American Indian music is the musics that are shared by or that distinguish American Indian tribes and First Nations. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally consists of a Social group existing before the development of or outside of States Many anthropologists use First Nations is a term of Ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis people In addition to the traditional music of those groups there now exist pan-tribal or intertribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of popular music including: rock, blues, hip hop, classical, film music and reggae, as well as popular pan-tribal styles like waila (chicken scratch). A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other A genre (ˈʒɑːnrə also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/ from French "kind" or "sort" from Latin: genus (stem gener-) is a loose set Popular music is Music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more Rock and roll (also known as rock 'n' roll) is a form of Music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s with roots in mostly African The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression Hip hop music, also referred to as rap music, is a Music genre typically consisting of a rhythmic vocal style called rap which is accompanied with Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and Secular music A film score is a broad term referring to the music in a film which is generally categorically separated from songs used within a film Reggae is a Music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s Chicken scratch (also known as waila music) is a kind of Dance music developed by the Tohono O'odham people

Indigenous music of North America: Topics
Native American/First Nations
Chicken scratch	Ghost Dance
Hip hop	Native American flute
Peyote song	Pow wow
Tribal music articles
Arapaho	Blackfoot
Dene	Innu
Inuit	Iroquois
Kiowa	Kwakwaka'wakw
Navajo	Pueblo (Hopi, Zuni)
Seminole	Sioux (Lakota, Dakota)
Yaqui music	Yuman
Related topics
Music of the United States - Music of Canada

Contents 1 Characteristics 1.1 Song texts and sources 2 Societal role 2.1 Gender 3 History 4 Music areas 4.1 Southwest 4.2 Eastern Woodlands 4.3 Plains 4.4 Great Basin 4.5 Northwest Coast 4.6 Arctic 5 Pan-tribalism 5.1 Native American flute 5.2 Native American drums 6 Awards 7 Samples 8 External links 9 References 10 Notes 11 Further reading

Characteristics

Vocalization and percussion are the most important aspects of traditional Native American music. Vocalization takes many forms, ranging from solo and choral song to responsorial, unison and multipart singing. Percussion, especially drums and rattles, are common accompaniment to keep the rhythm steady for the singers, who generally use their native language or vocables (nonsense syllables). In speech, a vocable is an utterance term or Word that is capable of being spoken and recognized. Traditional music usually begins with slow and steady beats that grow gradually faster and more emphatic, while various flourishes like drum and rattle tremolos, shouts and accented patterns add variety and signal changes in performance for singers and dancers. Tremolo, or tremolando, is a Musical term with several meanings A regular and repetitive variation in Amplitude for the duration ^[1]

Song texts and sources

Native American song texts include both public pieces and secret songs, said to be "ancient and unchanging", which are used only for sacred and ceremonial purposes. There are also public sacred songs, as well as ritual speeches that are sometimes perceived as musical because of their use of rhythm and melody. These ritual speeches often directly describe the events of a ceremony, and the reasons and ramifications of the night. ^[2] Vocables, or lexically meaningless syllables, are a common part of many kinds of Native American songs. In speech, a vocable is an utterance term or Word that is capable of being spoken and recognized. They frequently mark the beginning and end of phrases, sections or songs themselves. Often songs make frequent use of vocables and other untranslatable elements. Songs that are translatable include historical songs, like the Navajo "Shi' naasha', which celebrates the end of Navajo internment in Fort Sumter, New Mexico in 1868. "Shi' naasha'" ( I am going) is a Navajo song, composed in 1868 to commemorate the release of the Navajo from Internment at Fort Sumter. Tribal flag songs and national anthems are also a major part of the Native American musical corpus, and are a frequent starter to public ceremonies, especially powwows. Native American music also includes a range of courtship songs, dancing songs and popular American or Canadian tunes like "Amazing Grace, "Dixie", "Jambalaya" and "Sugar Time". Courtship is the traditional dating period before engagement and marriage " Amazing Grace " is a well-known Christian Hymn by Englishman John Newton and which first appeared in print in Newton's Olney Hymns " Dixie " also known as " I Wish I Was in Dixie " " Dixie's Land " and other titles is a popular American song. Jambalaya the lyrics Goodbye Joe he gotta go me oh my ohHe gotta go pole th pirogue down the bayou Many songs celebrate harvest, planting season or other important times of year. ^[2]

Societal role

Native American music plays a vital role in history and education, with ceremonies and stories orally passing on ancestral customs to new generations. Native American ceremonial music is traditionally said to originate from deities or spirits, or from particularly respected individuals. Rituals are shaped by every aspect of song, dance and costuming, and each aspect informs about the "makers, wearers and symbols important to the nation, tribe, village, clan, family, or individual". ^[1] They can vary slightly from year to year, with leaders recombining and introducing slight variations. The Pueblo compose a number of new songs each year in a committee which uses dreams and visions. Pueblos are traditional communities of Native Americans in the southwestern United States of America. ^[3]

