Cool Stuff--Music of the Americas

What find interesting is that a lot of Native American music uses vocables. The actual meaning of the songs is up to the music and dancers to convey...which I find fascinating. The way these dancers move reminds me a lot of a round dance and especially the first Native American video we watched. They have a consistent drum beat and use shakers in the music. This entire song is nothing, but vocables, dance, and rhythm. This seems to be an example of what a lot, but not all traditional Native American music sounds like. From what I can gather from this video and other videos that we've watched in class is that Native American music puts emphasis on community and feeling in their work. This shows how similar Native American cultures are to each other and how different they were. This kind of reminds me of how European culture works. Places that are on the same content tend to have some common threads if communication is there. The Native Americans traded amongst themselves as did Europeans. I also wanted to see if the similarity of their music was because of our limited scope or was it because of some interconnectedness that they all had in common. 


 Another thing I find fascinating is the Pow Wow. The rodeo like atmosphere really lends to the cultural experience and festivities. There's just something so happy about it. It interests me to see these people perform their culture and how music is so intrinsically linked to it. Music and dance go hand and hand for them. It's the purest expression of themselves. How they gage whether someone is a good dancer or singer is different than traditional western music. This is why the Pow Wow is so interesting. What actually is the criteria for them to decide this. 

 I read an article on the Pow Wow and how it is judged here. The site also details other aspects of the Pow Wow too.

 I noticed that there is a lot of emphasis on the drum and the dancer's regalia. There's some rules about the dancer being disqualified if they don't stop in time or lose part of their outfit. The dancing is different than European forms. The dancing/footwork is scored as well. The outfits seem more important to them, than outfits tend to in European cultures (in retrospect of dance not opera). I found this footage because I wanted to see what their idea was of great dancing and singing. 



Thirdly I wanted to learn about Native American flutes. Apparently, there's 5 holed flutes which is really cool. I'm used to seeing flutes with 6 holes or more. They are so different than European flutes. The first one is my favorite aesthetically because of the elegance of the carving. All of the different flutes sound different which I actually didn't expect. Not only the range changed, but the timbre and texture did too. The flutes use the pentatonic scale which is so cool. All of the flutes are made from wood and the guy goes into detail about which wood each one is made out of. I think it's cool how the wood effects the sounds and tone of the instrument. It reminds me of the difference between a normal metal flute and a sterling silver/or gold one. I wanted to see what different flutes sounded like from someone who was familiar with the culture and I stumbled upon him while searching on youtube. I liked how detailed he was. He seemed super comfortable with the instruments. 



Comments

  1. Anabella WalkerJanuary 18, 2021 at 2:53 PM

    The powwows are very interesting and the clothes are so intricate! It's amazing to watch their footwork while they dance. I loved watching the video and seeing all of the different designs their outfits have. They're all so beautiful and colorful!

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  2. Cassandra ShaddockJanuary 18, 2021 at 5:24 PM

    It definitely is cool that Native Americans rely more on the music and dance for interpretation rather than lyrics, since they use mainly vocables. It proves that what matters sometimes is the spirit and occasion, not necessarily the words.

    I find it funny how two of our topics ended up being the same! Isn't it interesting that the dance competitions at the Pow Wows are so strict about outfits and keeping in time? I focused more on the pan flutes, so seeing the other types allowed me to expand even more on Native wind instruments. I also find it fascinating that these flutes have such a wide variety of timbres and ranges, and that they use the pentatonic scale. Good information!

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