Music of the Navahos

The Navaho IndiansLargest tribe of North American IndiansOriginally lived in Northwestern Canada and AlaskaTravelled south over 1000 years ago to the southwestern United States

TodayMost Navahos live on the Navaho reservation over 140,000The Navaho Nation extends into the states of Utah, Arizona and New MexicoOver 27,000 square miles

Historical background

Relied on Oral historyNo written languageMuch of the music has been lost through annihilation and acculturationImportance of anthropology and archaeological findings in preserving cultural history

Musical InstrumentsMusic is almost entirely vocalInstruments are chiefly - rattles - drums used to accompany the voice

Rattles

Drums

Flutes

Music in the Navaho Culture

Ceremonial chants for sacred (and secret) ritualsDaily life marriage, child birth etcIn the past songs to prepare for hunting or war

Listening:

Yebichai Song from the Nightway Ceremony

Characteristics of the musicSmall melodic range only occasionally more than an octaveShort phrasesNo harmonyOnly a single melody line with percussion accompanimentOften only a few notes used

Singing styleIntenseEarthyHarshSometimes high pitched voice Falsetto voice often used by menOrnamentedSlides and shoutsAnimal calls

*Navajo, or Dine -they call themselves, is the largest tribe of North American Indians. Long ago, the ancestors lived in Northwestern Canada and Alaska. Over 1,000 years ago they began to travel south and reached the southwestern United States. They met farmers who are known as Pueblo Indians, and the Navajo began to settle near them and learn from them. The Navajo learned how to plant corn, beans, squash, and melons. The Navajo also began to learn a similar style of weaving, making clothing and art from the Pueblo Indians. After the Spanish settled in the 1600s, the Navajo began to steal sheep and horses from them. The Navajo started to use the animals in their daily life. They used the sheep for its wool to make clothes, blankets, and rugs. They also used the sheep for food. They used the horses to travel longer distances and also used them to begin trading. The Navajo began making items to trade in towns. There were also trading posts built on reservations to sell their handmade crafts, such as pottery and blankets.

*The Navajo Nation extends into the states of Utah , Arizona and New Mexico , covering over 27,000 square miles The Navajo reservation is currently the largest in the United States with over 140,000 people. They still weave from wool and use natural vegetable dyes for color. Today, people live like the old days the best they can with the modern lifestyle, but others use modern technology to live. **Indian cultures were non literate and had no recorded history. Any knowledge of their music has come from anthropological and archaeological findings, stories told by the old people. Through annihilation and acculturation, most of the old songs have been lost.Each tribe had its own culture, language and music,

*Almost entirely vocal the instruments are chiefly rattles and drums used to accompany the voice. Drums frame drums and barrel drums of many sizes and shapes and the water drum (with its unique wet membrane) is unique in the world. *Many varieties of these rattles made from gourds, tree bark, carved wood, deer hoofs, turtle shells, spider nests, and, recently, tin cans. *Drums frame drums and barrel drums of many sizes and shapes**There are a few flutes and flageolets, and one-stringed fiddles played without vocal accompaniment but these are rare. *Ceremonial chants long series of songs that accompany ritual procedures such as:

The Nightway purification, prayer offerings and sand-painting proceduresThe Enemyway preparation of the drum and decorated stick, dressing the one-sung-over and giving him power or protection

These chants go back for generations. One chant may contain over 500 songs and many thousands of lines of religious poetry. They contain in their prayers and songs, and in the related myths, the meaning the Navahos find in the natural and supernatural worlds.The performances may be brief or extended depending on the on the needs of the one-sung-over, the person to be cured. Last from between a few hours to an extended version of nine nights.*This song accompanies a dance in the last night of a nine-night ritual that includes ceremonies such as purification, prayers offerings and sand painting rituals.Masked dancers impersonate the gods bringing supernatural power and blessing to help cure a sick person

Text is entirely vocables yet the syllables still have meaning.Such a ritual is as complex as the production of a Wagnerian opera. The organisation and performance of the whole event is directed by the singer or ceremonial practitioner who must memorise every detail. Such men and women are the leaders of the community*Small melodic range, only occasionally more than an octaveSongs made up of short phrases with considerable repetition or sometimes a subtle variationMany based on scales similar to major often only using a few tones, most common is the pentatonic scale

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