Talk:Monotonic scale

Nettl on North American usage

I can't see beyond the snippet, but Nettl appears to mention American Indian usage of the monotonic among the Creek, Speck, and Yuchi here:[1]. MatthewVanitas (talk) 21:29, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

Erm, well, Speck is an author (Frank G. Speck, Ceremonial Songs of the Creek and Yuchi Indians, Philadelphia, 1911). This GoogleBooks link is confusing. It appears to be referring to a book, but the publication information is, I think, incorrect, unless Nettl's dissertation was published twice in 1954. This passage ought to be from the third installment, in Journal of American Folklore 67, no. 266 (October–December): 351–68. I think what you are trying to decipher is this, from p. 360: "Of the Yuchi and Creek scales, about 80 percent are pentatonic and tetratonic, but tritonic and ditonic scales, as well as some with only one tone (e.g., Speck, Creek and Yuchi, Nos. 1 and 4) are also found." Nettl only uses the word "monotonic" once in this part, however, in the "Summary and Conclusions" at the end, and there it is not with reference to the Creek and Yuchi, but rather to the Eskimo-Northwest Coast area, summarized as: "I. average range a major sixth; 2. undulating and pendulum types of melodic movement; 3. importance of minor seconds, major thirds, and perfect fourths as melodic intervals in contrast to other areas; 4. recitative-like singing with uncertain pitches and monotonic sections; …" (p. 362). Hope this helps.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 01:03, 26 June 2012 (UTC)