TUNES 43

from the gravest musicianly error, which is to set up a standard
tune for a ballad, incorporating variants and ignoring different
versions. The heresy of the standard text vitiates both words and
music of the otherwise admirable Romancero of Doncieux and
Tiersot.

To pursue this theme of the difficulty of transcribing tunes
accurately, we must further notice that the tunes are never quite
constant, either throughout the individual ballad or at different
performances. If the air has been fixed on paper, we still do not
know its subtle application to the ballad. To meet this difficulty
recording is now done by phonograph, and the records are then
stored and interpreted at leisure. Even this process appears to be
insufficiently delicate to capture all the nuances of Balkan singing,
with difficult rhythms, irrational intervals, optional flourishes, and
other complexities. C. Obreschkoff demands for this purpose the
preparation of sound-films. Among the advantages that might
accrue from so elaborate a process might be some certainty as to
whether the intervals of one-third and quarter tones are really
musical intervals or spoken. They occur in passages so rapid that
the ear cannot precisely determine their value. In western coun-
tries this refinement does not occur, and the greatest difficulty
appears to lie in the recognizing of modes and of the pentatonic and
heptatonic scales.

It is therefore extremely difficult to describe ballad tunes; how
much more to compare them. I cannot do better than repeat
Tiersot's statement (op. cit, p. xliii); he is speaking of the typical
melody of his ballads.

It is indeed usually very difficult to recognize this type. There are
some melodies so distantly related that one would not expect to find
anything in common in them, were they not associated with the same
words. The tonality is incessantly changed by the varying sentiments
of the popular singers. There are melodies known to us in an equal
number of major and minor fragments: how embarrassed we are when
we must say which of the two modes is to be adopted! Then there are
alterations modifying the ancient scales, or introducing, on the other
hand, into modern melodies intonations contrary to their spirit. Even

koff) wrong rhythms: 3/8 for 7/16 and 5/8 for 9/16. The error would be impor-
tant for an account of Bulgarian music, but not for international comparisons,
since rhythms are very variable, without affecting the melodic curve. Of another
collector who has done yeoman service in the matter, it was complained that his
transcriptions were uninteresting.