Native American Sioux Society's Song Compared With African Agbekor Song
Music is a human phenomenon. It influences our daily lives and our culture. Music fills our world from numerous cultures across the globe. This musical variety has endless possible experiences, evoking intense emotional connections and expressions. If music is a phenomenon to humanity, where did it begin? It most likely began with our early ancestors in tribal societies.
One ancient genre is Native American Tribal music, specifically Sioux music. Sioux music is mostly centered around the ways of the tribe, such as honor and spirit. One can distinguish Sioux’s unique features by the melodies that encompass large octaves or patterns that transition into a set of descending phrases that are described as “terraced” The Sioux style has another unique quality regarding their songs. The chords are sung with sharp and crisp sounds that are pitched high and intense. Voices are animated with rhythmic timbre and intensity. Most tribal songs are sung monophonically accompanied by rattles and/or drums. The drums represent timbre in the song and the dynamics change as the Society song is sung as well as repeated. It is repeated many times. The Rhythm is consistent, but there is an emphasis on how it is sung, with intention.
The Society song is not only a song, but an entire ceremony an addition to opening rituals and ceremonies. A gathering of the tribe included the performance of dancing to songs that honored Sioux’s great ancestors and their heroic deeds. A dancer had a variety of steps that should be presented with agility and quickness to flow with the beat of the drums. Some dances would represent stories and others would highlight a warrior’s ability to succeed in battle.
African tribal music is similar to Native American, in that it is also performed in ceremonial rituals. According to Jeff Titon,” African music often happens in social situations in which people’s primary goals are not artistic. Instead, their music is for ceremonies, work, or play.” There are a few characteristics that define African music features. One is that African music is highly influenced by other cultures, such as Europe and the Middle East. It also encourages social participation and is integral to life, not separate from it.
Many songs in Africa have meanings and the time they are played. An example of this is “Agbekor,” which is played before soldiers go to war. Djembe is an African drum that is played with Agbekor. As seen with most African music, there are two different-sized drums. There is one big drum that plays one rhythm and the other 3 are medium-sized drums. In this song, the balafon starts out playing and sets the tempo of the song. The tempo in this song starts out slow but then around two and a half minutes it picks up. In this song, a polyrhythm can be heard. The balafon plays one rhythm, the medium-sized drums play another rhythm, and the other instruments play another rhythm. A timbre can also be heard in this song by all the different instruments. There is also a harmony between all the instruments that can be heard. Meter is also present in the selection. The Angkor was an actual war dance in African tribes, but today it is just for ceremonial presentations.
References
- Densmore, F., (1930) Smithsonian-Densmore Cylinder Collection. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/folklife/folkcat.html#AFSL22.
- Montagu, J., (2017). The story of music is the story of humans: Where did music come from?
- ScienceDaily. Retrieved from ww.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170620093153.htm
- Titon, J. (2018) Worlds of music: an introduction to the music of the world's peoples.
- New York :Schirmer Books
