Native Americans' music - Essay Example

Native Music of Washington “We are told by our grandfathers and grandmothers that for as long as there are Indians there will be songs, and as long as there is song there will be Indians. As long as we sing our songs and someone learns them, there will be new Indian people, for song is our survival tool as a people.” (Cliff Sijohn, Spokane and Coeur d’Alene tribes, p. 48). Song has always held great spiritual significance, great power and today it tells us about their unique perspective towards other people, nature, future and such things. A song today is considered a prayer. The song text in Native American music is inclusive of both public and secret pieces. The secret song pieces have been used for sacred purposes and ceremonies alone and have been claimed to be both ancient and unchanging. There are public sacred songs and ritual speeches which are looked upon as being musical because of the way in which they use rhythm and melody, and the ritual speeches are often in direct description of the events of a ceremony and the reasons for and the ramifications of a certain ritual or a celebration. The native music of Washington state also includes the legacy of Native American Flute Music that held high significance in the long and rich tradition of their music. It has achieves some measure of fame for its distinctive sound and the music as such was used in assistance of courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. The Native American flute is the only flute in the world constructed with two air chambers - there is a wall inside the flute between the top (slow) air chamber and the bottom chamber which has the whistle and finger holes. The top chamber also serves as a secondary resonator, which gives the flute its distinctive sound. There is a hole at the bottom of the "slow" air chamber and a (generally) square hole at the top of the playing chamber. A block (or "bird") with a spacer is tied on top of the flute to form a thin, flat airstream for the whistle hole (or "window"). Some more modern flutes use an undercut either in the block or the flute to eliminate the need for a spacer. The general tuning of the flute is to the minor pentatonic scale which is responsible for the distinct plaintive melodies that are unique to the Native American flute based compositions. Native American drums also form a big part of the music tradition as has always been noted , the two main streams of the Native American music are the melody comprising of song and flute music and the percussion that is brought on by the exclusive percussion family especially the drums and rattles which are the common accompaniment to keep the rhythm steady for the singers, the single style ranging from solo, choral to responsorial, unison and multipart singing. The music usually begins with slow and steady beats which gradually unravel to reveal more complex, faster and emphatic rhythms, shouts, accented patterns which bring depth and variety to the performance. Music in the Native American Tradition plays a vital role in history, education, ceremonies and stories orally passing on the ancestral customs to new generations amd the music itself is said to have originated from deities and spirits and also from individuals that are highly respected. In Washington Native music and other forms of Native American music traditions as well, music and history are tightly interwoven where a tribe’s history is kept alive as an oral narrative of the story and these vary greatly from tribe to tribe as an integral part of their identity enabling us to trace back the origins and history of various tribes based on stylistic uniqueness. Sources : Browner, Tara. Music of the First Nations: Tradition and Innovation in Native North America, University of Illinois Press. 2009. Women’s Music: Gender plays a prominent role within various Native American Communities where men and women portray sex-specific roles in many musical activities. The instruments, songs and dances are often peculiar to one or the other sex as are many musical setting strictly controlled by sex. Women play a vital role as backup singers and dancers in modern Powwows, while on case of Cherokee people men and women perform separate dances and follow separate regulation during the pre-game events for stick ball, where dances are held. Men dance in a circle around the fire while women dance in place. Men sing their own songs while women have their songs sung by an elder and while men’s songs invoke power, the women’s songs draw power away from the opposing stick ball team. In some societies, there are customs where certain ceremonial drums are played only by men but for southern plain Indians it is believe that the first drum was given to a woman by the Great Spirit, who instructed her to share it with all women of native nations. Many tribal music cultures have a relative paucity of traditional womens songs and dances, especially in the Northeast and Southeast regions. The Southeast is, however, home to a prominent womens musical tradition in the use of leg rattles for ceremonial stomp and friendship dances, and the womens singing during Horse and Ball Game contests. The West Coast tribes of North America tend to more prominence in womens music, with special womens love songs, medicine songs and handgame songs; the Southwest is particularly diverse in womens musical offerings, with major ceremonial, instrumental and social roles in dances. Women also play a vital ceremonial role in the Sun Dance of the Great Plains and Great Basin, and sing during social dances. Shoshone women still sang the songs of the Ghost Dance into the 1980s. Historically Native American Women sang songs which reflected the events and happenings in their everyday lives. As with everything else concerning the native American music these songs to served historical and cultural purposes, preserving and handing over the information from generation to generation and it is these songs that tell us the story of the culture itself. Navajo blanket weavers sang to bring magic to their carpers and make them more attractive and beautiful. Mothers sang songs with their children to keep them entertained and Zuni women sang while grinding the corn and calling for the rain to nourish their crops. For instance the song Ockaya, sings about the corn talking, telling of the clouds that are on their way. The song then proceeds to ask the clouds to change their path to this way. The Cheyenne Rabbit song is sung by mothers while bouncing the babies playfully on their laps like little rabbits. This song is also sung for the children when they are hopping around in the ground making bunny ears with their fingers. Warrior songs offered power for fighting and success in war as seen in many traditions, warrior societies sang and danced in ceremonials which called for success and protection on the war. Women often sand songs of missing the warriors and sang songs of relief when the men returned home safely. Sources: Nettl, Bruno. Music in Primitive Culture. Harvard University Press. (1956). Nettl, Bruno. Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents. Prentice-Hall. (1965). Pueblo music: Pueblo people are the Native Americans of the South Western United states. They were first identified by Spanish in the 16th century living in villages that were called as Pueblos by the Spanish to the same ends. There are 21 pueblos that are in existence in the present day and the most popular of these include the Taos, Acoma , Zuni and Hopi. The main Pueblos are primarily located in the regions of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and also formerly, in Colorado. Thus Pueblos music primarily the music of a composite formation of tribes including Hopi, Zuni, Taos, San Ildefonso, Santa Domingo and this music according to Bruno Nettl is representative of one of the most complex Native American Musical styles in the continent, The defining characteristics of the Pueoblo music include the common use of hexatonic and heptatonic scales adorned by variety of form, melodic contour, percussive accompaniment and a melodic range averaging between an octave and a twelfth, with rhythmic complexity equal to the Plains Indians musical sub-area. Nettl cites the Kachina dance songs as the most complex songs and the music of Hopi and Zuni as the most complex of the Pueblo, while the Tanoans and Keresans musics are simpler and intermediary between the Plains and western Pueblos. The music of the Pima and Papago is intermediary between the Plains-Pueblo and the California-Yuman music areas, with melodic movement of the Yuman, though including the rise, and the form and rhythm of the Pueblo. (Nettl 1956, p.112-113) Work songs are found in Pueblo music, but are otherwise mostly unknown among Native American folk music (Nettl, 1965, p. 152). Nettl describes Pueblo music, including Hopi, Zuni, Taos Pueblo, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Santo Domingo Pueblo, and many others, as one of the most complex on the continent, featuring increased length and number of scale tones (hexatonic and heptatonic common), variety of form, melodic contour, and percussive accompaniment, ranges between an octave and a twelfth, with rhythmic complexity equal to the Plains sub-area. He sites the Kachina dance songs as the most complex songs and Hopi and Zuni material as the most complex of the Pueblo, while the Tanoans and Keresans musics are simpler and intermediary between the Plains and western Pueblos. The music of the Pima and Tohono Oodham is intermediary between the Plains-Pueblo and the California-Yuman music areas, with melodic movement of the Yuman, though including the rise, and the form and rhythm of the Pueblo. The stylistic features of this music place emphasis on a relaxed low range and highly blended monophonic style. The songs are complex and are meticulously detailed with usually five sections divided into four or more phrases characterized by detailed introductory and cadential formulas, which make then much slower in tempo than their close relatives culturally and also employ the usage if the percussion instruments as an accompaniment. Sources : Nettl, Bruno. Music in Primitive Culture. Harvard University Press. (1956).  Nettl, Bruno. Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents. Prentice-Hall, Inc. (1965).  Kevin Locke Lakota: Kevin Locke (Lakota name: Tȟokéya Inážiŋ, meaning "The First to Arise") is Lakota (Hunkpapa band) and Anishinaabe. He is a preeminent player of the Native American flute, a traditional storyteller, cultural ambassador, recording artist and educator. He is most known for his hoop dance, The Hoop of Life. Born in 1954 in Southern California, at five years old Locke moved north with his family, later to settle in South Dakota on the Standing Rock Reservation in 1966. It was from his mother, Patricia Locke, his uncle Abraham End-of-Horn, mentor Joe Rock Boy, and many other elders and relatives that Kevin received training in the values, traditions and language of his native Sioux culture. He is frequently cited as an ambassador of Native American culture to the United States and the world. He has also been active on the board of directors of the Lakota Language Consortium - a non-profit organization working towards the Lakota language revitalization. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico for high school and earned a masters degree in educational administration from the University of South Dakota. He taught himself to speak Lakota, his ancestral language, as a young adult. Mr. Locke learned the hoop dance, which had nearly died out, from Arlo Good Bear, a Mandan Hidatsa Indian from North Dakota. Since 1978, he has traveled to more than 80 countries to perform. Locke has served as cultural ambassador for the United States Information Service since 1980, was a delegate to the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil and was a featured performer and speaker at the 1996 United Nations Habitat II Conference in Turkey. He has recorded twelve albums beginning in 1982, and is an active member of the Baháí Faith. Mr. Locke comes from a distinguished family. His great-great-grandfather was the famous Dakota patriot, Little Crow. His great-grandmother, Mniyáta Ožáŋžaŋ Wiŋ, was a renowned medicine woman. His mother, Patricia Locke, was an activist for Indian rights and recognition. Kevin Locke is acknowledged to be the pivotal force in the now powerful revival of the indigenous flute tradition which teetered on the brink of extinction just twenty years ago. In 1990, Kevin was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) which recognized him as a "Master Traditional Artist who has contributed to the shaping of our artistic traditions and to preserving the cultural diversity of the United States." In 2009 he won the $100,000 Bush Foundation Award. Kevins goal is "to raise awareness of the Oneness we share as human beings." His belief in the Unity of human kind is expressed dramatically in the traditional Hoop Dance which illustrates "the roles and responsibilities that all human beings have within the hoops (or circles) of life." Touring for two decades, Kevin has performed and lectured in more nearly 80 countries, sharing his high vision of balance, joy and diversity. He has served as a cultural ambassador for the United States Information Service since 1980. Deeply committed to the conservation of Earths resources for future generations, Kevin was a delegate to the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil and a featured performer and speaker at the 1996 United Nations Habitat II Conference in Turkey. Sources: Left Hand Bull. Jacqueline. Lokota Hoop Dancer. Houghton Mifflin. 2001. Read More