Pow Wow Music Event of the Native Americans - Term Paper Example

?Music Essay Pow wow Pow wow redirects to a concept which indicates gathering of the native people of North America. The word, ‘pow wow’, has originated from the Narragansett word ‘powwaw’ which implies ‘spiritual leader’. Through the passage of time, the concept of pow wow has changed a lot and its modern form stands for a particular kind of event which is hosted by the gathering of both Native Americans and non-Native Americans who come together to sing, dance, celebrate life and find a platform to socialize. This gathering is often used for honouring American Indian culture and society. Pow wow event is marked by a dance competition which ends with a prize distribution ceremony having significant awards for special achievements. The tenure of the gatherings might vary from 5 hours - 6 hours from one day to three days. If any pow wow is called for any special incident then it might extend to one week as well. The event of pow wow is marked by the set-up followed by dances. The set-ups of the pow wow events are generally marked by series of big circles. The central circle is exclusively made for dance and is taken as dancing area. The central circle is surrounded by the circles consisting of MC’s table, groups playing drums consequently followed by sitting areas provided for dancers and their families. Outside these greater circles there are areas for the people who have come to attend and see the show followed by allotted areas for vendors and suppliers of food, music items, costume, jewellery, souvenirs, native art and crafts, tribal bead works, leather items of the Native Americans, shops for the tribal tattoo works and suppliers for regalia. Pow wow event is marked by a grand opening. Mostly the grand opening is begun by a prayer session which is led by the Eagle Staffs. The entries of the Eagle Staffs are after the flags and then come the dancers. Next, one of the drummers from the hosting community follows the dancers. The nature of the grand opening is sacred for some groups and they do not allow photography at all during this time. Others are quite lenient in this respect. Pow wow opening is followed by pow wow dance which are of myriad types. These dances are descendant dance of tribes from Canada and the United States. The opening and closing session of the Pow-wow dance is of poignant importance. But apart from these two sessions, the most commonplace item in the session and the popular dance is the ‘intertribal dance’ under which the group playing the drum plays any song and the audience are free to join on any item of the session. The other popular dance of the Pow-wow dance basically comprise of the ‘round dance’ and the ‘crow hop’ and when these dances are performed they are performed by northern drummers or a song popularly known by the name of ‘horse stealing song’ performed by the ‘southern drum’ which is assisted by “double-beat” or “sneak-up” along with the Traditional and Jingle with the support of “sidestep”. And all these songs have different steps to be accompanied but the steps are subjected to free style of dance. Pow wow music is centrally accompanied with American-Indian drumming followed by singing along with dancing in the pow wow performance. There are many genre of pow wow performance which is unique and typical to respective tribes. The music of the pow wow performance is categorically characterized by pan or intertibalism in collaboration with the normal or Plain Culture. In recent times, the modern pow wow music and dance seem to be influencing the genre of performance (Oracle Think Quest, “Arena and Stuff”). Kiowa Song Kiowa music is a blend of contemporary and traditional music originating from the native culture of Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. The Kiowa song or the typical music of the federally recognised tribe of Kiowa is concentrated around various dance forms. The most popular form of Kiowa dance is their Sun Dance or popularly known as ‘kaw’-tow’ in their language. This Sun Dance was adopted by the tribe when they were migrating towards south. The Sun Dance is accompanied by some typical tribal traditions which included a four long day celebration of the ‘kaw’-tow’. At recent times, the modern songs like Brush Dance songs and Buffalo Dance songs which are performed to commemorate the Kiowa Sun dance have been banned by the law. Kiowa music is one of the most recorded and popular tribal music. Kiowa music comprises greater part of music from the Southern Plains and is one of the prominent genres of Indian Music. The flag song of the Kiowa tribe was taken from the ‘Cheyenne’ song. This ‘Cheyenne’ song is their song and dance in the memory of ‘O-Ho-Mah Lodge’ of the warrior society belonging to Omaha tribe. Another important aspect of the Kiowa music in recent times is the contemporary gourd dance. Gourd dance follows the Kiowa tradition