Music of the Indigenous Americans
As we went through Native Americans cultures, there was so much more that I wanted to look up. Especially when we went through the dances such as Pow-wow, and Fancy Dance. I wanted to search more about it and I found many other dances they perform, but what stood out to me was the Rain Dance. The Rain Dance is where women and men can participate in the ceremony unlike some dances where they perform separately. The ceremony is performed to ask the gods or spirits for rain that is needed for their crops. While the dances vary from tribe to tribe, accessories are often needed, some tribes wear large headdresses. Others just wear paint on the body, beads, animal skins, and etc. A common thing in the dresses or face paint is the color blue because it represents the winds, and the rain. Another thing is that these clothes are normally not worn outside of this ceremony. This dance also moves in a zigzag pattern rather than in a circular pattern like other ceremonies.
(Information was found on https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-dances/)
Another thing that I drove deeper into was the songs. I wanted to discover more women artists in the community. I found an artist named Fawn Woods whose music reflects the Cree & Salish Tribe. Fawn was always involved with the ceremonies or joining in on the Pow-wow dances. She was actually the first woman to win at the hand-drum contest of Nations Pow-wow. I found a few songs by her called "Mr Wrong", and "No More." My personal favorite is "Mr Wrong" . It has a lot of elements we went through in class. Like it has the drums as the recurring beat, and vocables as well. Also it's very monophonic, she's the only person on the track even when she overlaps herself. She mixes the song with her native tongue and English. While the song talks about how she thinks she always finds the right guy but it ends up being the wrong guy.
(This is the link to find her other songs as well :http://rpm.fm/artist/fawn-wood/)
Lastly on my list that I wanted to check out was songs made for weddings. I wanted to see if there were any special rituals/songs played at weddings like funerals, and etc. I found out that at weddings that they usually play what they call "Love Songs." The men usually play a flute for his soon to be wife, or the men of the tribe join together to play. In the video you can clearly hear the flute being the only instrument. When doing such things there are no drums, or even vocables; it is just the flute. I really like how the flute makes you feel, it's like it was made for a wedding ceremony.
( I just looked up Love Songs: Native Americans)
I found it cool how the man would play the flute for his wife In their culture. I actually liked the Lakota love song you inserted. I found the Rain Dance you talked about in the begging interesting, how they danced to ask the Gods and spirits for rain for their crops.
ReplyDeleteThe Rain Dance was really interesting. It is cool how that is one of the few dances that men and women do together, but also the general sound of it is pretty unique. Especially at the beginning, the flutes made it sound very mystical and. mysterious. The way they danced at first two seemed very different from most dances we have seen, even though they ended up being similar at the end.
ReplyDeleteI did not really know that the Rain Dance is one of the only songs that both men and women could perform together. Since the separation of gender was a very big part of their culture regarding their music, it kind of shocked me. The wedding songs is really cool too! Especially the part that the soon to be husband plays his flute for his wife and then the other musicians join in.
ReplyDeleteI like that you looked more into the music from Indigenous women artists in the community. I really enjoyed listening to the artist you found, Fawn Wood. Her voice is so pretty.
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