The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

310
Daiva Račiūnaitė -Vyčinienė
abounds. However, in collective sutartinės, we often
hear chords that are more in line with the customary
European harmony (ex. 9). Nevertheless, collective
sutartinės should not be considered a completely new
development 5 . <strong>The</strong>y are examples of unique multivoiced
bordun-ostinato pieces. <strong>The</strong>re is evidence of
an exceptionally archaic musical idiom in certain
sutartinės which singers refer to as “hollering”, ra–
ther than singing (ex. 10). <strong>The</strong>re is a peculiar mix of
archaic articulation (independent, unrelated texts that
are repeated at a chosen pitch), and the individual
parts produce very strictly organised rhythms.
Lithuanian sutartinės tradition
Among the most characteristic features of the po–
lyphonic music style, intrinsic to both the vocal (ex.
11) and instrumental traditions (ex. 12), there is the
frequent (often predominant) use of second-based
harmonies and the complementary pattering of
rhythms. Lithuanian folk musicians correctly consi–
dered the second not as dissonance but as consonance
in the context of sutartinės musical thought.
Lithuanian sutartinės tradition
<strong>The</strong> specific features are a plenitude of archaic ref–
rains and polytextuality: words with contextual mea–
ning and without (onomatopoeic words) ring con–
currently. Most attention will be paid to the archaic
refrains, which occupy a very important place in the
sutartinės. Having no semantic meaning and gene–
rally consisting of onomatopoeic interjected sounds,
for Ainu polyphony when men sing the polyphonic
pieces: extended polyphony 7 .
2) Secondal dissonances
Ainu tradition
Dissonant secondal intervals also distinguish some
Ainu songs (Jordania, 2006: 157) (ex. 13, 14).
Of course, secondal dissonances are as prevalent
in Ainu vocal polyphony as they are in Lithuanian
sutartinės. However, despite certain differences, ac–
cording to Joseph Jordania, “the typological simi–
larity between the Ainu polyphony and sutartinės
is much more striking than the differences, because
the two most important structural elements of both
polyphonic traditions (1) wide use of canonical sin–
ging and (2) secondal dissonances are the same”
(Jordania, 2006: 250).
3) Archaic lyrics
(including abundant onomatopoeic interjections)
Ainu tradition
Many old songs consist of repeated meaningless
texts 10 , for example, Upopo Sa-oi. Translation of the
lyrics, Sa-oi sa-oi hao, ha-usa ha-oi, is not certain,
but the meaning might be, ‘Sing this song aloud’.
Explanation: this is one of the Fushiko Upopo ‘old
songs’ sung in East Hokkaido. <strong>The</strong> meaning of is
lyrics is unclear 11 .