and decorum with most of its songs which were composed or handed from the traditional Kiowa song makers. The recordings of the Kiowa songs during the period of 1930s, 40s and 50s were very closely related to the songs of the 19th century. On the other hand, the Indian House Records and the Canyon Records experimented and started working on the commercial aspect of the Kiowa music during 1960s and 70s. During 1940s Soundchief began the recording of the Kiowa music. Early 20th century Kiowa music was very influential and had the contemporary influence in it to a large extent. Music of this period is preserved in the Library Congress’s Archive of Folk Culture in the Indiana University of American Indian Studies Research Institute. A wide knowledge of the Kiowa music is conserved in the culture that prevails amid the old people of the clan. At the same time, the best part of the Kiowa music is that innovations, developments and experimentations of the folk Kiowa music with the contemporary modern style is continued every year from the organizational and individual ends. Many Kiowa songs of contemporary time commemorate the warrior tribes of the 20th century. The community songs of the 19th century have been incorporated and integrated into the existing music and its trend pertaining to the Kiowa culture and music. The contribution of the Kiowa songs to the entire canon of music is immense. The Kiowa songs have been responsible for the maintenance of the traditions that are very ethnic like ‘Black Leggings Society’, ‘The Oh-Ho-Ma Lodge’ and the remarkable ‘Kiowa Gourd Clan’. The other remarkable work in the domain of Kiowa songs are the sustenance of Peyote songs and War Journey songs which are popularly known as 49 songs. The trend also notes that the war mother songs and victory songs, popularly known as scalp dance songs are also very integral part of the Kiowa songs and culture that prevail till date. Handgame songs and hymns form the central part of the Kiowa songs, traditions and culture too (The University of Arizona Press. “The Power of Kiowa Song: A Collaborative Ethnography”). Cornel Pewewardy is the renowned Kiowa singer or performer of the Southern Plains music. He is also famous for singing Kiowa Christian hymns that encapsulates pertinent glissandos. Recent Kiowa music is enriched with the performers like Kiowa-Comanche, flutist Tom Mauchahty - Ware and Terry Tsotigh who are also a very prominent flutist. Both these artists have their respective bands and they perform at the national level. Kiowa music is so strong that the lead singers of the contemporary pow wow drummers are illuminated with the bunch of star studded Kiowa singers which include names like The Cozad Singers and Bad Medicine Singers. Also the singers like Zotigh Singers and Thunder Hill Singers queue to enhance the glory of the Kiowa music canon. All these bands have successfully received the prestigious Gathering of Nations Southern Challenge (Pewewardy, & Strom, “Cornel Pewewardy”). Sneak Up Dance The Sneak-Up dance is a form of ancient dance where story telling becomes an important motive. It has several origins and various contentions. In one of its form, an act of a warrior is performed where he is spotted by the enemy and thereby the need of attacking anew arises. The performance is ended up with a victory dance. Another version of the dance includes the enacting of a hunter tracing a deer. After the prey is spotted during the enactment, the hunter has to try it once again. The third and one of the very popular versions of the dance involves an enactment of a warrior in the battle field. The warrior here seeks a wounded companion and on the fulfilment of his quest, he assures the safety of the found comrade. A very important feature of the Sneak-Up dance is that it is performed by men only. The precise reason behind it is that the dance form was taught to the young boys of the tribe to use as a tactics, to surprise a prey or an enemy. This fact becomes evident if the performance of the Sneak-Up dance is followed thoroughly. While the performance is continued with beating of the fast drum beats the dancers lower their bodily movements with an apparition of hiding near the ground and while doing so, they actually tend to survey the area with intention of measuring the potential dangers. Sneak-Up dance essentially records the versions of tribal victories in the battle field and in the hunting ground. During the dance of the dancers from North, they face the enemy avoiding turns completely in a circular motion. This depicts and signifies the gallant, chivalry and bravery of that particular tribe. While the dancers from the South enact hunting stories that involve tracking of animals or the trail of a warrior on a party related to war moving clockwise, the dancers try to imitate the hunting animals by keeping proper pace and dancing side-wise and making side to side head movements. In men’s