Music Ethnography: Pasadena Pow Wow Concert - Essay Example

Music Ethnography: Pasadena Pow Wow Concert On 6 March I attended the annual Pow Wow Concert that was held at Pasadena, CA. The 17th Annual Native Hope International Pow Wow Concert was a gathering of California Native People and non-Native Americans. A mixture of cultures met at the occasion to sing, socialize, dance and honor the culture of the Native Americans. Although everyone had a chance to dance to the tunes of the Natives, there were specific performances done by the natives. Prizes and awards were presented to winners of the competitions. The Pow Wow took six hours performance on 6 March and continued further for the next two days in the same venue. In a special interview of one of the natives who claimed to have attended every Pow Wow Festival since he was five years old, he said the festival often takes a whole week. Whereas this still takes place, the March event was not one of the special occasions that called for a week’s celebration of dances, music and culture of the First Nationals of America. Obtaining historical information about the event that has become popular over the ages was easy given the fortunate friendship I struck with the old man (probably 76 years). He had so much interest in the event that his knowledge of every detail of the event was more refined than obtainable in a cultural encyclopedia. Abukcheech Adahy explained the significance of the event from its origin. From the senior native’s knowledge, the word “powwow” comes from Naragansett term “powwaw” that has the meaning of a “Spiritual Leader”. It is used to describe a gathering of Native Americans of any tribe. Abakcheech is a member of the planning committee for Pow Wow Festival, and he revealed that planning for the occasion begins close to a year before the event. In essence, Pow Wow Committee starts planning for the following years as soon as one festival is over. For this year’s event, the festival was sponsored by assortment of colleges and universities, American Native Communities within California, Tribal Organizations, American Native Club and Native American Studies Program. Performance on the occasion is highly choreographed and organized. The Pow Wow Committee is responsible for securing location of the event, hiring head staff of the event and recruiting vendors to sell merchandise related to the cultural occasion. These include foods and artifacts as well as costumes and traditional attire that the performers use in the event. The head staff of Pow Wow Festival is usually chosen as an honor to a person’s dedication to the issues of the tribe. The staffs run the events and every occasion during the festival. Also important to the performance of Pow Wow is the arena director. Usually, the arena director is referred as the whip man or the whip man is usually the arena director’s assistant. Te arena director ascertains that the dancers dance during performances and that drumbeaters know the right types of songs to play. In the event that there is a competition, the arena director provides a judge. In addition, the arena director organizes any miscellaneous activity during the Pow Wow. These could include dropping an eagle’s feather and other ceremonies associated. He also ensures that the dance arena receives treatment with the respect it deserves from visitors to the Pow Wow. Pasadena Pow Wow was well organized with the master of ceremony acting as the voice of the event. He kept the dancers and the public on the happenings of the ceremony. He set the schedule of events and maintained drum rotation; decided the order in which different groups entered the arena to sing. In addition to running several ruffles sponsored by the event’s sponsors that took place during the presentation, he often filled dead airtime with jokes. Head dancers led performers. Different head dancers were present at this year’s show. Foremost, there was the Head Man Dancers and the Head Woman Dancers. The Head Teen Dancers headed the youths and the Head Little Girl Dancers and Head Little Boy Dancers led little girls and the younger boys. Finally, the show had Head Golden Age Dancers and Head Gourd Dancers. Head dancers played the role of leading other dancers in the parade or grand entry that marked the opening of the Pow Wow. In the later performances, the head dancers led the other dancers in their respective groups during songs. The other dancers could not enter the arena before the head dancer was already dancing in the arena. Drums are the principle instruments that provided music for the Pow Wow festivities. As I learnt from my old friend, the group of performers that plays a large, specially designed drum as it sings traditional songs is also known as a “Drum”. Membership for the drum group varied from four to ten. Whereas some members of the drum wore traditional regalia as they drummed and danced, some drummers were in street clothes. Members of the drum rotated in their duty of providing dancers with songs. Each dancer that took the singing lead would change position and face the Pow Wow management. A Host Drum was entrusted with the duty of providing music for the dancers. Since the Pasadena Pow Wow was intertribal, there were three Host Drums. There were Host Northern Drums and a Host Southern Drum that represented the tribes that attended the Pow Wow. Each of the drums that were present at the Pasadena Pow Wow had lead singers. Whereas the three Host Drums were primarily obliged to provide the highest quality performance during the opening ceremony and closing ceremony of the show, other guest drums had their lead singers who would sing for their respective drums. The three Host Drums sang the starting song, the flag song, the veterans’ song and the victory song at the opening of the festival. On the closing day, they sang the flag song, the retreat song, and a closing song. The Southern Host Drum sang the Gourd song. Set up of the occasion was superb. The Pow Wow was set up in a series of large circles. The central circle was the dance arena. The circle outside the central circle was the Master of Ceremony’s table, drum groups as well as sitting place for dancers and their families and friends. Beyond the first two circles were the areas for the general spectators. Behind the spectators were the booths and stalls for vendors. The Native communities take the performances so seriously that there are a number of etiquette protocols that need to be observed during the festivals. The audience was not allowed to take photographs of some scenes, there were protocols for Grand Entry, the drums were not to be handled or touched by people who were not members of the drum groups, and the regalia were not to be touched without permission. Performances got ecstatic at the marvelous performances that the drums presented. Occasionally, the lead singer would break into a form of soliloquy or monologue that was directed at the audience. The short moments would reveal the mind of the lead singer, which were in essence the thoughts of the whole drum and the tribe that the drum represented. According to Abukcheech, the lengthy speeches revealed state of the mind and dazzling poetic monologues that set the audience thinking on their lives. The audience erupted in appreciative applause. They cheered in unison and often left their seats to encourage the drums. I remember a particular performance that made a bunch of women that were to my right in the Pasadena Pow Wow shed tears after such a lengthy soliloquy of a Head Little Boys Sing Leader. Although I did not get an interpretation of the message the small boy passed, it must have been so touching. The audience that was all joyful and noisy as it cheered on the little boy’s entertaining performance went silent and reflective. Whichever the point the boys’ drum meant to put across, it seriously sank in the targeted audience. Pow Wow festival is an important occasion for the Native Americans and other Americans as well. It is especially a crucial festivity for the Native Americans as they get to gather and share their culture that is currently endangered with extinction. Like every of other part of the world, integration that has followed from technological advancements and westernization places continuation of the Natives’ culture at risk (Titon, Timothy, David &John 2009). Pow Wow festival is a good occasion to remind the communities of their cultural identity and bring Americans together in appreciation of cultural diversity. Work Cited Titon, Jeff T, Timothy J. Cooley, David Locke, Anne K. Rasmussen, John M. Schechter, Jonathan P. J. Stock, David P. McAllester, and David B. Reck. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the Worlds Peoples. Belmont, Calif. : Schirmer/Cengage Learning, 2009. Print. Read More