Suriname folk-lore

C. Ethnological evaluation.

The music here analysed cannot be fully assessed from an ethnological point of view on the basis of the material encompassed in this study. This will be possible only after an analysis has been made of the extensive phonographic material gathered during the field-work of the Northwestern-Columbia Universities' Expedition in the regions of West Africa where the ancestors of the Suriname Negroes lived, and a comparison of this material with that which is published here.¹³ Even so, the materials presented here offer

13 More than 450 songs, religious and secular, were collected in Dahomey, Nigeria and the Gold Coast during 1931. Further comparative value will accrue to the songs published here when still another collection of Negro music, consisting of 300 Haitian songs, recorded in 1934, are analyzed.

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data from which results of some ethnological significance may be derived.¹

If one compares the individual Bush Negro songs, it becomes evident that the music of these people is far from homogeneous, the collection containing musical forms which differ greatly, and between which the connection is anything but obvious. One sees this difference, for example, when one compares song 47 and song 24; the first having a narrow tonal range, small number of steps, pendular-structure, strict rhythm, constant meter, considerable acceleration in tempo and very concise form; the second possessing the range of a tenth, a large number of steps, prevalence of the keytone, free rhythm and meter, constant tempo, greater variety in form and alternating solo and chorus parts. On the basis of this material it is not possible to trace the cause of these differences. The few songs of the Djuka tribe² show no characteristics which do not also appear in the other songs, that is, those of the Saramacca tribe. The relationship between Saramacca song 2, for instance, and Djuka song 96 is much closer with regard to tonality, rhythm and form than is that between many Saramacca songs. Nor does one find musical uniformity within the various divisions into which the songs fall; this is true both in the case of the three important groups of religious, ancestral, and secular songs, and within the subdivisions of these groups, as, for example, the Kromanti or Seketi songs. This is made evident by comparison of such two different Kromanti songs as 1 and 26, or of the two work-songs 103 and 107. On the other hand, to mention only one case, the religious song number 35, the ancestral song number 55, and the secular song number 96 are of the same musical type. Only the dance-songs³ show at least one characteristic in common, namely, the absence of free rhythm, though it would be strange if dance music were not distinguished by a strictness of rhythm.

Even less homogeneity can be discerned in the Coastal Negro songs than in those of the Bush. Within any given classification are to be found, on the one hand, greatly contrasting forms,⁴ and, on the other, melodies appearing in different classes of so great a resemblance that one might be justified in considering one melody a variant of the other.⁵ It is therefore apparent that it is the text and not the musical form which marks the song as belonging to a certain type. Originally the various types of songs may also

1 The number of available papers on African music which could make a comparison possible is very small. The large collection of African records in the phonograph archives in Berlin have been gone through, however, thus enabling a clear impression of the character of Negro music to be gained.

2 Songs Nos. 9, 13, 75, 76, 91, 96, 97.

3 Nos. 69-100.

4 Compare, for example, Dagowe songs 220 and 227.

5 Compare song 196 (Aisa) with 219 (Lɛba) and with 161 (Kromanti).

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have been differentiated musically; that is to say, it is conceivable that in the beginning, music and text were an inseparable unit, and that later, a cleavage occurred when several texts were sung to the same melody and thus effaced the musical characteristics of the individual groups. Perhaps an analysis of the music collected in Africa will lead to the elucidation of this question.

For the problems of acculturation, it is of great importance to see to what extent and in what manner European influence may be detected in this music. Before this is attempted, the criteria which determine whether or not a song is African, European, or a combination of both African and European elements, must be considered. Theoretically, two methods are possible. The first is synthetic; one listens to the record of the song in question, and the resulting judgment is prompted by the total impression. Naturally, this method can be employed only by one who for years has studied primitive music, - including also the music of African Negroes, - and who has acquired the ability when hearing primitive music, to recognise instantly the European elements. The second method is analytical. After the recording of a song has been transcribed, its melody, rhythm, form, and other characteristics are analysed, and those features which are typical of African or European music are segregated. The exclusive use of either of these methods is, however, inadvisable; for only through employing both the synthetic and the analytic approach will the student be led to reasonably valid results. In this investigation, therefore, both general impressions and detailed analyses have been taken into account.