The styles and purposes of music vary greatly between and among each Native American tribe. However, a common concept amongst many indigenous groups is a conflation of music and power. For example, the Pima people feel many of their songs were given in the beginning and sung by the Creator. The Akimel O'odham or Pima are a group of American Indians living in an area consisting of what is now central and Southern Arizona ( USA It is believed that some people then have more of an inclination to musical talent than others because of an individual's peculiar power. ^[4]

Gender

Within various Native American communities, gender plays an important role in music. Men and women play sex-specific roles in many musical activities. Instruments, songs and dances are often peculiar to one or the other sex, and many musical settings are strictly controlled by sex. In modern powwows, women play a vital role as backup singers and dancers. ^[5] The Cherokee people, for example, hold dances before stickball games. The Cherokee (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ a-ni-yv-wi-ya, in the Cherokee language) are a people native to North America, who at the time of European contact At these pre-game events, men and women perform separate dances and follow separate regulations. Men will dance in a circle around a fire, while women dance in place. Men sing their own songs, while women have their songs sung for them by an elder. Whereas the men's songs invoke power, the women's songs draw power away from the opposing stickball team. ^[6] In some societies, there are customs where certain ceremonial drums are only to be played by men. For the Southern Plains Indians, it is believed that the first drum was given to a woman by the Great Spirit, who instructed her to share it with all women of native nations. However, there also exist prohibitions against women sitting at the Big Drum. ^[6]

Chief Joseph once said, "We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets, that hereafter he will give every man a spirit home according to his deserts; if he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe and all my people believe the same. "

John Wooden Legs of the Cheyenne tribe once stated, "Our land is everything to us. . . I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it - with their lives. "

Charles A. Eastman once said, "Every age, every race, has its leaders and heroes. There were over sixty distinct tribes of Indians on this continent, each of which boasted its notable men. The names and deeds of some of these men will live in American history, yet in the true sense they are unknown, because misunderstood. I should like to present some of the greatest chiefs of modern times in the light of the native character and ideals, believing that the American people will gladly do them tardy justice. "

In many tribal music cultures, there is a relative paucity of traditional women's songs and dances, especially in the Northeast and Southeast music areas. The Southeast is, however, home to a prominent women's musical tradition in the use of leg rattles for ceremonial and friendship dances, and the women's singing during Horse and Ball Game contests. The West Coast tribes of North America tend to more prominence in women's music, with special women's love songs, medicine songs and hand game songs; the Southwest is particularly diverse in women's musical offerings, with major ceremonial, instrumental and social roles in dances. A love song is about falling in love and the happiness it brings . Women also play a vital ceremonial role in the Sun Dance of the Great Plains and Great Basin, and also sing during social dances; Shoshone women still sang the songs of the Ghost Dance into the 1980s. The Sun Dance is a Ceremony practiced by a number of Native Americans The Shoshone ( or) are a Native American tribe with three large divisions the Northern the Western and the Eastern Noted in historical accounts as the Ghost Dance of 1890 the Ghost Dance was a religious movement incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems ^[5]

History

Music and history are tightly interwoven in Native American life. Oral history can be defined as the recording preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker A tribe's history is constantly told and retold through music, which keeps alive an oral narrative of history. These historical narratives vary widely from tribe to tribe, and are an integral part of tribal identity. However, their historical authenticity cannot be verified; aside from supposition and some archaeological evidence, the earliest documentation of Native American music came with the arrival of European explorers. ^[7] Musical instruments and pictographs depicting music and dance have been dated as far back as the 7th century. ^[8]

Bruno Nettl refers to the style of the Great Basin area as the oldest style and common throughout the entire continent before Mesoamerica but continued only in the Great Basin and in the lullaby, gambling, and tale genres around the continent. Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Mesoamérica is a Region extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, defined A style featuring relaxed vocal technique and the rise may have originated in Mesoamerican Mexico and spread northward, particularly into the California-Yuman and Eastern music areas. According to Nettl, these styles also feature "relative" rhythmic simplicity in drumming and percussion, with isometric material and pentatonic scales in the singing, and motives created from shorter sections into longer ones. ^[9]

While this process occurred, three Asian styles may have influenced North American music across the Bering Strait, all featuring pulsating vocal technique and possibly evident in recent Paleo-Siberian tribes such as Chuckchee, Yukaghir, Koryak. Also, these may have influenced the Plains-Pueblo, Athabascan, and Inuit-Northwest Coast areas. According to Nettl, the boundary between these southward and the above northward influences are the areas of greatest musical complexity: the Northwest Coast, Pueblo music, and Navajo music. Evidence of influences between the Northwest Coast and Mexico are indicated, for example, by bird-shaped whistles. ^[9] The Plains-Pueblo area has influenced and continues to influence the surrounding cultures, with contemporary musicians of all tribes learning Plains-Pueblo influenced pantribal genres such as Peyote songs. ^[9]

