Native American Music Essay

The Shawnee Indians were know for a style of dance called the Stomp Dance. Men, women, and children would participate in this dance. During this dance, a lead man would dance one round, in a counter-clockwise circle and sing. Then, alternating women and men would line up behind the leader in a single-file with the children at the end. This dance is performed during the summer several times a year. They are danced on ceremonial grounds which was usually a square dance area with a fire. The Shawnee Indians do this dance to celebrate their culture.

“An introduction to Samoan music is an introduction to the Samoan people as a whole (Moyle, p1).” Music had a strong, complimentary presence in traditional Samoan life, and is still a powerful presence today. Although, now, the traditional means for Samoan music has evolved along with it. Traditionally, music was the medium used to tell stories, depict lifestyles, emit warning signals, and to transmit many other things for tribes inhabiting the island. Without the need for a powerful method to transfer signals with the aid of technology; modern day Samoan music has modernized and changed to focus more on the storytelling during a performance. Traditional music in Samoa was a product derived from how they lived their everyday life while blending their voices into song,

  Comments: Question 16. Question : American Indians did not have a word for music in their native languages because:

These are the traditions of the Nootka tribe.The tribes around Vancouver Island have a history of songs and ceromonies.Their main ceremony they had was the wolf dance also called the Tlugwana.Another ceremony they had was Tsayek. Daring witch they fast and pray for

Pow-wow is a rich traditional dance embraced and practiced by the various native Indian tribes such as Ponca, Kiowa among others. Often, celebrated with dancing, tribal drums, food and chanting in the circle. It was originally known as Pau wau, a healing ceremony overseen by the traditional leaders. In 1977, as the white man started occupying the Native American lands, their army forced the Ponca people from the northern plains of Nebraska to the Indian lands. Many Poncas lost their lives, however, they were survived by their culture and songs. Pow-wow was then adopted by other Indian tribes who started dancing it in their own tradition way. This essay shall discuss how Pow-wow tradition evolved and why it was so important to the tribal people.

To submerge myself in participant observation I first had to learn the basics of the country music dance practice, the “two-step” and various line dances. Once I had sufficiently learned these essentials, I was able to conduct more effective and fluid interviews, and gain the trust and ensue ease of the interviewee. Under the Patton Model, I asked interviewees their personal history associated with country music and dance, and their feelings on the practice. It should be noted that to protect the identities of individuals of my research community, as well as condense similar interviews along with their analogous answers, I employ the use of condensed characters and pseudonyms within this ethnography.

American Indian life in the present time can be characterized as one big melting pot. Some societies try to preserve their own identity, while other groups came together in some way and brought their cultures together. A lot of what is known about their music has come from the past century when technological advancements were just beginning to take place. It was also during this period of time that there was a lot of turmoil between the whites. It was obvious that each tribe had its own musical identity, whether it dealt with style, uses of, or ideas of what music was. At that time there were thousands of groups, all speaking their own language, and each had several songs to accompany ceremonies, dances, and to divide society. Anthropologists have put them into categories according to their ways of life.

After viewing the segment from the documentary Into the Circle: An Introduction to Native American Pow-wow, I got to know more about this traditional music style. It is more than just a form of celebration for those native people, but showing their unique cultures and history. The pow-wow dance is a way to express the feeling of native Americans, and showing their good result of a day or a certain period of time that they did a good job in hunting for food.

At the beginning of the Sioux Grass Dance you can here the drums being played and keeping a strong pulse and what I believe is a duple meter. I can hear suspension rattles, container rattles and drums. The male and female voices are in unison with some call and response. The use of vocables is very present, their voice are high and falsetto is defenitily used. Almost each phase of their chant is in high pitch when they begin and it starts descending by small intervals, and then jumps to the next "phrase" loud again.

Native American Musical Intruments are about natives getting together and playing there instruments. They play them on holidays and birthdays, also they play whenever they want entertainment. It’s a tradition for them. There instruments are not metal like ours so it doesn 't sound like ours either. There instruments have a whole different tune and sound. Native americans love to play there instruments. Its one of their favorite things to do. I am writing about Native american musical instruments because music is a big part of there 's and our lives. I like music because I play an instrument.

Traditional African musical stylings were one of the key components of jazz music. African tribal music contained a multitude of similarities as compared to typical jazz. Noted in The History of Jazz by Stuart Kallen, “Like jazz, ancient African tribal music had several defining factors: it featured a strong drumbeat, improvised licks, voices imitating instruments, and the use of short, repeated phrases of melody (later called ‘riffs’ by jazz musicians)” (15). Another prime element of African tribal music utilized in jazz was “call and response”, a technique in which the leader of a song would “sing a line and a group of singers would repeat the line” (Kallen 15). Such constituents of the musical style that is jazz were clearly passed

I will first talk about the dance, “Unsung.” The dance, a homage to the American Indian, is performed in silence but for the stark thud of the dancers' feet and bodies hitting the floor. A tribute to Native American chiefs and the prowess of the male dancer, this unforgettable work is accompanied only by the physical sounds—running, stamping, leaping, breathing—of the movement. Each dancer has a solo in addition to the ensemble work. The six men move in lines and wedges, weaving shifting patterns with staccato emphasis. They seem to crowd the stage, but suddenly it is empty. Five of the men have solos here, each quite different and each suggesting some

Recently there has been a new found interest in music history along with its cultures but the revival or interest in American Indian music is nowhere to be found. One issue with popularization or revival of American Indian music is its unique use of timbre which most western music lack, along with the variations on sound, American Indian music is best understood from the context of their culture, past, religion, and spiritual beliefs. When listening to music today there is a correlation with pitch of the singer’s voice along with the instruments complementing these sounds. In many of the cultural song of the Indians it could be hard for someone in modern day to find a correlation with the pitch and the instruments because at times it seems

I found that the constituent elements of the American Indian music form different regions are various and have their own characteristic, which is interesting after I finish this unit. At the beginning of this quarter, I thought that the Indian music are basically the same music type which contains only drum and vocal just like the music in modern powwow. However, we know that in different regions, the music style changes not only for the range, tone and shape of the vocal melody, but also includes the instruments. After I saw the translation of the lyrics, I found there are great difference and this is interesting because I just don’t familiar and understand the American Indian culture at the beginning. And now I can tell the obvious difference

Its origins were lost in the early decades of colonization, when the folk dances (Scottish reels, Irish jigs, and square dances, the poor man 's version of the French "cotillion" and "quadrille") and the British ballad got transplanted into the new world and got contaminated by the religious hymns of church and camp meetings.Here is the types,Early Country Music or Mountain Music,Blue Grass Music,Traditional Country music,Cowboy and Western music,Western Swing,Honky Tonk,Rockabilly,Nashvile Sound,Country Rock,Bakersfield Sound,Outlaw Country,New Traditionalist,Texas Country,Alternative Country,Contemporary Country.Fifteen types total,that is a big family.(Piero scaruffi)