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The Distribution of a Melodic Formula: Diffusion or Polygenesis?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2019

George List
George List*
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
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Extract

In various studies scholars have asserted that two or more melodies are similar. In many cases the scholar does not offer a method by which the reader can determine that the melodies offered are indeed alike; He merely places the melodies in juxtaposition and assumes that the reader will perceive, as the author apparently does, that they are similar. This is the procedure followed by George Pullen Jackson in his attempt to prove that Black spirituals derive from white hymn tunes (Jackson 1933:242–261). On examining the melodies presented by Jackson, I find them similar in some respects and dissimilar in many other respects. I am by no means certain that they are versions of the same melody. In other cases the scholar does not offer full melodies or even full first sections of melodies. This occurs, for example, when Peter Gradenwitz offers melodic analogues of the Zionist and Israeli anthem, “Hatiqvah” (Gradenwitz 1949:302–303).

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council , Volume 10 , 1978 , pp. 33 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 By the International Folk Music Council 

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References

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