Music areas

Nettl uses the following music areas which approximately coincide with Wissler, Kroeber, and Driver's cultural areas: Inuit-Northwest coast, Great Basin, California-Yuman, Plains-Pueblo, Athabascan, and Eastern. A cultural area or culture area is a Region ( Area) with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of activities ( Culture ^[10]

Southwest

Arid American Southwest is home to two broad groupings of closely-related cultures, the Pueblo and Athabaskan. The Southwestern area of the United States could be defined as the states west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37 Pueblos are traditional communities of Native Americans in the southwestern United States of America. Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan, Athapaskan, Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes) is the name of a large group of closely The Southern Athabaskan Navajo and Apache tribes sing in Plains-style nasal vocals with unblended monophony, while the Pueblos emphasize a relaxed, low range and highly blended monophonic style. The Navajo Nation ( Diné in the Navajo language) is a semi- autonomous Native American homeland covering about 26000 square miles (67339 square A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Athabaskan songs are swift and use drums or rattles, as well as an instrument unique to this area, the Apache violin, or "Tsii'edo'a'tl" meaning "wood that sings" in Apache. A rattle is a Percussion instrument. It consists of a hollow body filled with small uniform solid objects like sand or nuts ^[11]

Pueblo songs are complex and meticulously detailed, usually with five sections divided into four or more phrases characterized by detailed introductory and cadential formulas. They are much slower in tempo than Athabaskan songs, and use various percussion instruments as accompaniment.

Nettl describes Pueblo music, including Hopi, Zuni, Taos Pueblo, San Ildefonso, Santo Domingo, and many others, as one of the most complex on the continent, featuring increased length and number of scale tones (hexatonic and heptatonic common), variety of form, melodic contour, and percussive accompaniment, ranges between an octave and a twelfth, with rhythmic complexity equal to the Plains sub-area. The Hopi are Native American people who primarily live on the 12635 km² (2531 The Zuni (also spelled Zuñi by the Spanish and in early 20th Century ethnological texts or Ashiwi (as the Zuni refer to themselves in their own Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient Pueblo belonging to a Taos ( Northern Tiwa) speaking Native American tribe of He sites the Kachina dance songs as the most complex songs and Hopi and Zuni material as the most complex of the Pueblo, while the Tanoans and Keresans musics are simpler and intermediary between the Plains and western Pueblos. Kachinas (also spelled Katsina, the plural "katsinam" exist in Hopi and in Pueblo cosmology and religious practices Kiowa-Tanoan (also Tanoan-Kiowa) is a family of languages spoken in New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Keresan (kəˈriːsən also Keres (/ˈkɛrəs/ is a group of seven related Lects spoken by Pueblo peoples in New Mexico, U The music of the Pima and Papago is intermediary between the Plains-Pueblo and the California-Yuman music areas, with melodic movement of the Yuman, though including the rise, and the form and rhythm of the Pueblo. The Akimel O'odham or Pima are a group of American Indians living in an area consisting of what is now central and Southern Arizona ( USA The Tohono O'odham, also known as the Papago, are a group of aboriginal Americans who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the southwest ^[12]

He describes Southern Athabascan music, that of the Apache and Navajo, as the simplest next to the Great Basin style, featuring strophic form, tense vocals using pulsation and falsetto, tritonic and tetratonic scales in triad formation, simple rhythms and values of limited duration (usually only two per song), arc-type melodic contours, and large melodic intervals with a predominance of major and minor thirds and perfect fourths and fifths with octave leaps not rare. Peyote songs share characteristics of Apache music and Plains-Pueblo music having been promoted among the Plains by the Apache people. Peyote songs are a form of Native American music, now most often performed as part of the Native American Church. ^[12]

He describes the structural characteristics of California-Yuman music, including that of Pomo, Miwak, Luiseno, Catalineno, and Gabrielino, and the Yuman tribes, including, Mohave, Yuman, Havasupai, Maricopa, as using the rise in almost all songs, a relaxed nonpulsating vocal technique (like European classical music), a relatively large amount of isorhythmic material, some isorhythmic tendencies, simple rhythms, pentatonic scales without semitones, an average melodic range of an octave, sequence, and syncopated figures such as a sixteenth-note, eight-note, sixteenth-note figure. The form of rise used varies throughout the area, usually being rhythmically related to the preceding non-rise section but differing in melodic material or pitch. The rise may be no higher than the highest pitch of the original section, but will contain a much larger number of higher pitches. In California the non-rise is usually one reiterate phrase, the rise being the phrase transposed an octave higher, the Yumans use a non-rise of long repeated sections each consisting of several phrases, the rise being three to five phrases performed only once, and in southern California the previous two and progressive forms are found. ^[13]

