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Introduction to World Music, SMSU 1
Section Two:Native American Music
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 2
• Eastern Woodlands
– Eastern Sedentary in Canada
– North-east and South-east in USA
• Plains
• Southwest & California
• Great Basin
• Intermountain Plateau (largely in Nevada and Utah)
• Northwest Coast & Far North
– Western Subarctic
– Arctic
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 3
Approximately 1000 tribal units, almost as many languages, and about 60 independent
language families in North America
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 4
Music Contexts
• Religion
• Social dances
• Games
• Calendar rituals and events in the life cycle.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 5
Supernatural Elements• Some individuals, special relationship with
music
• Form of prayer
• Imparted to the humans by spirit beings– Dreams– Visitations– At the legendary time of the tribe’s origin.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 6
Music and Function
• Judged less by musical criteria
• More by how well it fulfilled religious and other functions (providing food, etc.)
• Learn through direct experience.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 7
Music and Dance
• Music and dance are closely related.• Unite members with spirits of their ancestors.• Circular pattern, steps, hand gestures, intricate
designs on costumes or face have symbolic meaning.
• Dancers often sing, use rattles, sound-makers.• The structures of music and dance often
connected.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 8
Some General Characteristics For Native American Vocal Music
• Monophonic; singing in octaves.
• Vocables.
• Repetition.
• Descending contour.
• Melodies employ small note collections; tendency of “la” to “do”.
• Accompanied by percussion instruments, usually equally spaced beats.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 9
Much Sharing
• Musical boundaries fluid and permeable
• Powwow music, often glottal tension, pulsations on longer notes, and high-pitch or falsetto singing.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 10
Traditional Instruments
• Idiophones: rattles, stick instruments, log drums, etc.
• Membranophones: single-headed or double-headed drums; kettledrums, sometimes filled with water.
• Chordophones: almost nonexistent• Aerophone: flute, made of wood, cane, and
sometimes pottery.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 11
Similarities & Regional Differences
• Rhythms are usually straight and regular, or free and without meter.
• Melodic content of chants is “diatonic,” sung by solo or group.
• Music often tied to other functions.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 12
Southwest Region• Includes Pueblo peoples such as Hopi, Zuni, and also Apache and Navajo.
• Navajo and Apache singers can sound tense with nasal high vocal style.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 13
•Pueblo: vocals sound more open, relaxed, longer and complex; words about water, spirit beings, symbolism.
–Hopi Entering Kiva
–Badger Song
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 14
Zuni Sunrise Song
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 15
Modern Music Styles• Ghost Dance songs.
• Fun 49er songs at powwows.
• Chicken Scratch
• Country, Rock & Folk songs.– Blackfoot - 80s hard rock– Joanne Shenandoah - Iroquois
• New Songs that define Indian-ness.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 16
Modern Music Styles - cont.
• Flute music • Traditional Plains instrument (5 & 6 hole
flute of cedar) and smaller Apache “spirit flute”
• Now used by many tribes and peoples
– R. Carlos Nakai – Shaman’s Call
Cedar 6-hole flute
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 17
Powwows - Contemporary
• Usually Feature Intertribal Styles
• Most associated with Plains music; held throughout the country.
• Powwows in this area: usually mid-November, Native American Arts & Crafts Festival and Powwow, OzarkEmpire Fairgrounds, Springfield, MO; also Southwest Missouri Indian Center, 2422 W. Division, Springfield, MO 65802, phone (417) 869-9550
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 18
Powwows (cont.)More Secular
• More open; various tribes and non-Native peoples.
• Professional singers/composers/dancers, judged primarily by musical criteria.
• Secular with religious undertones; prayers often opening events.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 19
Pan-Tribal; with “Drum” Groups
• Represent many tribes and music
• Revolve around the ‘drum’, a group of singers seated at large bass drum. Each singer has a drum beater, play and sing in unison.
