Ethnomusicology: Displaying Cultures Through Music - Article Example

Ethnomusicology Research Paper Culture refers to a distinct manner of behavior that manifests itself in a group of people often constituting a society. Culture influences fundamental features of life including religion, dietary and attire among others. Through systematic values, culture helps distinct a group of people who share the cultural features and values thereby behaving particularly. However, culture is both relative and dynamic with people abandoning particular cultural features they consider redundant and assume new features through dedicated interactions with other societies. Despite the social and cultural changes, art remains the most appropriate way of capturing the dynamic cultural features. People use art to depict their cultural features and development with music and dance being among the oldest surviving arts that help portray cultural developments. In the contemporary society, people use music and dance to represent their traditional cultures, which have changed and are thus unique in the modern society as the discussion below portrays. Held in Berlin in 2006, the thunder nations powwow was one such concerts that sought to display various traditional cultures. At the concert, people used music and to represent their traditional cultures a feature that provided an effective platform for evaluating the social and cultural changes throughout the history of the cultures. The discussion below therefore analyses the cultural development by comparing the art of music and dance in some of the traditional cultures displayed at the event. In doing this, the article investigates the dance and musical techniques used in some of the traditional cultures and the vocal variations among other features of music that have evolved alongside the changes in the cultures. The article investigates particular hypothetical features of the cultures portrayed in the music and dances thereby portraying the artistic features the traditionalists used in their music vis-à-vis the features as employed in contemporary music. Among the musical groups that performed at the concert was the Bear claw singers, a traditional Indian musical group based in Dallas Texas. The group performs traditional music with the view of bringing the entire Indian community together. They uphold particular traditional Indian values including the belief that their musical and drum performances are gifts from God that they employ in uniting the Indian community from all over the world. Their songs are therefore spiritual and glorification to their God. The group’s performances are systematic often beginning with offertories of special tobacco and prayers to their God before begging. They accompany their songs with rhythmic drumbeats, which complement the echoes of their songs. The musicians are often cheerful as they glorify their God hoping that he spreads healing and love to the earth. At the thunder nations powwow in Berlin in 2006, the group maintained the same procedure before, during and even after their spectacular performance. Among the songs they performed at the event were Honor the Earth Powwow Songs of the Great Lakes Indians, a collection of songs that glorify God besides asking for his love, forgiveness and healing. The event was spectacular with every feature of the function portraying specific cultural undertones. The performers, spectators and conductors were conscious to the cultural connotations of the different features of the performances. The fact that the performances by the Bear claw singers were religious typified the conservative features of the event. The attendants of the event dressed conservatively with the performers adorning unique cultural features including unique hairstyles while other wore equally unique hats. The dress code remained cordial with the people respecting both the cultural and religious values of the different cultural performers at the event. Just as with any other live performance, the event included the use of numerous musical instruments. The Bear claw singers used numerous instruments including a large drum set that the performers surrounded thus beating systematically in order to produce melodious tunes that complemented the songs. Besides the drum set, the singers used sticks accentuated with jingles in beating the drum. This way, the beat produced was a mixture of both the drum sound and the jungles both of which combined to produce a synchronized sound that complemented the echoes of the performers’ voices. The two were therefore the only musical instruments the singers used at the event besides many other performances they have staged in the past. The unique musical instruments were a portrayal of the traditional Indian cultures in the society. Interestingly, the performers infused both traditional and modern musical equipment in making the events successful. Among the modern equipment, they used included voice amplifying equipment such as microphones and loud speakers that helped amplify the echoes and sounds produced by the musical instruments to the large audience at the event. The event exhibited various cultural connotations with various features of the performances by the Bear claw singers displaying numerous cultural features. Among the cultural features they exhibited included the attire of the performers among other attendees of the event. The contemporary Dallas society has a liberal social structure with the youths in the society portraying various elements of modernism. However, the liberal structure permits the survival