preview

Iroquois Music Research Paper

Decent Essays

Music plays an import role in the lives of Native Americans. It is used for recreational, expressional, ceremonial, and healing purposes. There are many instruments that are used when Native Americans make music; this includes drums, flutes, and other percussion instruments. The voice is the most important instrument in most Native American music, ranging from solo to group performances. Sometimes their lyrics are an explanation of why the celebration or ritual is taking place. Other times, the words are a literal narration of their rich history or a plea to spirits for luck or to solve problems.
The musical style of the Iroquois is traditional and very limited. Usually, Iroquois singers are men; their style of singing can be characterized …show more content…

The melodic outline of Iroquois music fluctuates, with slightly more decrease than increase. Many of the songs focus strongly on their main or ground, tone by repeated returns from upper and lower notes. The most frequently used intervals are the major second and minor third. Rhythmically, their voices and accompaniment usually overlap; the instrumental rhythm is most often a reasonable fast beat. Song cycles start off slowly with a gradual quickening to the given tempo. Changes in percussion patterns causes changes in dance steps. Their songs are usually built of one, two, or three short themes that are simply swapped or mixed in repetition (AA′, AABA, ABAB, ABA′B′). In songs they preform with their leader and chorus; the leader sings the first and then the chorus repeats it; then the second theme sung by all of them; entire song repeated (AABAB). Call and response is used in about 20% of all of their songs and is the main role in their Stomp Dance. Texts that are expressive are most often used in ceremonial songs, whereas vocables are used in most social dance songs. Social dance songs are short and usually last about a min and performed by roughly seven people. Their typical religious and or secular dances are performed by a group of people in a circle, moving counterclockwise around a central singers’ …show more content…

The water-drum and cow-horn rattle provide the percussions for most dance songs and many ceremonies while the fluted is to produce some sort of a melody. The water drum is a small, watertight keg, 12 to 15 centimeters in diameter, covered with a soft, tanned skin held in place by a hoop. A small amount of water is always kept in the drum; before playing, the head is thoroughly soaked and pulled tight until the specific high, pinging sound is achieved when the instrument is struck with a small, wooden beater. The cow-horn rattle is made from a pointed piece of cow horn attached to a wooden handle; the horn contains steel pellets and is closed at the top by a wooden disc. The use of the turtle-shell rattle, with its symbolic links to Iroquois cosmology, and the Gourd rattles are used only in agricultural and medicine rites. The Iroquois music varies from one longhouse to another. During social dance music, the singer may express his personality and creativity through his singing style and his structures. Ritual singers develop their own versions of ceremonies by choosing and determining the arrangement of songs, selected from a large, traditional

Get Access