Folk Dance from Pakistan

by Hei-Yeung (John) Lai

“Folk dance,” Face B, Track 1 from Henry Cowell’s 1957 release “Music of South Asia“.

Translated description from CREM: “Recorded between 1946–1957 and released in 1957, this collection of songs is only a small sample of the vast cultural and musical diversity to be found in South Asia. Various forms of both the older Hindu style and the more modern Muslim style are represented on this disc. The accompanying notes include brief explanations of the development of the various forms of music found in South Asia, as well as detailed information about the songs.”

John Lai’s paradigmatic transcription of a Pakistani folk dance

Phrase analysis

Analytical Observations

• The length of the cycle is decreasing with each repetition (starting from Cycle 2). In specific, the shrinking process occurs in the middle of the cycle.
• In Cycle 1, the beginning of the middle section (measure 5 of the cycle) is not that obvious at first; it repeats the (C4-F4-F4-G4) beginning-marker figure, which has not confirmed a definite new sectional beginning yet. The following (C4-Bb4) leap and the syncopated rhythm confirm the status of the middle section.
• In the first three cycles, the relationship between the rhythm of the opening markers (circled in blue/orange) and the contents of the middle section (boxed in blue/orange) sets up a cyclic expectation. Thus, cycles 1 and 3 begin with a short C4 (blue circles) that leads to the syncopated middle section (blue box), while Cycle 2 starts with a long C4 (orange circle) that leads to a melisma middle section (orange box).
• With this cyclic expectation, one may expect that Cycle 4 would repeat the second cycle, especially the rhythm of the beginning marker and the ending marker of the beginning section (shaded in orange) of Cycle 4 conforms to that of Cycle 2. In other words, the first two cycles together form a longer cycle that is to be repeated in the third and the fourth (short) cycles.
• However, the silence after the ending marker of the beginning section in Cycle 4 is too long (marked by the “…?”); the expected anacrusis occurred in Cycle 2 that initiates the middle section does not happen here. Instead, the syncopated group featured in Cycles 1 and 3 returns, disrupting the cyclic expectation (marked with the “!!” and the blue box).
• Cycle 5 begins with the short-C4 gesture, creating an expectation of the corresponding syncopated middle section. However, the ending marker of the beginning section characteristic of Cycles 2 and 4 abruptly returns in the fourth measure of the cycle (marked by the “!!” and the orange shade). This marker may thus function as a signifier that initiates a recovery event—the melisma middle section absent in Cycle 4 now returns.
• The last cycle abruptly ends in the middle of the cycle.
• Minor seventh is a specific interval that initiates the middle sections (shaded in grey). Cycles 1, 2, 4, and 6 begin with the (C4-Bb4) leap, while the leap in Cycle 5 is a fifth higher (G4-F5). This deviant in Cycle 5 (G4-F5) may signal the end of the piece, suggesting the abrupt ending of Cycle 6. Also, it provides an essential intervallic link for the cyclic shrinking process. On the one hand, the same characteristic intervallic leap undoubtedly announces the arrival of the middle section, conforming to other cycles. On the other hand, (G4-F5) maps into the pitch boundary of the scalar ascent occurred in the seventh measure of Cycle 2 (also shaded in grey). Hence, the leap (G4-F5) in Cycle 5 can directly lead to the second part of the melisma passage, resulting in a compressed middle section.