Eastern Woodlands

Inhabiting a wide swath of the United States and Canada, Eastern Woodlands natives, according to Nettl, can be distinguished by antiphony (call and response style singing), which does not occur in other areas. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page This article is about the musical term See Antiphon (person the orator of ancient Greece In Music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different Musicians where the second phrase is heard as a direct Their territory includes Maritime Canada, New England, U.S. Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes and Southeast regions. The Maritime provinces, called the Maritimes in local English (or the Canadian Maritimes by non-Canadians is a region of Eastern Canada History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the The Mid-Atlantic States (also called Middle Atlantic States or simply Mid Atlantic) form one of the nine geographic divisions within the United States that The Laurentian Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada–United States border. The US Southeast is the eastern portion of the Southern United States, but the Census Bureau does not provide a standard definition of a "Southeast" region Songs are rhythmically complex, characterized by frequent metric changes and a close relationship to ritual dance. Ceremonial dance is a major category or classification of Dance forms or dance styles where the purpose is ceremonial or Ritualistic This compares Flutes and whistles are solo instruments, and a wide variety of drums, rattles and striking sticks are played. Nettl describes the Eastern music area as the region between the Mississippi river and the Atlantic. The most complex styles being that of the Southeastern Creek, Yuchi, Cherokee, Choctaw, Iroquois and their language group, the simpler style being that of the Algonquian language group including Delaware and Penobscot. The Algonquian speaking Shawnee have a relatively complex style influenced by the nearby southeastern tribes. ^[14]

The characteristics of this entire area include short iterative phrases, reverting relationships, shouts before, during, and after singing, anhematonic pentatonic scales, simple rhythms and meter and, according to Nettl, antiphonal or responsorial techniques including "rudimentary imitative polyphony". Melodic movement tends to be gradually descending throughout the area and vocals include a moderate amount of tension and pulsation. ^[14]

Plains

Extending across the American Midwest into Canada, Plains-area music is nasal, with high pitches and frequent falsettos, with a terraced descent (a step-by-step descent down an octave) in an unblended monophony. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the The term falsetto (Italian diminutive of falso, false refers to the Vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the Modal voice register and Melodic motion is the quality of movement of a Melody, including nearness or farness of successive pitches or notes in a Melody. In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems In Music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of Melody without accompanying Harmony. Strophes use incomplete repetition, meaning that songs are divided into two parts, the second of which is always repeated before returning to the beginning. Strophe ( Greek στροφή, turn bend twist, see also Phrase) is a concept in versification which properly Incomplete repetition is a Musical form featuring two large sections, the second being a partial or incomplete re-presentation or Repetition of the first

Large double-sided skin drums are characteristic of the Plains tribes, and solo end-blown flutes (flageolet) are also common. The end-blown flute or rim-blown flute is a keyless Woodwind instrument played by directing an airstream against the sharp edge of the upper end of a tube

Nettl describes the central Plains tribes, from Canada to Texas: Blackfoot, Crow, Dakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche, as the most typical and simple sub-area of the Plains-Pueblo music area. This area's music is characterized by extreme vocal tension, pulsation, melodic preference for perfect fourths and a range averring a tenth, rhythmic complexity, and increased frequence of tetratonic scales. In Music, a scale is a group of musical notes collected in ascending and descending order that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all The musics of the Arapaho and Cheyenne intensify these characteristics, while the northern tribes, especially Blackfoot music, feature simpler material, smaller melodic ranges, and fewer scale tones. Blackfoot music is the Music of the Blackfoot tribes (best translated in the Blackfoot language as nitsínixki - "I sing" from ^[15]

Nettl Arapaho music includes ceremonial and secular songs, such as the ritualistic Sun Dance, performed in the summer when the various bands of the Arapaho people would come together. The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans from the western Great Plains, in the area of eastern Colorado and Wyoming. The Sun Dance is a Ceremony practiced by a number of Native Americans Arapaho traditional songs consist of two sections exhibiting terraced descent, with a range greater than an octave and scales between four and six tones. Other ceremonial songs were received in visions, or taught as part of the men's initiations into a society for his age group. Secular songs include a number of social dances, such as the triple meter round dances and songs to inspire warriors or recent exploits. There are two distinct Dance categories called Round Dance. The specific dances belonging to the first of these categories are often considered to be ethnic, There are also songs said to be taught by a guardian spirit, which should only be sung when the recipient is near death. ^[16]

Great Basin

Music of the Great Basin is simple, discreet and ornate, characterized by short melodies with a range smaller than an octave, moderately-blended monophony, relaxed and open vocals and, most uniquely, paired-phrase structure, in which a melodic phrases, repeated twice, is alternated with one to two additional phrases. The Great Basin is a large arid region of the western United States. In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems In Music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of Melody without accompanying Harmony. A song of this type might be diagrammed as follows: AA BB CC AA BB CC, etc.

