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The singer makes use of all the scale tones of the major key of E-flat, except the D-natural. The B-natural found in the next-to-last measure is a passing tone, and does not affect the scale or tonality. At that point the suggested supporting harmony is an augmented triad upon the tonic leading into the subdominant. With the exception of this one measure, the song is in the five-note scale.
That tonality in which the upper two of the three tones constituting its tonic chord, when ranged upward from its foundation tone, are found at distances of three and seven semitones respectively from it. Pentatonic Character. That peculiar essence or quality which a melody has when it is built up entirely or almost wholly of the tones of the pentatonic or five-note scale.
The singer, with his instinct for the five-note scale, avoids the B-natural until the tonality shifts back to the original key. The song is therefore classed as pentatonic in character. The melody is distinctly harmonic in structure, as nearly all of the successions are made up of triad intervals. Though the song runs but a minute and a half, the tempo changes eight times.
All day he labours and struggles, snatching a mouthful of snow now and then to cool his overheated body, and he drops in his tracks when the final halt is made, utterly weary, yet always with the brave heart in him to give his bark, his five-note characteristic bark of gladness, that the day's work is done at last.
Notwithstanding that this measure contains two A-flats and also the passing tone B-natural, both of which tones are foreign to this particular five-note scale, the song is not robbed of its pentatonic character. The rhythm of this song is interesting. It alternates throughout between 4/4 and 5/4. It might have been notated in 9/4 time instead, in which case it would have but five measures.
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