DOI: 10.36871/hon.202002022
Authors
A. S. Alpatova
Gnesins Russian Academy of Music, Russian Federation, Moscow
Abstract
The article is dedicated to the memory of the famous American ethnomusicologist Natalie
Curtis Burlin (1875–1921), who made a significant contribution to the study of traditional music
of North American Indians. This is the first experience in Russian musicology that addresses
the theoretical issues of studying Native American vocal music.
The main research problem of the article is the identification of the basic qualities of oligotonics
and chasmatonics in traditional songs of North American Indians by the example
of expeditionary records of Natalie Curtis. The author reveals that unichords, dichords and
trichords, both in themselves and in their combinations, have semantic, symbolic and structure-
forming significance for the formation of intonational structure of traditional Indian
songs (lullaby, medicine, song-insert in mythological legend).
The methodological base was formed by approaches of modern ethnomusicology (analysis of
song genres of traditional ethnic music) and music theory (theory of mode and modal archetypes).
Keywords
world music, traditional ethnic music, music culture of North America, music of North American Indians, Natalie Curtis Burlin, mode, oligotonics, chasmatonics
