Native American Music

Introduction

⚠️ A brief introduction to a few of the many problems that trouble modern Native American tribal organizations:

Note how many tribes there are that are not recognized by the US Government:
Wikipedia: List of organizations that self-identify as Native American tribes

A segment related to the issues facing tribal nations in the LA area:
KCRW segment - Tribal recognition

Tribal vs. Intertribal Musics
⚠️See Pg35 = “Style” across multiple “genres” helping define a musical identity or a music-culture for a tribal group.

⚠️See Pg 35 = “Tradition” is a contested term: not associated with age, but rather a social process. Therefore a ‘traditional’ piece of music could be a brand new composition.

Mentioned on pg36: Blackfire “silence is a weapon” album features half punk rock songs and half traditional songs:
The Possibillities (punk)

Nil honlshio

Tribal Music

Haudenosaunee

The Haudenosaunee are known as Iroquois. This is often pronounced "ear-uh-koy", which is a mispronunciation of the French origins of the word.“Iroquois” pronounced in French, is a mispronunciation of “ilakwa”, which means “real snakes” in Algonquin. (not how the people refer to themselves)

Consists of the following nations:

• Mohawk
• Oneida
• Onondaga
• Cayuga
• Seneca
• Tuscarora

“Ho Way Hey Yo” · The Six Nations Women Singers

HoWeyHeyYo-TheSixNationsWomen.m4a

Compare the differences with the above recording with the live version: HoWeyHeyYo-LIVEVIDEO.m4a

⚠️What is Eskanye?
Eskanye or Women's Shuffle Dance as it is called in English is one of the most melodious of present day Iroquois songs. These songs are meant to honor women. The dance is considered one of the Social Dancing genres

Full video performance and explanation of Eskany “Hey wey Hey Yo”

The Book emphasizes a few things about this:

• Call and response = this is common in music all over the world
• Vocables = words without lexical meanings
• Candential phrase = a phrase that is used to end ALL Eskanye songs
• Compare to rumba = "aqui entrer las flores" is a candential phrase that is used to call an end to a rumba guaguanco

Take note of the different lyrics between the 2 examples:
1.)
Eee, aaa,
Ho wey hey yo, Ho wey hey ya hey yo
Ho wey hey yo, Ho wey hey ya hey yo ho
No hey yo “gai na wi ya he ya”

2.)
Eee, aaa,
Ho wey ha ya hey yo, wey ha ya hey yo - hey ya
wey ha ya hey yo, wey ha ya hey yo - “gai na wi ya he ya”

Questions about this:

• Is this in fact a different song?
• Is this a natural variation from the fact that this is an oral tradition?
• Does the fact that these are vocables matter to the details or not?

Reminder that the book states that vocables are a FIXED set of lyrics

“Iroquois social dance songs” - some different music that is in the same genre:
A1 Standing Quiver Dance Written-By – G. Buck

Yuchi Music

StompDance-FromBook.m4a

StompDance-NOTFromBook.m4a

good stomp dance
Other muskogee music

The video has no regalia or bells but it’s really cool:
Firefighters doing a stomp dance

Long version of stomp dance at Duck Creek Ceremonial Grounds

Yuchi Dancing lyrics site

The Book mentions "alligator dance", I can only find an example of a Haudenosaunee aligator dance:
Iroquios Alligator Dance

on the Sonny Bucktrot Stomp Dance Song:
The book makes the following points about this:

• Lower vocal register
• Fewer notes: Four to six notes
• Polyphony exists with the “announcer”
• Descending melodic phrases (similar to other genres and styles)
• Shifting between beat groupings and/or syncopations
• Review these concepts: Syncopation / Polyrhythm / Hemiola / Rhythm

Question:
I notice a decrease in tempo over time in this music. I’m not sure if that is a piece that is a result of the dancing/shells driving the pulse or if that is an intentional aesthetic choice for the music

Question: Did anyone notice anything about the transcription of this piece?
→ we will come back to this later
(Transcriptions in the book are vague outlines, not 100% accurate)

The book makes additional points about the piece:
Leader performing subtle changes to his call while the responses remain unchanged.