With the exception of a few songs, the music of the Bush-Negroes displays traits that are essentially African, and the musical characterization of the songs given above¹ exhibits almost throughout features which are either specifically typical of African Negro music, or, at any rate, of non-European music in general. The music of the Coastal Negroes, on the contrary, shows a strong European influence, though, even here, a considerable proportion of songs (23%) is, as in the Bush, wholly African.

A comparison between the music of the Coastal Negroes and those of the Bush gives insight into the direction of the change from African to European elements. The most striking fact is the difference in proportion of entirely or almost entirely anhemitonic songs, this being 63% in the Bush and only 10% in the city. The less frequent use of wide skips and their combinations goes hand in hand with the tendency to favor half-tone steps.² Intervals which were originally of wide range are frequently lessened by the insertion of notes. Obviously the greater proportion of hepta-type songs in comparison with penta-type,³ the greater occurrence of

1 In section 2, ‘The Music of the Bush-Negroes’.

2 See the comparative percentages given above in section 3 c, pp. 510-511.

3 See Fig. 6.

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songs with seven steps and the less frequent appearance of songs containing three to six steps¹ are connected with that fact. Figure 6 c is especially significant as indicating European influence in the music of the Town Negroes, for it shows the great incidence of music in the hepta-do mode, which, in comparison with all other modes, corresponds to the European major. Since one of the most significant characteristics of European melody is its relation to triad harmonies, the use of broken chords within the melodic line being frequent, one might expect these arpeggios, combinations of a major and a minor third, to occur more often in the strongly Europeanised Town-music than in that of the Bush. This is not the case, however. On the contrary, the percentage of songs containing melodic passages corresponding to a broken major or minor triad is smaller in the city than in the bush, the percentages for the former being 38% and 30%, respectively, and for the latter 24% and 10%. This fact proves the opinion stated above² that the combination of major and minor thirds, to be found so frequently in songs of the Bush Negroes, is not to be interpreted as a broken chord, but purely as a melodic phenomenon. Yet, in spite of their differing significance, such melodic passages may be regarded as forming a bridge between European and Negro music. For a European would interpret the completion of two thirds to a fifth, when occuring in Negro music, as a broken triad, - that is, his interpretation would be an harmonic one; a Negro hearing European music, on the other hand, would understand real arpeggios only as melody, and would think he recognized in them a characteristic of his own music. The predominantly descending course of the melody, typical of non-European music, is not very strongly marked in songs of the Bush.³ This might be referred to European influence, but such a contention would be made difficult by the fact that the extent to which the descending melodic line is found, when compared with the incidence of an ascending one, is greater in songs of the Town than of the Bush.⁴ In similar manner, it cannot be held that the tunes of very wide range that are found in the Bush Negro music are a sign of European influence, for the rarer occurrence of songs of wide range in the music of the Town-Negroes would vitiate such an assumption.⁵ With respect to rhythm and meter, the development toward the European manifests itself in the gradual supplanting of songs with free rhythm by songs with a strict rhythm.

