The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

Lithuanian and Ainu Vocal Polyphony: Certain Parallels
lodies are equal in length, for example, structured as
Text 6 + Refrain 6:
1st pair (Text) 2nd pair (Refrain)
1. Aš ėjau, keliavau ......................
........................... Ai ciuta, da ciuta
2. Viešuoju keleliu ...........................
.......................... Ai ciuta, da ciuta
3. Su didžiu vargeliu ...........................
.......................... Ai ciuta, da ciuta
<strong>The</strong>re are an especially large number of symmetrical
pakaitinės songs, and their manners of performance
are quite varied (ex. 5).
<strong>The</strong>se are closely related to the sutartinės. In the opi–
nion of Jadvyga Čiurlionytė, the oldest type of amo–
ebaean (antiphonal) singing “could be held to be a
prototype of the sutartinės” (Čiurlionytė, 1969: 257).
According to her, various types of amoebaean sin–
ging “had tremendous importance in consolidating
the strophe of songs” (Čiurlionytė, 1969: 260).
Lithuanian sutartinės tradition
c) counterpoint
<strong>The</strong>re are various counterpoint manifestations in the
sutartinės tradition. I am inclined to think some of
them could be typologically related to cases of Ainu
polyphony. One example is the dvejinės ‘twosomes’
by three (counterpoint by three). <strong>The</strong> name here is
not entirely accurate for this type, however, it does
reflect a concord that only characterises the dvejinės
– a free-form counterpoint polyphony amongst the
voices as well as the repetition of the same text in
different parts. For this type, three, not two, voices
are different (ex. 8).
Another group of vocal sutartinės include collective
sutartinės. Differently from the traditional or group
sutartinės, 4 to 20 performers sing these collectively.
Each has her own part – a certain formula of words
and music which is repeated frequently without stop–
ping. In traditional sutartinės, the second interval
Ainu tradition
309
Some Ainu group vocal formats include dance songs
in which two or three melodies are sung simul–
taneously and, in the Sakhalin tradition, a type of
dance song in which two melodies are treated in the
manner as an ukouk (Chiba, 2008: 333).
It is predicated that “the upopos (seated songs) are a
vocalized form of contrapuntal or polyphonic music
based on chanting” 6 . However, Carlo Forlivesi thinks
otherwise. According to him, at the beginning of the
20th century, the concept of polyphony was defined
only via western music, and the term was often
used interchangeably with counterpoint. This is not
properly correct, since polyphony generally refers
to music that consists of two or more distinct lines,
whereas counterpoint refers to the compositional
technique involved in the handling of these lines
(Forlivesi, 2004: 80). Forlivesi coins a special term