1. Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music
America’s Musical Landscape th edition
PowerPoint by Myra Lewinter Malamut
Georgian Court University
Part 1:
Music in Early North America
Chapter 1: North American Indian Music
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

2. Music in Early North America
The Early Years: Historical and Cultural Perspective
Scholars believe that human experience has always included music
Music’s sound and its place in society have differed widely from one time and one culture to another
Even today, people differentiate between “music” and “noise”
Often disagreeing on which is music and which is noise
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

3. The Beginnings of Music in America: Native Americans
Long before the first white settlers or black slaves touched the North American shores the people living here were making music of their own
Today’s descendants of the early Native Americans retain a strong reverence for and a sense of oneness with nature
Expressed within music as in all their arts, traditional Native American music and art all had spiritual and utilitarian significance
Native American Frame Drum
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

4. The Beginnings of Music in America: Native Americans
The Western separation of sacred and secular concepts has little meaning among Native Americans
Religion, art, music, poetry are the inseparable threads—the warp and woof—of life and culture
Before the twentieth century Native American cultural expression remained consistent
During the last century, acculturation brought about significant changes in Indian music
Indian Scout, painted by
Alfred Jacob Miller,
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

5. Music in Early North America: European Emigrants
During the sixteenth century, Europeans began to arrive and settle in North America in large numbers
Bringing musical customs with them
Early seventeenth century: Pilgrims and Puritans in New England were Protestants
Protests against the Roman Catholic Church included some concerning the performance of religious music
Puritan Society included sophisticated men and women of keen wit and high intellect
Including Anne Bradstreet ( ), the New World’s first poet
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

6. Music in Early North America: Puritan Society
Early New Englanders had little use for art for art’s sake
But their daily experience was rich in artistic expression
Example: Graveyards by houses of worship contained elaborately carved and decorated headstones
Landscape painting held little attraction
But portrait painting preserved a likeness and so was valued
Gravestone in a colonial churchyard
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

7. The African Experience in Early America
Even before the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth Rock in 1620, Africans were being forcibly brought to, and made to work in the New World
Forbidden to practice their familiar African religious rituals and to sing songs, dance, and play musical instruments in their accustomed ways
Slaves attempted to adapt traditional African musical expression to worship the white people’s Christian god
Slaves integrated music and faith into their daily lives
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

8. Revolution, in a Classical Style
Eighteenth-century Americans of European descent reflected a strong European influence
European artists had adopted the classical ideals of ancient Greek sculptors and architects
Perfection of form, balanced designs, relatively restrained emotional expression
From 1750 to 1820, artists applied these characteristics to their art: The Age of Classicism
In music, the eighteenth century is known as the Classical Period
This was the era of the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

9. Painting in Eighteenth-Century America
American artists had more training and sophistication than the folk artists of the settlers’ period
But their finest works retained an innocence, honesty, and decorative sense
Distinguishing them from the more elegant European works of the era
John Singleton Copley ( )—America’s greatest colonial artist
Charles Wilson Peale ( )—The leading artist in Philadelphia for many years
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

10. The Effects of Cultures on the Evolution of American Music
The traditions and practices of all the early inhabitants all affected American music
Those native to the land; early European arrivals; the slaves
Early music heard in the separated inhabited regions of the continent reflected highly disparate values and sounds, yet had items in common
More likely to be performed by amateurs in intimate settings (not the concert hall), and often with spiritual connotation
The distinctions we draw between sacred and secular music—and between high and low art--had little meaning in the early American experience
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

11. North American Indian Music: Songs
Music occurred in association with other activities
Dance, religious ritual, prayer, work, recreation
Songs possess strong powers to accomplish a given end, such as
Success in fishing
Healing
Winning a bride
Songs are not thought of as composed
They are believed to be received in a dream or vision
A song’s owner may sell the song or grant someone else the right to sing it, or pass on the song in a will
Songs are preserved by oral tradition through generations
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

12. North American Indian Music: Songs and Song Texts, Characteristics
Usually sung by a solo voice or by men and women singing in unison = Singing the same notes at the same time
There is no harmony in the western sense, but there may be…
Call-and-response = solo voice alternating with a group
Melodic phrases start on a higher pitch and then descend, similar to the spoken phrase
A song often consists of many repetitions of one or more phrases or partial phrases
Songs may be in a native language, or recently, in English
Some texts are vocables = neutral syllables (hey, neh, yeh)
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

13. Listening Example 2 Yeibichai Chant Song (excerpt)
On the ninth (last) night of the
Night Way ceremony,
Yeibichai appears
accompanied by masked
dancers shaking their guard
rattles, and by the unearthly
call of the gods. The falsetto
tones heard here are
particularly characteristic of
this and of some other
Native American songs
Yeibichai Chant Song (excerpt)
Listening guide page 27
Form: Strophic
Melody: Repeated high-pitched tones interspersed with even higher cries of indeterminate pitch, producing a rather florid melodic line featuring dramatic upward leaps
Rhythm: Steady pulse marked by rattle shakes
Text: Vocables punctuated with the distinctive call of the Yei
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

14. Listening Example 3 Sioux Grass Dance Plains Indians
Usually referred to today as
a grass dance, because of
the grass braids the
dancers wear at their
waists, this is the stirring
war dance music heard, or
imitated, in countless
western movies
Hear the strong pulsations,
and the falsetto singing
Sioux Grass Dance
Plains Indians
Listening guide page 27
Form: Strophic, phrase introduced with leader’s call
Melody: Phrases begin high pitched, then descend
Accompaniment: Drums, rattles, observers’ yells
Manner of performance: Two teams of costumed dancers carrying weapons face each other, imitating battle
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

15. North American Indian Music: Sound Instruments
Little music is performed by instruments alone
Sound instruments often support or “hold up” a song
Navajo flutes: The main melody-playing instrument
Traditionally used as a courting instrument to persuade a young woman to marry the player
Percussion instruments are widespread
Especially rattles, rasps, drums
A rasp is made from a long stick of wood into which notches have been carved, rubbed with another stick or piece of bone to make a rasping sound
Drums are profuse in variety
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

16. Contemporary Indian Song
Among the earliest changes to Native American Indian music was the development of pan-Indian songs
Native American peoples from many tribes, speaking various languages, met at powwows for dancing, singing, ceremonies
Modern powwows are common on reservations and in cities
Vocables are used to sing powwow songs; vocables…
Unite the people as Native Americans and as members of a particular tribe
Authenticate ceremonies
Keep people in balance with nature
Often there are visitors from other cultures
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

17. Native American Professional Musicians
Recent interest in Native American Indian culture has produced much research of live and recorded traditional and new Native American music
Carlos Nakai (b. 1946)
Collaborates with musicians in many fields, including the concert hall, electronic techniques, Navajo flute, more
Louis Ballard: Composer, music educator, journalist of Cherokee, Quapaw, Scottish, French, English descent
R. Carlos Nakai
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music

18. Image Credits:
Slide 3: Native American frame drum © C Squared Studios/Getty Images
Slide 4: Indian Scout, painted by Alfred Jacob Miller, © Corel
Slide 6: Gravestone in a colonial churchyard, © Corbis
Slide 17: R. Carlos Nakai, © Getty Images
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 1: North American Indian Music