• This seems to be an inherent feature of call and response music all over the world.
• Example of a parallel afrocuban call an response variation set:
• Iba orisha ma wo, alaroye, yokode
  • Elegua alaroye yokode, tani elegua moyuba
  • Bara la yure alaroye, alaroye moyuba
  • Bara la yure alaroye, alaroye yokode
  • Alaroye yokodo, echu l’aguana moyuba

Pg 46 - The same song being sung in different registers to create tension/release in the musical form
Afrocuban Example of the same concept: Ochun song

• up: iki olong ko, iki olong ko
• Akpwon: Tani mowiye olong ko eya
• Coro: Iki olong ko
• Return to "up": Eni oja, eni ojun

Pg46 - asymmetrical repetition (speaking about melodic variation)
The book says the call and response repetitions are asymmetrical and highlights this as a vocab word.
Question: Are they really intentionally asymmetrical, or just improvised freely in a way that leads to variation in their lengths?

The book describes some additional features of the Native songs that align exactly with the aesthetic features of afrocuban songs of which I am familiar.

• How the 2nd song in a cycle will be in a relative position
• Akpon can improvise the call
• Individuals provide heterophony
• Repetitions are open
• Certain religious music/prayers may not be publicly performed. (in the case of Native music: it is because it would lose it’s potency)

Navajo Music (The Diné)

Diné means "the people"

Navajo ceremony requires a building with a circular floor plan
Hogans = traditional Navajo circular log homes
Many, if not most navajo musics can only be performed in a ritual or ceremonial contexts.

Yeibichai.mp3

I’m not sure why this is not considered to be in a 4/4 frame in the notation, nothing about this music seems to be misaligned with that concept.

Seems to be a Modular, improvised performance, until you see that they do it exactly the same way in other situations. (see examples below)

Pg52: The dance takes place on the last night of a 9 night ceremony.
Wow!

Alternate Recording of Yeibichai (yay-bi-chay) From the Nightway ceremony

Another alternate recording:
Navajo: Night Chant, Yeibichai Dance

Have a look at the costumes in this video

A live dance video with a very different version of the same song from the book

The story of the Yeibichai (ten minutes)

Some other Navajo footage of dances

Enemy way dance music

Enemy way song

Circle Dance (Enemyway Ceremony)

Ndáá = War Dance songs

Enemyway= Curing Ritual

Many of the Ndáá songs from the Enemyway Ceremony make up the largest body of Navajo Popular music. Including: Circle Dance, Sway, Two-Step, Skip Dance, and Gift Songs.
!!Some traditionalists object to Ndáá songs being used in a secular context!

The singer has to memorize every detail of the ceremony. This perhaps blends the role of priest or intellectual leader and performer as see in other cultures (Jalalu, Lunsi, etc.)

⚠️Please see page 55 and 56 about the translation of the text for "Shizhané'e". The song features some humorous elements.

Shizhanee-ImInLuck.mp3

Music of the Navajo Indians - The Enemy Way Dance

NM State Fair Indian Village 2019 – Shiprock Navajo Dance Group - Round Dance Demonstration

Pg55 - they mention that this is in a triple meter, which up until now we have not seen any of.

⚠️Pg56 - the meaning of the song is actually humorous, not a prayer or a cry to the gods. Interesting that this is part of the religious ceremony, given that it is fairly banal in nature.

⚠️Pg56 - The book tries to list characteristics of all native american music:

• Frequent use of Percussion
• A dearth of strings or winds (hang on there!! see examples below)
• Monophonic singing
• Vocables: They say that the vocables are not an option to change, yet we have seen that they change.
• Musical Form is derived from repeating of shorter phrases.
• Call and response
• Melodic variation
• Pg57 - Fulfill a function - we lack access to the beauty of the music

The book describes some additional features of the Native songs:.

• Certain religious music/prayers may not be publicly performed.
• Many of the vocal melodies are in a high tessitura (vocal register)
• Many of the melodies will have a descending shape (starting high pitch and ending low)
• Monophonic singing
• Use of Vocables
• Musical Form is derived from the repeating of shorter phrases.
• Use of Call and response
• Melodic variation in the lead singer part
• Music fulfills a function

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️Please see page 56-57 about how we cannot have access to the beauty of the music without the context for the music to be successful within

Intertribal Music

Ghost Dance

⚠️Please be familiar with the history of the Ghost Dance on page 58-59

⚠️Pg58-59 describes a mere scratch in the surface of the incredibly tragic history of the native american people. But we can see that the US Government is responsible for intentionally and maliciously trying to destroy the cultural heritage of the native people. The resulting diasporas that came from the resettlement of the native peoples, set up the initial conditions for the intertribal music.
Initially, they mention 3 types dispersion:

• Resettlement - grouping together multiple tribes
• Resettlement - physically moving individuals of one tribe to geographically different locations
• Prison camps for those that were deemed a threat
• Later on they mention - voluntary integration into american society (as opposed to staying on the reservations)

ArapahoNo9andNo28GhostDance.mp3

Ghost dance example from the textbook

Ghost dance from 1894

Ghost Dance explainer video

⚠️ RE: Page 62
Wounded_Knee_Massacre on wikipedia

The lasting pain of the disruption of the Lakota Traditions

Native American Church / Peyote

HymnOftheNativeAmericanChurch.mp3

Use of water drum (different construction from the Haudenosaunee)

Notice the differences in the tempo and the synchronization of the rattle and the drum with the following examples:

Fast tempo and in time with the vocals

Another example that seems to be on the edge of being in time:

Conclusion: The rhythmic synchronization is not an essential element of this music, but one that may vary depending on the performer.

POWWOW

“One drum, One Voice”

Example given at the beginning of the chapter to test our intuitions of Native American music:
"Gizhebs" by Bear Creek

types of powwow:

• Northern: “northern style singing”
• Southern: “southern style singing”
• Coastal: feature local styles, but more hybrid than anything specific
• Competition / intertribal powwows (large contests and giveaways)
• “Traditional” (smaller budget, no giveaways or contests)

Powwow Terms:

• Honor Beats = heavy beats that break up the texture of steady pulse
• Check Beating = leader calls for a change from the drummers: change dynamics, speed up, slow down.
• Hard Beats
• Push Up = the verse
• Second side = The B and/or C sections
• Lead= “call”
• Seconds= “response”
• Straight/Traditional/Original Song= Vocables
• Word/Contemporary= songs have words and vocables together
• Regalia = outfits and adornments
• Specials= dance events that are held apart from the contexts

The book mentions 4 characteristics of the Northern Plains Singing Style

• Unison textures (Monophony)
• High Vocal Tessitura
• Terraced descending melodic contour.
• They also mention a microtonal variation, which I’ve yet to hear an example of
• Pg69-70 Rhythmic Displacement - they say in the book that this is an example of “off the beat” rhythmic tension, swing 8ths akin to jazz and blues. Not sure about this

Please review my Analysis of this example:
Analysis and transcription of "Straight Up" by Northern Wind Singers

StraightUp.m4a

Transcription 2.6 “Straight up”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnesiaEffect

If the book is wrong about this transcription, it is worth being careful about the other things that are said in the book, and I think this is a wise approach to consuming information from any source, in general. Not to disbelieve everything, but to be cautious of facts that you consume.

I believe it is more respectful of the culture to try to be as accurate as possible when you are explaining it to others.

At 3’40” - Young Spirit 2015 shows the example of being behind the beat, which makes much more sense than the example given by the book. ("straight up" is not sung behind the beat)

New songs are composed by members of the powwow group. This gets back to the topic of the definition of “traditional”. The biography of Gabriel Desrosiers mentions how he composes songs for powwow.

Drum Carriers = may or may not sing in the group, but are responsible for the drum

• The drum is named “grandfather”
• It is sacred, cannot be placed on the ground
• Aña - ilu bata.
• Iya = mother

An example of a song that uses English text:
ThugginAndSnugglin.mp3

Powwow dance videos:

Dance Categories:

• Men’s traditional
• Men’s Grass
• Men’s Fancy
• Women’s Traditional
• Women’s Jingle Dress
• Women’s Fancy Shawl

Men’s Fancy Dance Solo

Men’s Grass dance

Women’s fancy shawl

Native american flute music

Origins-CarlosNakai.mp3

Carlos Nakai performance: 7 minutes:
Carlos Nakai Performance

The tuning of the example is not aligned with western music expectations. The conclusion here is that an alignment of the tuning between instruments is not important as for Native American Flute musicians as it is for Western musicians.

Triple Drone Flute Demo

Native american flute music

Carlos Nakai performance: 7 minutes

Example from the text:
“Origins” · R. Carlos Nakai

Popular/Modern music

BillC-31Blues-Asani.mp3

ReservationOfEducation-XIT.mp3

DevilComeDownSunday-DerekMiller.mp3

other Native American Music

Hopi spirit chant

Apache Fiddle

Compare the apache fiddle to this instrument:
Eastern african Ugandan tube fiddle