Heartbeat of the People by Tara Browner

Author:Tara Browner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Music / History & Criticism
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2022-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

Music example 3. Southern War Song, Transcribed from a Performance of the Alliance West Singers (Kiowa/Comanche)

Although the Milwaukee Bucks are a Winnebago/Ho-Chunk Drum and sing in a predominantly Southern style, Wisconsin Ho-Chunk (the Wisconsin branch of the tribe has reclaimed their traditional name) also are capable of singing in the Northern style favored by their Ojibwe and Menomini neighbors. A Northern Straight song was sung for the Girl’s Fancy Shawl Dance competition at the 1989 Ann Arbor Pow-wow by the Bear Clan Singers, a Winnebago/Ho-Chunk Drum made up of members of the Cleveland family of Waukesha, Wisconsin (ex. 4). Because they sing throughout the Great Lakes region, the Bear Clan Singers have a large repertoire of songs suitable for any pow-wow.

Although music example 4 is technically a Northern song in form and honor-beat placement, its limited range and non-standard cadential patterns suggest that it is a hybrid. Intended for a competition among girls aged seven to twelve, the song’s length and melodic simplicity are unusual, although its exact adherence to formal norms is typical of a song meant for competition dancing. As in the Heluska song, this Straight song begins with an opening solo statement of the theme (A), which is followed with a “second” by the entire group (A1). In contrast to the Heluska song, however, the second is completed by a cadential pattern that marks the first large phrase grouping and the starting point of the interior repetition (B/C). Four to five honor beats are within the song itself rather than between repeats. They traditionally occur only the first time through so as not to obscure the Native-language texts sometimes heard during the second repeat.

Music example 4. Northern Straight Song for Girl’s Fancy Dance, Transcribed from a Performance by the Bear Clan Singers (Ho-Chunk)

During the live performances of many Northern songs, overall tonality modulates downward, approximately a quarter tone at each new entrance (A, A1, B), and usually stabilizes around B. That is because head Northern singers attempt to push the upper range of songs to the highest pitch possible, something other singers are often unable to sustain after an opening melodic statement. The Bear Clan Singers, however, are at heart a Southern Drum, and the Southern songs that make up their repertoire are pitch-stable in the first round. Southern Drums traditionally sing in a lower vocal range and do not participate in the “higher is better” aesthetic common to the Northern pow-wow circuit. Their performances of Northern songs reflects that practice.

After listening and dancing to enough Northern songs, it became clear that far more than language use distinguished the music of one nation from another. Beyond differences in range and formal structure, Northern and Southern songs use slightly divergent cadence patterns. The Northern cadence patterns in music example 5, organized by tribal group, are not meant as absolutes but only as examples of commonly used patterns. I have included for comparative purposes two Southern cadential patterns in music example 6.

As a rule, Northern music has more rhythm and melody (in the form of microtones) than Southern.

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