A page with music printed on both sides is inserted between two pages of a 1722 book published in Paris about Native Americans in North America.1 The songs are likely from the Illinois people, possibly part of a Calumet ceremony.2 There are seven staff lines per page in treble clef with no bar lines, representing two songs, divided from one another by an unobtrusive double bar line on the first page. The first song features a predominantly quarter-note melody with a repeating descending contour set to what seem to be vocables (ni na ha). The second song is longer and more melodically and rhythmically elaborate with lyrics. The page offers no titles or attribution. Features that would be of great consequence for identifying the songs or how to perform them are left out. There is no indication of tempo and no translation.
The page is unusual for its...