Listening to the text as it is performed, consider the degree of repetition in the text without taking the meaning of the words into account. Knowledge of the language of the text has no bearing on this rating. Instead, make a judgment about the proportion of the text in the whole song that seems to be repeated, or that consists of words that have no lexical meaning.
Read the Coding Guide for this Line. Listen to each example at least twice. Once you have listened to all the examples, take the Test which follows.
N.W. Europe, Ireland, N.E. Ireland. Solo singing of strings of non-lexical syllables is a major pattern in the whole Siberian Arctic. N. Europe was a sub-Arctic culture zone, which may well explain why such songs, called mouth music, diddling, etc., appear frequently in the folk repertoire of the British Isles. (Chieftains, A4) C. Europe, Germany. A German woodcutter’s yodel, the far-carrying vocalizations that identify a fellow culture member across distance. One of the oldest song types, yodeling is central in the singing of forest and savanna hunter-gatherers. Male solo. (Wiora, A3) N. America, Southeast U.S. A N. Carolina harmonica player whooping a fragment of “The Fox Chase,” which re-creates the chase and kill of an animal, as do many early pieces of music. Male solo. (Seeger and Terry, A3) N. America, Southeast U.S. Mixed group with clapping. In the Georgia Sea Islands many such “shouts,” or danced spirituals, with clapping and overlap, survived from the early beginnings of African American Christianity. (Lomax #2, A4) N. America, Northeast U.S., New York City. A song of the Polish Hasidic tradition, which rescued lively secular folk tunes by turning them into holy dances—this one so effectively that it was said to have caused the rabbi’s chair to rise and float through the air as he sang it. (Rubin, B1) W. Europe, Spain. N.W. Spain. A Galician woman beats her flax while singing a snatch of a Spanish romance (ballad), the text-laden genre of European plow agriculturists. Female solo. (Lomax #28, A2) S. Asia, Nepal. This was a kind of urbanized, sentimental song popular in Kathmandu, at the eastern extreme of the hard-grain, hoofed animal, plow economy of Europe and Western Asia. Female solo with drum. (Pignede, B4) E. Africa, Tanzania. Bukoba men sing a paddling song in the leader-group, half-refrain style common to sub-Saharan Africa. Male solo and male group with drums. (Tracey #1, B28) N. America, Canada. A Kivallirmiut (Caribou Inuit) shaman sings a magic non-lexical chant to bring luck to the hunt, adding a new phrase here and there. Male solo. (Barbeau #1, B38, Collected by J. Gabus)Which form of Repetition of Text is recorded here?
For each example below, choose the feature that best fits from the following scale.
Little or no repetition
Some repetition
Half wordy/half repetitious
Quite repetitious
Extreme repetition
Consult the Coding Guide as needed. Note your answers in order to check them against the answer key.
S. Asia, S. India. A Tamil rural song performed with precision of enunciation by a male soloist and male group with venu (bamboo flute), violin, and mirdam (drum). (India #1, A3) Reveal Answer N. Europe, Norway. A sentimental song about the beauties of nature in the Setesdal Valley. Male solo. (Norway #1, A6a) Reveal AnswerS.E. Asia, Philippines, Mindoro. The Mangyan (Hanunoo) live in small acephalous hamlets in the jungle. Each person has his own uwi, or yodeling trail call, to announce his approach through the cover. Here a mixed group simultaneously performs several uwis. (Conklin, B5) Reveal Answer W. Africa, Republic of Cameroon. The Bulu, who raise root crops and small animals in a small village, sing in unified but spontaneous, wide-voiced harmony. Male solo with mixed group. (Cozzens, A1) Reveal Answer N.W. Europe, Scotland, Aberdeenshire, where the great balladeer Jeannie Robertson, a Traveler, ripples out a triple-entendre lyric about a nest of cuckoos, the bird of cuckolds, known for laying its eggs in the nests of other birds. (Kennedy (& Lomax) #4, B4) Reveal Answer C. Africa, Central African Republic. A Babenzélé woman trills her yodeling calls as she gathers in the forest. The song locates her in the forest and prepares her child for the culture it will inherit. Female solo. (Didier #1, A1) Reveal Answer W. Europe, Spain, N. Spain, Santander. An Old European type of mountain dance from Santander, heartily sung by young women at the fiesta for the patron saint of their mixed farming village. Female group with tambourine, almirez (mortar and pestle) accompaniment. (Lomax #24, B9) Reveal Answer S. Europe, Italy, Sardinia. Nuoro. N. Sardinian mountain shepherds, who employed the remains of megalithic forts to pen their flocks, perform a bandit dance in Old European style, in a counterpoint of unknown, but seemingly remote origin. Male group. (Lomax & Carpitella) Reveal Answer N.W. Europe, Scotland. Hebridean women work the tweed singing a Gaelic waulking song, one of the oldest surviving song types in the British Isles. (Lomax #33, B1) Reveal Answer E. Asia, Japan. Japanese women in urban Japan (Tokyo) sing a rice-planting song voicing a young woman’s desire for a new crimson dress and a lover. (Masu, A8) Reveal AnswerLine 10 Test Answers: 1) Half wordy/half repetitious. 2) Little or no repetition. 3) Extreme repetition. 4) Quite repetitious. 5) Some repetition. 6) Extreme repetition. 7) Some repetition. 8) Quite repetitious. 9) Half wordy/half repetitious. 10) Little or no repetition.