of such traditional sectarian cultures as the traditional Indian cultures. The Bear claw singers for example had varied hairstyles and dress codes thereby exhibiting intricate features of the cultures. Some of the performers adorned wide traditional hats that were connotations of the traditional Indian attires. While their dress codes were liberal, they were neat and typified decorum. The performers dressed in lengthy clothes and baggy trousers. The male performed while sitting down around the huge drum set and the female performers stood behind the male performers in a similar manner. The female performers dressed in equally dignified clothing with the skirts reaching their ankles. The sitting arrangement was a traditional feature that ensured that they performed conveniently with the male performers sharing a singular drum. Additionally, the arrangement was a cultural feature that portrayed how the traditional Indian American entertained themselves and worshiped. The performance required minimal body movement a feature that validated the sitting posture during the performance. The female performers standing behind the sitting male performers moved gracefully often making small steps most of which were negligible. The only parts of their bodies that often moved were their heads as they nodded rhythmically to the varying depths of the beat. The culture portrayed particular liberties including the freedom to dress differently. The performers maintained a descent attire possibly owing to the religious undertones of their performance. However, they also portrayed the freedom to dress different with the male performers adorning different hairstyles. Some had unique hats made from plants while other left their hair hanging lose, yet some plaited their hair in unique Indian designs thereby portraying the unique hair styles that had existed in the traditional Indian society. Boundaries are essential features of every musical performance; the Bear claw singers utilized particular musical techniques to signify specific features of their performance. The beginning of a performance is strategic. The singers introduced their performance strategically with cultural prayers and offertories to their Gods. Such culturist performances were important cultural connotations that depicted the importance of religion and God in the traditional Indian societies (Sengstock, Brenda and Sonya 56). After beginning their performance, the group used particular musical techniques in marking different stages of their performance. Consciously missing was a bandleader in the performance. This implied that the group acted uniformly often portraying a systematic mastery of the art. Among the important techniques, the performers used were tonal variations and varying the pitch of their drum beats thereby signaling the beginning or end of some intriguing features of the performance. The performers varied their voices strategically thus marking end of unique sections of the performance. Additionally, the performers changed the beats with a male performer changing his drumstick. This marked the crescendo of the performance with the singers increasing their pitch as they changed their vocals. Space utilization during preferences is an equally important feature that portrays the uniqueness of an art. As discussed earlier, the Bear claw singers performed while seated with the position providing the male performers with adequate access of the big drum set that they shared. The position limited their movement and was a portrayal of the cultural performance of the traditional Indians. However, the female performers stood behind the sitting male performers and often moved their bodies significantly. The singers made small movements during the performance owing to their unique postures. The only visible movement the performers made was the nodding of their heads that moved systematically with the varying drumbeats. This portrayed the liberal nature of the performers since the performance did not compel the performers to move any part of their bodies. Those who nodded their heads did so voluntarily and freely. Some of the performers nodded their heads while others were still during the entire performance while varying their tones in order to create the unique musical performance. The performers maintained minimal body movement as they surrounded the singular drum. In a portrayal of cultural liberty, some of the performers moved gracefully in unspecialized manner. Each singer thus moved in a manner that befitted him or her. While the seated men held sticks they used in beating the drum, the women who stood around them were free and therefore held their hands together as they moved slowly. In a portrayal of freedom, one held a flap she used to fan herself slowly in the heated auditorium. Despite the slow body movements, the artists portrayed enthusiasm to the beats as they varied their voice enthusiastically thereby creating offering a unique cultural performance. In a summary, arts are the best tools people use to portray unique cultural features. Dance and music provide effective media for the representation of cultures and cultural development in different societies. The Bear claw singers made unique performances thereby displaying unique cultural features of the traditional Indian society in the country including religion and the closeness the people enjoyed with their God. Work cited Sengstock, Mary C, Arifa K. Javed, Brenda I. Marshall, and Sonya Berkley. Voices of Diversity: Multi-culturalism in America. New York, NY: Springer, 2009. Internet resource Read More