THE MUSIC NOTATIONS

89

WORKS CITED IN PART ONE

93

MUSIC EXAMPLES

95

NOTES TO THE MUSIC EXAMPLES

PART two: BY ALBERT

231

B.

LORD

INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO

247

TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS

257

WORKS CITED

IN PART

TWO

426

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

427

xvii

Part
by

One

BELA BARTOK

One

Introduction to Part

METHOD OF TRANSCRIPTION

THE

TRANSCRIPTION

music should be as true

however, that an absolutely true

of recordings of folk

as possible. It should be realized,

notation of music (as well as of spoken words)

is

impossible

because of the lack of adequate signs in our current systems of notation.

This applies even more to the notation of folk music. The only really true
notations are the sound-tracks on the record

itself.

be magnified, photographed, and printed instead

notation.

But

view of the

this

of,

or with, the usual

complicated procedure would not be of

all- too-complicated

human mind would not be

must have

These, of course, could

much

use, in

nature of the curves in the tracks.

The

able to translate the visual signs into tones. It

as visual impressions conventional symbols of drastic sim-

plicity in order to be able to

These symbols are what we

study and to categorize sound phenomena.

call

"notation" of music.

to the transcription of folk music,

signs, in smaller or larger

order to represent certain

When applying them

we may add supplementary

diacritical

numbers, devised for our special purposes,

phenomena which occur in and are

in

characteristic

of folk music.

In spite of these additional

signs, the current notation,

when used

to

however, can be overcome to a certain degree, according to our purpose and

to our well-weighed choice. Our choice will take into consideration the
perceptive abilities of the human mind and their limits.
In transcribing folk music only two dimensions can be assumed pitch
(as the vertical one) and the rhythm (as the horizontal one). The consideration of the third dimension, having relation to intensity and color
of sound may well be discarded. We have no adequate signs for marking
intensity (except for the well-known but too-general signs of dynamics)
and no signs at all for tone color (timbre) Fortunately, change of intensity is no important factor in folk music (at least that of Eastern Europe)
transcribe folk music, has intrinsic limitations. These limitations,

the performer's intention being to achieve evenness.

[3]

And

if

the perform-

Introduction to Part
ance

is

nevertheless anything but even, this results from purely mechan-

ical factors.

softer.

One

Notes sung

in high pitch

sound louder; those

in lower pitch,

Very rarely, indeed, do we hear single notes accentuated intenby the performer (and then more frequently in instrumental

tionally

music than in vocal melodies) or groups of notes produced purposely with

changes of dynamics. In such cases, of course, the conventional signs for

dynamics must be used. Creation of new signs for color would be not only
too complicated but also probably useless; the reader could never catch
the right idea of the color, however elaborate the signs or description used.
In this regard, in addition to a few descriptive words,
to refer the reader to the record itself. So

is

all

that can be done

we must impose

exactness

only with regard to pitch and rhythm.

Eastern European folk music

is

generally based on the diatonic system

among them

of our art music. Exceptions are few; rather obvious

music of the Serbo-Croatian heroic poems. The reader must bear

however, that the intonation (that
degrees (whether altered

by

is,

in

is

the

mind,

placement of pitch) of the respective

accidentals or not)

is

much

art music.^ Nevertheless, these deviations, since they

less

exact than in

show a

certain

system and are subconsciously intentional, must not be considered faulty,

is the essential difference between the accidental
urban amateurs and the self-assured, self-conscious,
decided performance of peasant singers.
The first problem with which we have to deal is with what degree of

off-pitch singing. This

off-pitch singing of

exactitude

we

follows:

the deviation

if

notes are used.

shall transcribe these deviations in pitch.

An

is

My method is as

perceptible enough, arrow signs above the

arrow pointing downward means lowered pitch, almost

reaching the quarter tone below; pointing upward

it

means

raised pitch,

not quite or almost reaching the quarter tone above. These arrows

be used in conjunction with both

flats

and sharps,

valid as long as are the accidentals themselves.

too,

Some

where they

may

will

be

special signs could

conceivably be used for differences of exactly one quarter tone.

