INDIGENOUS SOUNDS

NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC

WHAT IS NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC?

• Music used, created, and/or performed by Native Americans. • Agree or disagree?

• Native American Music more specifically refers to “tribal” music. • Tribal, inter-tribal, and pan-tribal or pan-Indian

• Role in Society• Ceremony, religion, recreation, work, dance, education,

storytelling

COMMONALITIES

• Almost always functional• Rarely an independent concept• Heavy emphasis on voice and percussion• Use of vocables• Almost always unison singing / no harmony• Often repetitive• Phrase often goes from high to low

SOUTHWEST

• Arizona, New Mexico, most of Texas• Common Instrumentation: voice, percussion, and

simple aerophones• Two groupings: • Pueblo • Includes Hopi, Zuni, Taos Pueblo, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Santo

Domingo Pueblo, and many others• The most complex indigenous musical style• Vocals relaxed and lower in pitch

• Ex: San Ildefonso Eagle Dance, Taos Moonlight Song

• Athabaskan• Includes Apache and Navajo• Vocals often tense, pulsing, nasal, and frequently use falsetto

• Ex: Navajo Silversmith Song, Navajo Night Chant

SOUTHWESTERN INSTRUMENTS

• Percussion• Drums• Rattles• Gourds• Turtle Shell

• Copper / Clay Bells

• Wind Instruments• Whistles• Wooden Flutes• Shell Trumpets

• String Instruments• “Apache Fiddle”• (Tsii’edo’a’tl: meaning

“wood that sings”)

EX: APACHE FIDDLE MELODY

APACHE FIDDLE

CLAY BELL

ZUNI HAND DRUMEX: ZUNI RAIN DANCE

EX: NAVAJO NIGHT CHANT

TURTLE SHELL RATTLE

EASTERN WOODLANDS / SOUTHEAST

SOUTHEASTERN INSTRUMENTS

Flutes and Whistles

• Almost always a solo instrument

Percussion

• Wide variety of drums and rattles

NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE

EX: CHEROKEE MORNING SONG, SIOUX LOVE SONG

FLUTE DIAGRAM

PLAINS

• Midwest (and into Canada), northern Texas• Sioux, Blackfoot, Crow, Dakota, Cheyenne, Comanche

• Arapaho and Cheyenne: Typically nasal, high pitched, falsetto, extreme vocal tension, pulsation; increased use of tetratonic scale • Ex: Arapaho Sun Dance Song

• Large double-sided skin drums are characteristic of the Plains tribes• Ex: Blackfoot Owl Dance

EX: BLACKFOOT OWL DANCE

PLAINS STYLE DOUBLE-SIDED DRUM

GREAT BASIN

• Utah (desert), Nevada, southern Oregon• Extremely simple music• Ditonic / Tritonic / Tetratonic • Typically contains fewer pitches than other regions• The Klamath and Modoc tribes frequently have ditonic and

tritonic songs

• Ex: Ute Sun Dance

• Repeated phrases• AA BB CC• Sometimes only one repeated phrase• Ex: Peiute Ceremonial Song

ARCTIC

• Alaska, NW Territories, Yukon Territory, Greenland• Melodies are often simple and repetitive • Simple instruments: tambourine-like hand drum,

rattles• Known for throat singing • Tanya Tagaq “Description of Throat Singing”

• http://youtu.be/Phr1HVwrjlQ

• Tanya Tagaq “The Sounds of Arctic Throat Singing”• http://youtu.be/KNb2ZDjeiU4

• Traditional Arctic Throat Singing• http://youtu.be/t8QuNdfb-Yw

FRANCES DENSMORE

• 1867 – 1957• Classically trained pianist• Interested in preserving

the music and culture of Native Americans

• Research and Gender• Smithsonian • Wax cylinder recordings• http://youtu.be/m1XT-tul9f4

CONTEMPORARY NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC

• Often blends “traditional” music with “popular” music• Example 1: Medicine Dream “In This World” • http://youtu.be/BBlzAXobSvY

• Example 2: “Yeha-Noha” (“Wishes of Happiness and Prosperity”)• http://youtu.be/XPd9be8R5bA