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The music lover who is listening to Indian music for the first time is apt to be perplexed by his novel experience. He may protest that "It all sounds alike," that "They only have one tune," and in all seriousness finally ask, "But is it music?" Such honest reactions are not uncommon among the uninitiated. They are normal human responses to the unfamiliar and are not peculiarly related to Indian music. Similar questions have been raised about the art work of our best contemporary composers, artists, writers, and architects by those who are unable to view the new art in its social setting and to see it in its historic relationship with the past. Persons who would know more about the "first Americans," with whom our past three and a half centuries of history is so intimately connected, will find in Indian musical traditions a full, expressive revelation of the inner life of these interesting people. For the Indian, music is a medium of communication and contact with the supernatural, and since all the varied activities of life find their respective places in the Indian's cosmos, there are songs for every occasion. The hard and fast distinction between sacred and secular 'which we are accustomed to make loses its definiteness in the Indian's world. There are songs for the making of rain, Guardian Spirit songs for success in hunting, fishing, and gambling, songs for the protection of the home, the curing of the sick, lullabies, love songs, corn-grinding songs, social dance songs, and songs connected with legends. From this brief, functional listing, it will be noted that music was closely associated with the daily and seasonal activities of living. Though the Indian is not lacking in aesthetic enjoyment of his native music, he rarely regards it as something to listen to apart from its social and ceremonial function. For the open-minded, open-eared listener, Indian music is neither inaccessible nor difficult to enjoy. Patient and repeated hearings of these songs will gradually reveal the subtle, haunting beauty that is enfolded in their carefully modelled forms. Here one will find the same artistic features--color, symmetry and balance of form, bold, striking designs, logical unity and coherence of thought-that distinguish Indian painting, pottery, weaving, and silversmithing, so widely admired and enjoyed. Like the music of the Greeks, and like folk music in its purest, primeval form, Indian music is basically monophonic, single-lined. There are occasional excursions into heterophony whereby one voice or group of voices temporarily deviates from the melodic line of the song while others adhere to the established pattern. Such examples of part singing, however, are relatively rare. The simplicity of this monophonic music may fall strangely on ears that have been conditioned by the thick harmonic and contrapuntal texture, rich orchestration, and massive volume of our Western European music. Just as it becomes necessary to adjust one's aural perspective in turning from symphonic music to the more modest and economical medium of chamber music, so must one adjust one's listening for Indian music.
First Published in 1997. The present volume contains references and descriptive annotations for 1,497 sources on North American Indian and Eskimo music. As conceived here, the subject encompasses works on dance, ritual, and other aspects of religion or culture related to music, and selected "classic" recordings have also been included. The coverage is equally broad in other respects, including writings in several different languages and spanning a chronological period from 1535 to 1995. The book is intended as a reference tool for researchers, teachers, and college students. With their needs in mind, the sources are arranged in ten sections by culture area, and the introduction includes a general history of research. Finally, there are also indices by author, tribe, and subject.
The 50th anniversary edition of this classic work on the art of Northwest Coast Indians now offers color illustrations for a new generation of readers along with reflections from contemporary Northwest Coast artists about the impact of this book. The masterworks of Northwest Coast Native artists are admired today as among the great achievements of the world’s artists. The painted and carved wooden screens, chests and boxes, rattles, crest hats, and other artworks display the complex and sophisticated northern Northwest Coast style of art that is the visual language used to illustrate inherited crests and tell family stories. In the 1950s Bill Holm, a graduate student of Dr. Erna Gunther, former Director of the Burke Museum, began a systematic study of northern Northwest Coast art. In 1965, after studying hundreds of bentwood boxes and chests, he published Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form. This book is a foundational reference on northern Northwest Coast Native art. Through his careful studies, Bill Holm described this visual language using new terminology that has become part of the established vocabulary that allows us to talk about works like these and understand changes in style both through time and between individual artists’ styles. Holm examines how these pieces, although varied in origin, material, size, and purpose, are related to a surprising degree in the organization and form of their two-dimensional surface decoration. The author presents an incisive analysis of the use of color, line, and texture; the organization of space; and such typical forms as ovoids, eyelids, U forms, and hands and feet. The evidence upon which he bases his conclusions constitutes a repository of valuable information for all succeeding researchers in the field. Replaces ISBN 9780295951027
Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, Saarland University (Anglistik), course: Canadian Northwest Coast Native Cultures, Art, History, language: English, abstract: The Northwest Coast area includes the coast of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia until the panhandle of Alaska and reaches about 100 km inland, just until the Cascade Range or coastal mountains of Canada. Several cultures developed here, that are, despite some analogies, also vary widely. But what they all have in common is a rich ceremonial and spiritual life, with enormous potential for artistic expression in music, legends and art. There are several different languages and due to the fact that there is no higher political order above the village hierarchy, the different cultures are divided into language groups. The music of the Northwest Coast is different from those of other Native American tribes, but it also varies among the tribes of the area.