traditional dance form, dancers generally put one bustle made of natural turkey, pheasant or in that place eagle feather where it is allowed by law. Additional to it, they also put buckskin dress. They also put a headdress known “roach” in the tribal jargon which depicts a deer or is made of horse hair. They put breastplates in addition to it. But there is a vast difference in the traditional attire for men for the Southern Dancers. They might wear ribbon shirt and might not put bustle. There is a choice of putting buskin leggings and usual bone breastplate. Head dress for the Southern Dancers are also different from that of the Northern Dancers. The Head dress of the Southern Dancers is made of porcupine with ‘an extension of the otter tail that runs down the dancer’s back’. The foot work for the dance is basically toe-heel step oriented. The interpretation of their movement will always speak about the stories of tribal glory and valour (Nanticoke Indian Association. “Native American Dance Styles”). Native American Regional Style Vocals The regional vocal styles of the Native American mainly refer to various kinds of the tribal music. This includes mainly pan-tribal and inter-tribal music and distinct Indian sub-genres of popular music which includes blues, rock, classical, hip hop, and film music as well. The music genres like reggae and waila or popularly known as “chicken scratch” also falls under this broad head. Blend of Vocalization and percussion is the essence of Native American regional vocals. There are many forms of vocals used in Native American regional style like solo and choral. It may range from responsorial to unison and multipart singing. Among the percussions, drums and rattles are most common. These instruments are incorporated and used as accompaniment to maintain the rhythm of the singers at proper place because they generally use native language or words with nonsense syllables. The Native American regional style vocals generally begin with slow but steady beats which gradually gets the fast pace and becomes more emphatic as the music proceeds. Some vocals also get steady pace or fast bets with the accompaniment of drum, rattle tremolos and shouts. The accented patterns and changes of the signals along with their howling add diversity to the music. Vocables of the Native American regional vocals are very integral and common part of their traditional music. The text of the Native American regional vocals includes pieces that are both public and sometimes also secret songs which are treated as “ancient and unchanging”. The secret pieces are used precisely for the ceremonial purposes and are treated as the sacred songs. The public pieces also sometimes have variations of sacred songs. The speeches in the rituals are sometimes categorised under the Native American Vocals because the rhythm and melody incorporate in this pieces. These ritual pieces often describe the events that are going to take place in that ceremony directly and justify the purpose of celebrations. The nonsense syllables used in the Native American regional vocals often mark the beginning and end of phrases, sections of the songs or the entire songs sometimes. Much of these songs have remained translatable and the few which could be translated are able to create history. Some such songs are Navajo “Shi naasha”. This particular song celebrates the end of Navajo internment in the Fort Summer situated in New Mexico during the year 1868. The flag songs of most of the tribal groups and national anthems are part of the Native American regional vocals. These songs are also used to mark the beginning of many ceremonies and celebrations with special regards to the powwows. The regional vocals of the Native Americans also includes songs for courtship, various songs for the accompaniment of dances which are treated as popular American or Canadian tunes like “Amazing Grace”, “Dixie”, “Jambalaya” and also the famous “Sugar Time”. Many of these songs also celebrate important seasons and events of the year like harvest and plantation, monsoon and spring. Native American people are very close to nature and their music bears a typical mark of this fact (Heth, “Overview”). References Heth, C. “Overview” in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Garland Publishing, 2001. Nanticoke Indian Association. “Native American Dance Styles”. June 30, 2011. Our Culture, 2004. Oracle Think Quest, “Arena and Stuff”. June 30, 2011. Students for Students. No Date. Pewewardy, Cornel & Strom, Karen.“ Cornel Pewewardy”. June 30, 2011. Storytellers, 2001. The University of Arizona Press. “The Power of Kiowa Song: A Collaborative Ethnography”. June 30, 2011. Kiowa Gourd Dance Songs, 1997. Bibliography Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark & McConachie, James. Rough Guide to World Music Volume Two: Latin and North America, theCaribbean, Asia & the Pacific. DK Publishing, Inc., 2000. Read More