Cool Stuff: Music of the Americas

Here are some "cool" things I learned as I delved more into Music of the Americas:

1) One of the many aspects of the Native American culture that I really enjoyed learning about was the different types of dancing. While I was exploring more, I ran across a type dance called the hoop dance. The hoop dance is a storytelling dance done with 1- 40 hoops to create shapes that represents the various movements of animals and other elements. It is preformed by a solo dancer who begins with a single hoop, evoking the circle of life and as the dance goes on additional hoops are added representing other life elements such as humans, water, seasons, etc. Throughout the dance, the soloist makes very rapid movements in which the hoops are interlocked and extended from the body to portray appendages such as wings and tails. Below is a video of Native American Hoop Dance champion, Brian Hammill:



2) Another aspect of the music of the Native Americans that I found really interesting was the drum. Drums are used in almost all of the ceremonies and social gatherings. Other than it just being a tool to create music, it also was considered to be a living being with a powerful spirit and life of it's own. The Native American people believe that the drum beat represents the heartbeat of Mother Earth herself, which is why it is so often played in powwows and in spiritual ceremonies. Below is a video explaining more:



3) Music was also a sacred art of the Inca, Aymara, Moche, and other ancient Andean cultures. Before being influenced by the Spanish, the music in this area consisted of two types of instruments, wind and percussion as well as singing that was high- pitched and nasally. When the Spanish arrived in the area, they brought their music, language, and instruments that created a new and unique type of Andean music. They brought the lute, guitar, harp, violin, etc. The Spaniards actually were horrified when they first heard the Native Andean people's music. They thought it was inspired by an evil spirit and decided they were going to destroy it. Below is a pre- columbian piece and a piece that shows Spanish influence on Andean Music: 








Comments

  1. Julia GergleyJanuary 18, 2021 at 3:55 PM

    Hi Sabrina! It's very interesting on how Spaniards thought the Native American music was involved with evil spirits when they arrived to the Americas. From learning about the Native American culture and their music it is quite the opposite from evil. I also didn't know that the Spaniards brought the harp, lute, and violin to the Americas. From my research of the Americas, they did have something like the violin but it was known as the Apache Fiddle.

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  2. Lauren SellarsJanuary 18, 2021 at 5:03 PM

    I used the same video of the Incan traditional music! I'm really interested that the Spaniards thought that Native Andean culture was really evil, when that's completely the opposite of what their culture stands for, in fact, their music was used to carry on the spirit of the animal. I also find the Native American drum really interesting. I love the fact that its such a communal thing, and its a beautiful thing that they really include everyone into every aspect.

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  3. Cassandra ShaddockJanuary 18, 2021 at 5:48 PM

    I remember seeing some Native American dancers with hoops and wondering what it was! I had no idea that it was a story-telling technique that featured so many shapes representing different parts of nature. I loved the speech that the dancer gave about the circle of life and connection as a human race related to the nature of Earth. The dance was incredible, and watching the hoops interact with each other and the dancer was super cool!

    I had no idea the drum was not only a heartbeat, but it was also seen as a living being with its own spirit. The drum is so important that is is almost treated like a highly-regarded person. They seem to take such good care of the drums, which is very amazing to me.

    The Incan music was so interesting. The traditional song seems so peaceful without any sort of meter to it. The high-pitched wind instrument at the beginning seems super difficult to control, so props to the musician for playing it well! I also found it super interesting how they used a large feather as a percussive instrument by waving it through the wind super quickly. The use of multiple instruments in one piece was very cool, and I loved that huge flute towards the end!

    The mixed music was cool too! The more festive music is probably what we hear a lot more than the first, but it is very fun and light-hearted. I love how Spanish and Native music can be combined to create a very cool music genre. I would love to hear something like this in person someday!

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  4. Aimee BoudreauJanuary 18, 2021 at 11:32 PM

    Hi Sabrina! A few months ago I had also come across Native American Hoop dancing and thought it was really interesting, although I didn't really know the story behind the dance. I think it's really neat how it can become so elaborate by adding more hoops! I think it is really interesting how they are able to tell a story with this dance.

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