Nettl describes the music of the sparesly settled Great Basin, including most of desert Utah and Nevada (Paiute, Ute, Shoshoni) and some of southern Oregon (Modoc and Klamath), as "extremely simple," featuring melodic ranges averaging just over a perfect fifth, many tetratonic scales, and short forms. The majority of songs are iterative with each phrase repeated once, though occasional songs with multiple repetitions are found. Many Modoc and Klamath songs contain only one repeated phrase and many of their scales only two to three notes (ditonic or tritonic). This style was carried to the Great Plains by the Ghost Dance religion which originated among the Paiute, and very frequently features paired-phrase patterns and a relaxed nonpulsating vocal style. Noted in historical accounts as the Ghost Dance of 1890 the Ghost Dance was a religious movement incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems Herzog attributes the similarly simple lullabies, song-stories, and gambling songs found all over the continent historically to the music of the Great Basin which was preserved through relative cultural isolation and low-population. ^[17]

Northwest Coast

Open vocals with monophony are common in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, though polyphony also occurs (this the only area of North America with native polyphony). In Music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of Melody without accompanying Harmony. The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America (the term refers to the land not the ocean British Columbia (ˌbrɪtɨʃ kəˈlʌmbiə ( BC) ( (la Colombie-Britannique C In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony Chromatic intervals accompanying long melodies are also characteristic, and rhythms are complex and declamatory, deriving from speech. Instrumentation is more diverse than in the rest of North America, and includes a wide variety of whistles, flutes, horns and percussion instruments.

Nettl describes the music of the Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Tsimshian, Makah, and Quileute as some of the most complex on the continent, with the music of the Salish nations (Nlaka'pamux, Nuxálk, and Sliammon, and others directly east of the Northwest tribes) as being intermediary between these Northwest Coast tribes and Inuit music. The Kwakwaka'wakw (also Kwakiutl) are an Indigenous nation numbering about 5500 who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island The Nuu-chah-nulth (pronounced) (also formerly referred to as the Nootka, Nutka, Aht, Nuuchahnulth) are one of the Indigenous peoples The Tsimshian ( Sm'algyax: Ts’msyan) /'sɪmʃiæn/ are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. For Ozette in Tales of Symphonia see Tales of Symphonia The Makah (məˈkɑː from the Klallam name for the tribe màq̓áʔa) are a Native American The Nlaka'pamux (nɬeʔképmx commonly called "the Thompson", and also Thompson River Salish, Thompson Salish, Thompson River Indians Tla A' minThe Sliammon First Nation (Tla A' min is a First Nations government located on the upper Sunshine Coast in southwestern British Columbia, The music of the Salish tribes, and even more so the Northwest coast, intensifies the significant features of Inuit music, see below, however their melodic movement is often pendulum-type ("leaping in broad intervals from one limit of the range to the other"). The Northwest coast music also "is among the most complicated on the continent, especially in regard to rhythmic structure," featuring intricate rhythmic patterns distinct from but related to the vocal melody and rigid percussion. He also reports unrecorded use of incipient polyphony in the form of drones or parallel intervals in addition to antiphonal and responorial forms. Vocals are extremely tense, producing dynamic contrast, ornamentation, and pulsation, and also often using multiple sudden accents in one held tone. ^[18]

Arctic

Main article: Inuit music

The Inuit of Alaska, Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory, Nunavut and Greenland are well-known for their throat-singing, an unusual method of vocalizing found only in a few cultures worldwide. The Inuit live across the northern sections of Canada, especially in Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut and Northwest Territories, as well Inuit (plural the singular Inuk, means "man" or "person" is a general term for a group of culturally similar Indigenous peoples inhabiting Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent The Northwest Territories (ˌnɔrθˌwɛstˈtɛrɨtɔriz ( NWT or NT; French, les Territoires du Nord-Ouest) is a territory Yukon (ˈjuːkɒn is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three territories. Nunavut (ˈnuːnəvʊt ( Inuktitut syllabics: ᓄᓇᕗᑦ is the largest and newest territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat meaning "Land of the Greenlanders" Grønland is a self-governing Danish Province located between the Overtone singing, also known as throat singing, overtone chanting, or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the Singer manipulates Throat-singing is used as the basis for a game among the Inuit. Narrow-ranged melodies and declamatory effects are common, as in the Northwest. Repeated notes mark the ends of phrases. Box drums, which are found elsewhere, are common, as a tambourine-like hand drum. The tambourine or Marine is a Musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame often of wood or plastic with pairs of small metal jingles A hand drum is any type of Drum that is typically played with the bare Hand rather than a Stick, Mallet, Hammer, or other type of Nettl describes "Eskimo" music as some of the simplest on the continent, listing characteristics including recitative-like singing, complex rhythmic organization, relatively small melodic range averaging about a sixth, prominence of major thirds and minor seconds melodically, with undulating melodic movement. ^[18]

