The Jaw's Harp and the Origin of the Triadic Chorus of the Bunun Tribe in the Taiwanese Mountains

Abstract

It has been well-known that the wonderful triadic chorus is found in all the traditional songstyles in the Bunun tribe living in the central part of the Taiwanese mountains. This paper tries to explain the origin of the triadic chorus in nonliterate societies by examining their musical situations from various aspects.
In 1952, T. Kurosawa presented his theory in this connection, in which he insisted that the Bunun's songstyles are derived from the harmonics of their musical bow and that the natural overtones made by this instrument lead up to the birth of the pentatonic scale. I have found, however, that this theory contains some problems, judging from the results of my analyses of their songstyles and my acoustic analyses of their musical bow performances.
On the other hand, the jaw's harp, which they often enjoyed playing in the past, turns out to have a much closer connection with their songstyles, for example:
1) The tone system of the Bunun tribe almost corresponds to a series of natural overtones which are used in their performances on the jaw's harp. (the 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12th overtones)
2) The melodic style sung by their chorus i s much the same as the melodic style o f the music played on the jaw's harp.
3) It is conceivable that the vocalizations, which are characteristic of their songstyles, resulted from the playing of the jaw's harp.
4) There exists a special song which enables us to presume that their melodies were transferred from the music of the jaw's harp into their songstyles.
These facts lead to the conclusion that the songstyles of the Bunun tribe were greatly influenced by and derived from their harmonic performances on the jaw's harp.