Among the songs of the Bush-Negroes only the religious Wata-winti song number 49, the ancestral cult song number 61 and the secular Seketi song number 88 have strong European features. In

1 See Fig. 7.

2 Section 2e, pp. 498-499.

3 Cf. section 2b, pp. 495-496.

4 See Section 3b, p. 510.

5 See Fig. 1.

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Town music, African style has been preserved mainly in religious songs, where 31% seem to bear no marks of European influence whatsoever.¹ Of the secular Town songs, only 10%² are purely African, while in the ‘songs in stories’, 13% are of this nature.³ In the music not influenced by Europe, as in non-European music in general, songs are to be found which are far removed from European conceptions of melody besides others which show some similarity with European forms in their musical structure. It is a significant indication of the greater musical acculturation of the Town Negroes to European patterns, that among the songs in African style the number of extreme non-European structures is much smaller in the Town than in the Bush. On the other hand, there are to be found among the European songs of the Town Negroes a great many melodies relatively akin to African forms,⁴ as well as striking non-African forms.⁵ While the latter are doubtless European tunes adopted by Negroes, the former are probably in part composed by them.⁶ The European melodies are frequently found to have been transformed by the Negroes into African-like songs. For example, song 123, otherwise European in nature, is combined with African elements by the interpolation of the minor third pendular motifs ‘a¹’ and ‘a²’. Occasionally the tonic of a given melody is transposed, whereby the European major or minor is transformed into a non-European mode. In such cases, the tonic moves either to the second above the tonic,⁷ to the dominant,⁸ or to the fourth below the tonic.⁹ More frequent than tonal changes are those of rhythm, which loosen the more or less inflexible metric-scheme. For instance, 4/4 time is transformed by means of shortening or extension to 3/4, 5/4, 7/8, 9/8 and other meters.¹⁰ In addition to European songs which contain few Africanisms, there are in the music of the Town Negroes a great number of songs which combine European and African styles.¹¹ A part of these are of European origin, remodelled until they are all but unrecognisable; but there are also melodies which may have been invented by the Negroes under the influence of European music. In hybrid songs of this type sometimes the

1 Songs Nos. 152, 154, 156-158, 168, 169, 171, 176, 179, 180, 187, 188, 200, 201, 205, 207, 209, 214, 215, 217, 220-223, 232.

2 Songs Nos. 242, 248.

3 Songs Nos. 113-115, 119, 132.

4 For example, songs Nos. 136, 137, 145, 146, 150, 182, 234, 243.

5 For example, songs Nos. 116-118, 127, 139-144, 170, 173, 184, 189, 213, 216, 235, 239, 240, 252.

6 The presence of Hindus and Javanese in Suriname may explain this phenomenon.

7 Songs Nos. 120, 121, 163, 172.

8 Song No. 192.

9 Songs Nos. 149, 159.

10 For example, songs Nos. 126, 185, 195, 237, 238, 241, 251.

11 For example, songs Nos. 122, 124, 131, 138, 153, 166, 175, 203, 204, 208, 210, 212, 218, 224, 226-231, 233, 245, 249, 250, 255.

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European, sometimes the African characteristics predominate. Song 206, for example, is essentially African; only the parallel thirds reveal European influence. All gradations of musical acculturation from extreme African to pure European can easily be found in these Suriname songs.

The Negro spirituals have very little resemblance to the songs of the Suriname Negroes.¹ However, the Suriname music helps to throw light on the question as to whether or not some features of the spirituals can be traced to Africa. Syncopation, so typical a rhythm in Negro spirituals, is usually considered to derive from African rhythm; only Von Hornbostel has voiced the suspicion that this syncopation is derived from Europe, probably from the Scottish folk-song.² This hypothesis would seem to be confirmed by the present material; for the typical syncopations are not to be found in songs of African character but only in Europeanised tunes.³ There is, however, a greater bond between Suriname music and that of West Indian Negroes. To take only one example from the Haitian songs published here,⁴ it is to be seen that its melodic configuration is quite similar to that of Suriname song 116. In general, European influence upon the Negro music of the West Indies is much greater than upon the Suriname songs, but there, too, distinct African traces are discernible.⁵

1 It has been maintained recently in several works, (Johnson, Jackson, I, among others) that the spirituals are essentially adaptations of White revival songs.

2 Hornbostel, p. 748.

3 For example, songs 126, 135, 149, 159, 174, 182, 195.

4 Song No. 256.

5 Roberts; H.H., I and II, passim.