Note 68 — Chapter XI · THE FOLK ELEMENT IN AMERICAN MUSIC

For an example of a pentatonic melody we refer the reader to 'Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen'; for the major seventh in a minor key (the use of the augmented second) to the 'Baptizing Hymn' ('Freely Go') and 'Father Abraham' ('Tell It'). This peculiar oriental effect may be, as Mr. Krehbiel thinks, due to a feeling that was natural to the Moors, the Mohammedan negroes who made up a small part of the American colored stock. A specimen of a song in the whole-tone scale is 'O Rock Me, Julie,' in which the refrain is each time a fifth lower than the verse.