Pan-tribalism

Pan-tribalism is the syncretic adoption of traditions from foreign communities. Since the rise of the United States and Canada, Native Americans have forged a common identity, and invented pan-tribal music, most famously including powwows, peyote songs and the Ghost Dance. Peyote songs are a form of Native American music, now most often performed as part of the Native American Church. Noted in historical accounts as the Ghost Dance of 1890 the Ghost Dance was a religious movement incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems

The Ghost Dance spread throughout the Plains tribes in the 1890s, and most still survive in use. The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the " Mauve Decade" because William Henry Perkin 's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that They are characterized by relaxed vocals and a narrow range. Apache-derived peyote songs, prayers in the Native American Church, use a descending melody and monophony. Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate with a Deity or spirit Native American Church, a religious denomination which practices Peyotism or the Peyote religion originated in the U Rattles and water drums are used, in a swift tempo. A rattle is a Percussion instrument. It consists of a hollow body filled with small uniform solid objects like sand or nuts Water drum s are a category of Membranophone characterized by the filling of the drum chamber with some amount of water to create a unique sound The Sun Dance and Grass Dance of the plains are the roots of intertribal powwows, which feature music with terraced descent and nasal vocals, both Plains characteristic features. The Sun Dance is a Ceremony practiced by a number of Native Americans Melodic motion is the quality of movement of a Melody, including nearness or farness of successive pitches or notes in a Melody.

An example of an intertribal song is the AIM Song, which uses meaningless vocables to make it accessible to people of all tribes. This article is about the song associated with the American Indian Movement for the single by The Cooper Temple Clause see A In speech, a vocable is an utterance term or Word that is capable of being spoken and recognized. However, because of its origins from the Lakota and Ojibwe people, it still retains some Plains characteristics.

John Trudell launched a new genre of spoken word poetry in the 1980s, beginning with Aka Graffiti Man (1986). John Trudell (born February 15, 1946) is an American Author, Poet, Musician, and former political Activist Spoken word is a form of literary Art or artistic performance in which Lyrics, Poetry, or stories are spoken rather than sung The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) The next decade saw further innovations in Native American popular music, including Robbie Robertson (of The Band) releasing a soundtrack for a documentary, Music for the Native Americans, that saw limited mainstream success, as well as Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike's modernized peyote songs, which they began experimenting with on Sacred Path: Healing Songs of the Native American Church. Robbie Robertson (born Jaime Robert Klegerman, 5 July 1943 at Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Songwriter, The Band was a rock group active from 1967 to 1976 and again from 1983 to 1999 Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt in one fashion or another to " Document " reality Music for The Native Americans is a 1994 album by Robbie Robertson, compiling music written by Robertson and other colleagues (billed as the Red Road Peyote songs are a form of Native American music, now most often performed as part of the Native American Church. Waila (or the chicken scratch music of the Tohono O'odham) has gained performers like the Joaquin Brothers fame across Native American communities, while hip hop crews like WithOut Rezervation and Robby Bee & the Boyz From the Rez (Reservation of Education) have a distinctively Native American flourish to hip hop. Chicken scratch (also known as waila music) is a kind of Dance music developed by the Tohono O'odham people The Tohono O'odham, also known as the Papago, are a group of aboriginal Americans who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the southwest Hip hop music, also referred to as rap music, is a Music genre typically consisting of a rhythmic vocal style called rap which is accompanied with In the 21st Century the leading light of contemporary Native American music has been Martha Redbone who's award winning albums Home of the Brave (2002) and Skintalk (2005) have incorporated both traditional song and culture references into a brew of soul, funk, rock and jazz that has reached audiences across Europe and Japan as well as into the urban communities of the US. Martha Redbone is a part Shawnee, Choctaw and African American musician Meanwhile, young Native musicians such as Red Earth (see "Zia Soul" (2003) ), DJ Abel, Derek Miller, Ethnic DeGeneration, and Casper are producing outstanding underground music (ranging from hip-hop to funk to reggae to metal) defying stereotypes of Native people (without label support). Red Earth is an influential Native American Rock Band from Albuquerque New Mexico. Derek Miller (born in Six Nations on October 29, 1974) is an aboriginal Canadian Singer-songwriter.

