The study of primitive music / [Charles S. Myers].

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
[1912?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The study of primitive music / [Charles S. Myers]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    . the CHARLES MYERS • library > f'- '',Tfv8T8,M1 PjSV I ! I 1 fi y i. lift i 14, V SFP^'T » L»'p.v.‘ ? THE MUSICAL ANTIQUARY APRIL, 1912 THE STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MUSIC In this paper I propose to describe such features of the music of two primitive peoples that I have studied as are likely to add to our knowledge of musical history and development. The two peoples whose music will be here considered are the Murray Islanders of the Torres Straits and the Yeddas of Ceylon. Their homes are of course widely distant from one another. The Murray Islands are a small group of islands, only one of which is now inhabited, situated to the north of Queensland, between Australia and New Guinea. The Veddas are the ‘aboriginal’ people of Ceylon ; they probably crossed to the island in remote times from India. Both the Miriam (as the Murray Islanders call themselves) and the Vedda folk are relatively primitive. In the former we may doubtless recognize Australian and Papuan elements, while the latter perhaps represent the Dravidian stock. There is one striking feature common to the Miriam and the Yedda peoples, namely, the very insignificant part which musical instru¬ ments have played in the development of their music. Those Yeddas who have not been affected by contact with the Sinhalese have no musical instruments whatever. Other Veddas have adopted but one instrument—the drum—from the Sinhalese, or they borrow it for special ceremonies. In the two oldest Vedda ceremonies the songs are accompanied merely by a ‘ rhythmic slapping of the hands on the abdomen and thighs \l * Ill The Murray Islanders are not much more advanced in this respect. True, they have a drum which is often beaten while they sing. But that is the only instrument which is ever used simultaneously with vocal music. Occasionally flutes, panpipes, and Jew’s harps are to 1 See the writer’s chapter on Music in The Veddas, by C. G. and Brenda Seligmann, Cambridge, 1911, pp. 341-65, where fuller details than can be given in this paper will be found. Ill K