They were

almost never employed here because of the great difficulty in determining

by

ear whether the difference

is

exactly a quarter tone or only approxi-

mately. Obviously these arrows and comparable symbols used by others

are signs of approximate value,

and

are, perhaps, the

to be used concerning pitch deviations in Eastern

^

It

only practical means

European

folk music.

has been shown that even the intonation of trained professional singers

absolutely exact.

[4]

is

seldom

Introduction to Part

As a matter

One

system has been established and instruments

of fact, a

in-

vented which enable us to measure the vibrations of each scale degree of

a given melody. The system

tempered half tone

is

is

the "cent" system. In this system every

divided into 100 equal cents, and

express every tone in cents instead of

cases, especially in melodies

its

number

it is

possible to

of vibrations. In

many

with typical tone deviations of degree, such

measurements would give highly interesting and mathematically exact

data about the deviations, as well as about their constancy. Some musicologists, for example, Erich von Hornbostel and Idelsohn, frequently used
this procedure. I

am

sorry to say that I never

had occasion

to use

it

myself.

Other special signs for certain phenomena connected with pitch are the
various types of glissando}

The second problem is the degree of exactness to be used in transcribing

rhythm of folk melodies. Here, again, it must be borne in mind that
an absolutely rigid rhythm never prevails even in so-called "rigid" dance
rhythms.^ Whether it be the latter or the so-called parlando-rubato free
rhythm, with which we often have to deal in Eastern European folk
music, limits must be set to the exactitude of rhythm transcriptions. As
a general rule, the deviations in "dance rhythm" which are not noticeable
the

to the trained observer in playing the records at ordinary speed should

not be heeded. They are scarcely perceptible when playing the records at

A certain limit should be set even for transcribing deviawhich become rather noticeable when magnified by this procedure.

even half speed.

tions

This limit should correspond to the ability of the

differences of

human mind

rhythm. Speaking in practical terms,

it is

of a sixty-fourth at a speed of 120 beats per minute.

to perceive

about the value

For example,

if

the

singer performed an eighth dotted four times instead of a quarter note,

it

would be best

to ignore this very slight deviation.

dotted three times

it is

with a half-circle over

Even

for

an eighth

perhaps more advisable to write a quarter note

it.'*

The same

limit to exactness can be set

when

dealing with parlando-rubato melodies. Of course, their irrational rhythmic

formulas can by no means be called "deviations," since these melodies

never present regular rhythmic patterns from which to deviate.

^

See explanation of signs, p. 91.

The same can be said of art music perfonnances.

This haK circle is used to denote a slight shortening

p. 91.

[5]

of value; see explanation of signs,

Introduction to Part

One

It is advisable to use the ordinary time-signature in rigid

when no

only,
all. If

dance rhythm

deviations need to be introduced into the transcription at

may

deviations occur, then the general time signature

be inclosed

in parentheses, and no changes in signature need to be introduced.

Changes in time signature are to be used only when the change does not
from an occasional deviation, but is an essential rhythmic feature

result

(alternation of different measures). In transcriptions of parlando-rubato

performances no kind of time signature should be used, for such a device

would give the reader little help, and it would only bewilder him to find
measure different and most unusual signatures, such as

in almost every

11/16, 15/16, 31/32.