Native American flute

Main article: Native American flute

The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound used in a variety of New Age and World music recordings New Age music is peaceful Music of various styles which is intended to create inspiration relaxation and positive feelings often used by listeners for Yoga, The term world music includes Traditional music (sometimes called Folk music or roots music of any culture that are created and played by indigenous musicians Its music was used in courtship, healing, meditation and spiritual rituals. Courtship is the traditional dating period before engagement and marriage Healing, assessed physically is the process by which the cells in the Body regenerate and repair to reduce the size of a damaged or necrotic area

The late 1960s saw a roots revival centered around the flute, with a new wave of flautists and artisans like Doc Nevaquaya and Carl Running Deer. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 A roots revival ( folk revival) is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors Notable and award winning Native American flautists include: Mary Youngblood, Kevin Locke, Jay Red Eagle, Robert Tree Cody, Robert Mirabal, Joseph Firecrow , Jeff Ball , Terry Lee Whetstone , and Jan Michael Looking Wolf. Mary Youngblood is a Native American flutist in Northern California. Kevin Locke ( Lakota name Tokeya Inajin, meaning "The First to Arise" is Lakota ( Hunkpapa band and Anishinaabe. Jay Red Eagle is a Native American Flautist and member of the Cherokee Nation Robert "Tree" Cody (born in Los Angeles, California) is one of the most notable American performers of the Robert Mirabal (born 1966 is a Pueblo musician and Native American flute player and maker from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. Joseph Fire Crow is a Cheyenne flutist He has been releasing albums since 1992 Jeff Ball may refer to Jeff Ball (baseball, former Major League Baseball first baseman Jeff Ball (musician Jan Michael Looking Wolf (born 1967 is a Kalapuya Native American flute player from Grand Ronde, Oregon. Of special importance is R. Carlos Nakai (Changes, 1983), who has achieved some mainstream renown for his mixture of the flute with other contemporary genres. R Carlos Nakai (born April 16, 1946) is a Native American flautist of Navajo / Ute heritage Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar)

The Native American flute is the only flute in the world constructed with two air chambers - there is a wall inside the flute between the top (slow) air chamber and the bottom chamber which has the whistle and finger holes. The top chamber also serves as a secondary resonator, which gives the flute its distinctive sound. There is a hole at the bottom of the "slow" air chamber and a (generally) square hole at the top of the playing chamber. A block (or "bird") with a spacer is tied on top of the flute to form a thin, flat airstream for the whistle hole (or "window"). Some more modern flutes use an undercut either in the block or the flute to eliminate the need for a spacer.

The "traditional" Native American flute was constructed using measurements based on the body - the length of the flute would be the distance from armpit to wrist, the length of the top air chamber would be one fist-width, the distance from the whistle to the first hole also a fist-width, the distance between holes would be one thumb-width, and the distance from the last hole to the end would generally be one fist-width. Unlike Western music, traditional American Indian music had no standard pitch reference, such as A440, so flutes were not standardized for pitch.

Modern Native American flutes are generally tuned to a variation of the minor pentatonic scale (such as you would get playing the black keys on a piano), which gives the instrument its distinctive plaintive sound. Recently some makers have begun experimenting with different scales, giving players new melodic options. Also, modern flutes are generally tuned in concert keys (such as A or D) so that they can be easily played with other instruments. The root keys of modern Native American flutes span a range of about three and a half octaves, from C2 to A5.

Native American flutes most commonly have either 5 or 6 holes, but instruments can have anything from no holes to seven (including a thumb hole). Various makers employ different scales and fingerings for their flutes.

Some modern Native American flutes are called "drone" flutes, and are two (or more) flutes built together. Generally, the drone chamber plays a fixed note which the other flute can play against in harmony.

Native American drums

Main article: Native American drums

Of great influential and importance are American Indian drums. Different tribes have different traditions about their drums and how to play them. For larger dance or powwow type drums, the basic construction is very similar in most tribes: a wooden frame or a carved and hollowed-out log, with rawhide buckskin or elk skin stretched out across the opening by sinew thongs. Traditionally American Indian drums are large, two to three feet in diameter, and they are played communally by groups of singers who sit around them in a circle. For smaller single-sided hand drums, a thinner frame or shell is used, and a rawhide surface is string onto only one side, with lacing across the other. Other types include two basic styles of water drums: the Iroquois type and the Yaqui type. The Iroquois water drum is a small cup-shaped wooden vessel, with water inside it, and a moistened tanned hide stretched across the top opening; the wetness and tightness of the tanned hide produce changes in pitch as the water drum is played over time. The Yaqui type of water drum is actually a half gourd, large in size, that floats in a tub of water like a bubble on the surface; the outer round surface of the gourd is struck with a drum stick, and the vibrations are amplified using the tub of water as a resonator.