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 20
Tribal “Drums”
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 21
Navajo Traditions
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 22
Navajo Way of Life
• Largest tribe; communities and reservations in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah
• Have economic impact on region• Sources of livelihood include coal,
uranium, oil, natural gas, lumber; to a lesser degree farming, raising stock, weaving, and silversmithing
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 23
General Characteristics of the Navajo
• Some government support for education, health care, business
• Costume/dress: men, Western, cowboy hats; women skirts and blouses; both wear jewelry
• Houses, modern stucco houses, trailer homes; some old-style circular log & earth hogans
• Ceremonial buildings: circular floors, domed roofs; symbolizes earth, mountaintops, sky
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 24
History of the Dance Among the Navajo
• Until 1940s, dance songs from ceremonials; particularly Enemyway dance songs
• 1990s: recreational pastime: “song and dance”
• Social dancing, dancers judged on costumes and dancing skill
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 25
We will be looking at the music in two popular ceremonial events
• A Yeibichai song from the Nightway ceremony
• The song “Shizhanee” from the Enemyway ceremony
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 26
Yeibichai Song from the Nightway Ceremony
• One of the most exciting kinds of Navajo music
• Yeibichai (YAY-beh-chai) means “gods their grandfathers” and refers to ancestor deities who come to dance at the Nightway ceremony
• Masked dancers impersonate the gods• They bring supernatural power and
blessing to help a sick person
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 27
Yeibichai Song (cont.)
• Features of the music: piercing falsetto; swoops down for more than an octave; primarily vocal music (vocables); sometimes with rattles and drums, and rarely with flutes and one-stringed fiddles; no harmonies; melodic and rhythmic sophistication
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 28
The Singers and Dances
• Teams of men from a particular region, no women singers
• The teams compete, and best receives a gift the family hosting the event
• Will include costumes, masks, a clown figure
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 29
The Ritual
• Dance occurs on the last night of a nine-day ritual
• Will include purification activities, prayer offerings, sand-painting rituals
• Then a reenactment of the myth on which the ceremony is based. Like a complex opera
• Directed by the singer who must memorize every detail; considered an intellectual and ceremonial leader
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 30
Transcription of the
Yeibichai Song
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 31
The Circle Dance Song Shizhané’é
• The Ndaa dance songs are the ‘hit tunes’ of traditional Navajo life
• Shizhané’é is easier to sing with not as many high falsetto sounds, or vocables
• Includes humorous lyrics about woman leaning against a store front
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 32
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 33
The Enemyway Ceremony• Curing Ritual for returning to tribal life
• Shizhané’é is one of the songs used in the ceremony
• Sickness is brought on by the ghosts of outsiders who have died
• Often performed for someone who has been away from home among strangers (in the Armed Forces or in the hospital)
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 34
The Ceremony• Ceremony involves two groups of
participants: – Home camp– Stick receiver’s camp, the enemy, who are
custodians of a stick decorated with symbols that include the Enemy Slayer, the warrior deity; and the Changing Woman, his mother
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 35
First Night
• Singing and dancing at the “stick receiver’s camp”
• Begins with Sway songs (courtship songs but often only vocables)
• Then dance songs, “ladies’ choice”• Then a signal song indicates change back to
Sway songs, maybe all night• Stop at dawn for rest and breakfast
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 36
Second Day• After rest and breakfast, gift songs
• “Home camp” people sing outside the main hogan of the “stick receiver’s camp”
• Gifts are exchanged, like war booty
• The “stick receiver’s camp” moves toward the “home camp”
• Another night of singing and dancing
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 37
Third Day• Mock battles
• Circle dance at the “stick receiver’s” new camp; songs like “Shizhanee” are sung
• The “stick receiver’s” go to the “home camp” and sing four songs that mention the name of the enemy
• Night of ceremonial songs (sway songs, dance songs, signal songs, sway songs)
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 38
Fourth Day
• Sunrise blessing ritual, and enemy departs
• Then four days of rest
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 39
Newer Navajo Music• Christian hymns, some Mormon influence;
evangelical Christianity– “Clinging to a Saving Hand” (CD 1:10)
• Native American Church (Peyote Church) – (CD 1:9)
• Country music– “Folsom Prison Blues” (CD 1:7)
• The Native-American Flute Revival• New Composers in Traditional Modes
Introduction to World Music, SMSU 40
HOMEWORK -due Monday, January 30
• ASSIGNMENT 2– Study Questions, p. 66: #1, 2– Compare & Contrast the Sioux Grass Dance
with the Navajo Yeibichai Song; how do these songs compare with the Zuni Blessing/Sunrise Song and “Shaman’s Call” that we listened to in class? Describe Fully.
• ONLINE QUIZ: Chapter 2