THE SONG

While studying Indian life and thought through the sharing, as far as
possible, of native conditions, I discovered Indian music. In the
loneliness that naturally belonged to my circumstances this discovery was
like finding a flower hidden in a tangle hard to penetrate. I had heard
Indians "singing," but the noise of the drum, the singers' stress of voice,
so overlaid the little song that its very existence was not even suspected.
Circumstances at length arose, incident to my convalescence after a long
illness, when, to give me pleasure, my Indian friends came and sang softly
to me, without the drum. Great was my surprise to hear music; to be told
that I was listening to the same songs that the earnest men and women had
previously sung but which for me had been buried under a tumultuous din.
Thenceforth my ears were opened and never again, no matter how confusing
the conditions, did I fail to catch the hidden melody. As my appreciation
of the value of Indian music grew, I determined to gather and to preserve
these wild flowers of song. I wanted them not merely as a contribution to
the study of music but that they might help to vibrate the chords that
belong to a common humanity.

Of the songs I heard in solitude, some were published over thirty years
ago. Since then many of my gleaning have been used by different composers
and the musical message sent far and wide.

With the Indian, words hold a secondary or an unimportant place in a song.
The music and accompanying action, ceremonial or otherwise, convey the
meaning or purpose. When words are used they are few, fragmentary and
generally eked out with vocables. Frequently only vocables are attached to
a melody. To the Indian, song holds a place similar to that filled for us