Stability and Variation in Hopi Song (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society)

The Hopi are the westernmost group of the pueblo Indians of the southwestern U.S. They live on a high, dry plateau in northern Arizona, & have been a sedentary, agricultural people. This study attempts to establish the stylistic parameters of song in a particular culture. Author George List wishes to determine what is meant when a Hopi man or woman states that two or more performances are those of the same song. To what extent can speech sounds, pitches, & durational values, or the forms of which they are the constituents, differ & the performances still be considered to be those of the same song? Or, to state the matter in reverse, to what extent must they be similar for the performances to be so considered? In attempting to answer these questions List has transcribed & compared 8 recordings of performances of a particular kachina dance song & 11 recordings of performance of a particular lullaby, made from 1903 to 1984. Illus.