Summing up,

the transcriptions of records of folk music and their publi-

cation ought to be, as far as the described limits permit, in the

manner

a so-called Urtextausgahe (that

which the

critically revised edition, in

is,

presumed intentions

texts are presented according to the

of

of the author or

composer) In other words, nothing should be changed by the transcriber

.

except those parts in which the performer

made an obviously

uninten-

tional mistake. In critically revised editions of higher art works, obvious

mistakes of the author or composer appearing in the autograph or in the

(authentic or nonauthentic)

which we have

first

edition

must be replaced by the form

sufficient reasons to believe is in

accordance with his

must not be done without referring to

describing the mistakes and misprints or without ample

original intention. This, of course,

and

carefully

explanations concerning the editor's reasons for the change. Similarly,

made by

absolutely unintentional mistakes

the performers of folk music

should not be entered in the published transcriptions. For instance,

when

starting

on a certain note the performer's voice

fails

if

or slips so that

he or she has to try again to reach the note, the results of this mischance
should not be entered,

much

less published.

The same

she drifts into a wrong pitch, but becoming aware of

applies

it,

stops,

when he

or

and begins

the whole period again. However, off -pitch notes which were not corrected

by the

singer, periods or bars

sung (exceptionally) some degrees higher

or lower than they obviously should be, excess syllables (with the corre-

sponding notes, of course), even

if

seemingly added accidentally, should

be transcribed and published or at least mentioned. Syllables, notes, and

rests evidently
scriber,

and

refer to the

omitted by accident should not be restored by the tran-

so forth. In

some such

cases,

however, marginal notes

may

supposedly correct form. In any case, every change intro-

[6]

Introduction to Part

One

duced by the transcriber should be mentioned and explained (except the

unintentional errors described above).

Some

scholars

may have

a different opinion on this subject and would

and

perhaps include these

slips

istic of certain singers

or areas.

(1)

failures in the transcription as character-

Even

so, I

am

against including them, for

they show on the records, and whoever wants to study them

may find

them there (2) I consider these imperfections analogous to physical abnorand should prefer, as far as possible, to keep apart well-shaped
;

mities

melodies from unintentional desultory forms.

However,

mind that

in connection with this

whole question,

it

may

be borne in

on the part of the singer

and can be made only on the basis of very
intensive experience. A false judgment can change the picture of what the
performance was and what the singer intended. Thus, when in any doubt
at all, an alternative method may be used, by giving in the transcriptions
what the investigator thinks was intended, but giving in notes all changes
and errors, obvious or not, so that the reader can evaluate them as he
decisions as to the cause of deviations

are often difficult to reach

wishes.

SETTING OF BARS^ AND CHOICE OF VALUES

Both problems, although they do not interfere with truthfulness in the
The right setting and choice will help
greatly in understanding the structure of the melodies and will make for
notation, are rather important.

greater consistency in editing.

in parlando-ruhato melodies.

Some

scholars say bars should not be used

Probably their point

is

that in these melodies

no regularity of rhythm can be observed and that therefore the periods

must not be divided into measures, since measures refer to certain regularities of rhythm. However, when we consider the original meaning of
the bar (it means an articulating accent on the value following the bar),
then we can easily acquiesce in the setting of bars in these periods.

them

can, moreover, appreciate

as very useful

means

We

of giving a clear

idea of the articulation of the melody. Their place should be determined

generally

by the metrical

structure of the text line, in the case of vocal

melodies. In a style in which the meter

eight syllables with 4
5

"Bar"

will

-\-

4 structure

be used in this book

is

based on syllable count,

may have

in its original

lines of

bars after the fourth and

meaning, that

is,

to signify the vertical lines

dividing the piece into small parts; "measure" will signify the part between two bars.

[7]

Introduction to Part

One

the eighth syllables, respectively; those with 3

-\-

-\-

3, after

the third,

and so forth. If we accept this as a basis

for the determination of rhythmic structure of the melody, it will be
extremely important to have the text in front of us when transcribing the
melody. If the transcription of a recorded text is missing and if we cannot
make out the text by listening to the record, we may be unable to determine even the periods of the melody, much less the sub-periods (measures)
In transcriptions of parlando-rubato melodies bars are used for the above
purpose, and broken bars are added to measures which are rather complicated and of considerable length, in order to indicate subdivisions of the
measure. Of course, any other sign (comma, short line, short double line,
and so forth) in place of continuous or broken bars will serve the purpose
as well. It would be desirable, however, for as many editors as possible to
reach an agreement concerning the use of uniform signs.
In melodies having a more or less rigid dance rhythm or a rhythm that
sounds like a parlando-rubato rhythm, but is actually the transformation
of an originally rigid rhythm, the use of bars is generally accepted. The
the