Awards

The American Grammy Awards present an annual award for Best Native American Music Album, and the Canadian Juno Awards present an annual award for Aboriginal Recording of the Year. The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards)—or Grammys —are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album was first awarded in 2001 The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian Musical Artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music The Juno Award for Aboriginal Recording of the Year, formerly known as Best Music of Aboriginal Canada Recording, is an annual award presented by Canada 's Juno

The dedicated Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and Native American Music Awards ceremonies are also held annually. The Native American Music Awards commonly known as NAMA, or the Nammys, are an annual awards program given out since 1998 for outstanding musical achievments

Samples

• Media:Bice'waan Song.ogg is a recording from the Library of Congress, collected by Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche and published in 1897. The Library of Congress is the De facto National library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress Year 1897 ( MDCCCXCVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common The singer is George Miller, who was probably born in about 1852. Year 1852 ( MDCCCLII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year It was described as: "The true love-song, called by the Omaha Bethae waan, an old designation and not a descriptive name, is sung generally in the early morning, when the lover is keeping his tryst and watching for the maiden to emerge from the tent and go to the spring. They belong to the secret courtship and are sometimes called Me-the-g'thun wa-an - courting songs. . . . They were sung without drum, bell or rattle, to accent the rhythm, in which these songs is subordinated to tonality and is felt only in the musical phrases. . . . Vibrations for the purpose of giving greater expression were not only affected by the tremolo of the voice, but they were enhanced by waving the hand, or a spray of artemesia before the lips, while the body often swayed gently to the rhythm of the song (Fletcher, 1894, p. 156). "
• Download recording Ghost Dance and gambling song from the Piute and Arapaho Native Americans from the Library of Congress' Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry Collection; performed by James Mooney (possibly along with Charles Mooney; neither are believed to be Native Americans) on July 5, 1894
• Download recording - Kiowa mescal daylight song from the Library of Congress' Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry Collection; performed by James Mooney (possibly along with Charles Mooney; neither are believed to be Native Americans) on July 5, 1894
• Download recording - "Steal Partner" Seminole song from the Library of Congress' Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections; performed by Richard Osceola, Naha Tiger, John Josh and Morgan Smith in July 1940 in Cow Creek, Florida

External links

• Historical notes for a selection of 60 American Indian melodies
• Index of Native American Music Resources on the Internet

References

• Crawford, Richard (2001). Noted in historical accounts as the Ghost Dance of 1890 the Ghost Dance was a religious movement incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems The Arapaho (in French: Gens de Vache) tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States The Kiowa (ˈkaɪoʊwə are a nation of American Indians who migrated from what is now Canada to their present location in Southwestern Oklahoma. Mezcal (from Nahuatl mexcalli, "earth roast maguey hearts" wrongly known as 'mescal' is a Mexican distilled spirit protected by International Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States America's Musical Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04810-1.  
• Herndon, Marcia (1980). Native American Music. Norwood, Pennsylvania: Norwood Editions.  
• Means, Andrew (2000). "Ha-Ya-Ya, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in Broughton, Simon and Mark Ellingham, with James McConnachie and Orla Duane (Eds. ): The Rough Guide to World Music: Volume 2, Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and the Pacific. London: Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-636-0.  
• Nettl, Bruno (1956). Music in Primitive Culture. Harvard University Press.  
• Nettl, Bruno (1965). Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents. Prentice-Hall.  
• Wilson, Chesley Goseyun (1994). When the Earth Was Like New: Western Apache Songs and Stories. World Music Press. ISBN 0-937203-57-2.  
• (2001) in Ellen Koskoff (Ed. ): The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Volume 3, The United States and Canada. New York and London: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0824060407.  

Notes

Further reading

• Keeling, R. (1997). North American Indian Music : A Guide to Published Sources and Selected Recordings. Garland Library of Music Ethnology. ISBN 0-8153-0232-0.  

Religious music

Buddhism - Christianity - Hinduism - Judaism - Islam - Native American - Taoism - Rastafarism - Shintoism - Zoroastrianism

Religious music (also sacred music) is Music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence Buddhist music is Music created for or inspired by Buddhism and part of Buddhist art. Christian music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life Hindu music is Music created for or influenced by Hinduism. It includes Indian classical music, Kirtan, Bhajan and other Musical Jewish music, the music of Jews, is quite diverse and dates back thousands of years Islamic music is Muslim religious Music, as sung or played in public services or private devotions The importance of music in Taoist ceremony is demonstrated by revealing how central beliefs are reflected through elements of music such as harmony instrumentation and rhythm The Rastafari movement (also known as Rastafari, Rastafarianism or simply Rasta) is a monotheistic, Abrahamic, New Testament Shinto music is ceremonial Music for Shinto (神道 which is the native religion of Japan Zoroastrian music is a kind of Religious music that accompanies religious and traditional rites among the Zoroastrian people

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