fifth,

and the eighth

syllables,

metrical structure of the text lines

is

here too, the reliable basis in deter-

mining the place of the bars. In some special

tially

abandon this basis and

rhythm (for instance

of rigid

-\-

-\-

-\-

cases,

however, we must par-

follow the rhythmical pattern of the melodies

iJJJjo

|J

JJ|o |,in

2 as the metrical structure of the text

spite of

having

lines; see

music

example No. 21) or the "declamatory"^ accents of melodies

rubato rhythm.^

The

structure of the melodies should be determined

the text; that

is,

by the

in parlando-

structure of

the single sections (in German, Melodiezeile) of a given

melody may be expected

(or of the stanza). This

to correspond to the respective lines of the text

seems obvious, since the sections of melody and

text generally tally with each other. However, in

some cases found

in

Eastern Europe, especially in Serbo-Croatian folk melodies, the structure

of the melodies

seems at

first

hearing to contradict the respective portions

Without the text at hand, one might very often be misled by

some peculiar features of the melody (rests, climax notes, repeats) and
might determine its structure erroneously, that is, in contradiction to the
text structure (for example, our No. 14).

of the text.

* "Declamatory" means here: conforming to the rhythm and inflections of the language as
applied to the melody.
^ This occurs chiefly in the Yugoslav heroic poems.

[8]

One

Introduction to Part
It

may

be asked whether musical structure should be determined on

An affirmative answer is dictated by

The texts of Eastern European folk songs have almost
without exception full word meaning (or at least pretend to have one^)
the basis of extramusical factors.

the following facts.

texts consisting entirely of meaningless syllables do not exist (as

is

possible

The primary purpose of the performers is to

the listener; the melody is a secondary factor and

in primitive folk music).

convey

this

meaning

to

serves only to facilitate this conveying, to decorate the procedure,

and

to

enhance the impression. Of course, they cannot do without melodies;

texts of folk songs are never performed independently of singing.

The

sentences and periods in an Eastern European folk song text always cor-

respond with

its

metrical sections and subsections; overlapping does not

and the previously mentioned psychological

occur. Considering this fact

we must admit

factor,

the necessity for a very strict correspondence

between the structure of the melody and that of the words. Obviously the

end of the sentence or period in the text marks the end

ing section of the melody as well.

of the correspond-

As to purely instrumental melodies, generally those in rigid dance

rhythm do not offer much difficulty, in view of the usually decisive
rhythmical performance, on one hand, and the clearly symmetrical structure of the periods, on the other hand. In some cases, however, intricacies
appear; for instance, when a constant counter rhythm" is applied by
the solo player on the second and fourth eighths of a 2/4 measure, as a
substitute for the counter beats of an imaginary accompanying second
'

instrument. In this case the listener

rhythm accents on the upbeats

may

misinterpret these counter

for downbeats.

Only a very

careful

exam-

ination or eventual comparison with variants will enable us to eliminate

this misinterpretation

Less

frequent

that

is,

wrong placement

instrumental

are

dance

of the bars.

melodies

in

which

the

periods contain repetitions of phrases of irregular length, for instance,

2/4 a6l(;a||6c|(/e||.^
the

to interpret

c\ah

3/4 ah

ah

Almost invariably the

as

c\ 2/4 d e\\.

listener

is

tempted

a 3/4 bar and thus the whole period as

Re -examination

is

likely

to

reveal

that

examples of this kind are nothing but 2/4 melodies with "shifted"

rhythm
'

This

in their phrases.

may happen

no sense at
'

E