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In North America
six distinctive musical styles or regions have been recognized: Inuit and
North-west Coast; California and nearby Arizona; the Great Basin; Athabascan;
Plains and Pueblo; and Eastern Woodland. The music of northern Mexico has much
in common with that of western Arizona; farther south, however, in the regions
of the Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations, complex musical cultures existed.
Little information has been preserved about the music of these civilizations,
and whatever remains of the original styles survived the Spanish conquest
principally in the form of highly complex and varied blends of native and
assimilated Spanish elements. Elsewhere in South America the music of the
indigenous peoples, like that of North America, was relatively insulated from
outside influence; the South American music, however, has been less extensively
studied than that of North America.
Among the persisting native musical styles of the Americas, singing is the dominant form of musical expression, with instrumental music serving primarily as rhythmic accompaniment. Throughout the Americas the principal instruments have been drums and rattles (shaken in the hand or worn on the body), as well as flutes and whistles. In Mesoamerica and the Andes, greater variety exists. Instruments have often had ritual or religious significance; among some Brazilian tribes, for example, women must not view the men's flutes. In North America the tambourine-like frame drum, and in South America the maraca rattle, were frequently played by shamans.
The Inuit and the
peoples of the North-west Pacific Coast use more complex rhythms than are
common elsewhere in North America, and on the North-west Pacific Coast, songs
may have more complex musical forms and may use exceptionally small melodic
intervals (a semitone or smaller). North-west Pacific Coast dance dramas are
lengthy, elaborate productions, and the songs for these dramas are carefully
taught and rehearsed. Inuit dance and costumes are simpler, and the dances
often feature men using the forceful movements of harpooning while women sing
accompaniment.
The singing of the
Native Americans of California and the Great Basin is produced by a more
relaxed throat than that of other North American musical areas. The melodies
and texts, however, are like those found elsewhere in North America in that the
songs are short (although they may be repeated or combined into series) and the
texts are often brief sentences.
The music of the
Athabascan peoples—those of north-western Canada and Alaska as well as the Navajo
and Apache of the south-west—is characterized by melodies that have a wide
range and an arc-shaped contour, and by frequent changes in metre; falsetto
singing is prized. Costumed ritual dances are unusual except among the Apache,
who, like the Navajo, have been influenced by the Pueblos. Much Navajo music
belongs to healing rituals designed to restore patients to harmony by seating
them in beautiful sand paintings while they listen to poetic songs.
The music of the
Great Plains is the best known of the Native American styles of North America
and is the source of the musical styles heard at present-day powwows
(social gatherings, often intertribal, featuring Native American dancing).
Singing is in a tense, pulsating, forceful style; men's voices are preferred,
although a high range and falsetto are valued. Melodic ranges are wide, and the
typical melodic contour is terrace-shaped—beginning high, and descending as the
song progresses. Plains music is often produced by a group of men sitting
around a large double-headed drum, singing in unison and drumming with
drumsticks (at powwows, the group itself is called a drum). In Plains dancing,
men usually dance solo with bent body (several may dance at once,
independently), but there are also ritual dances with symbolic steps and social
round dances for couples. The Pueblos add some lower-voiced music; they make
more use of chorus, and they perform elaborate costumed ritual dances (often
with clowns that entertain between serious dances).
Eastern Woodland
music resembles Plains music, but it tends to have narrower melodic ranges, and
Eastern singing makes use of polyphony (multipart music) as well as
forms that are antiphonal (with alternating choruses) and responsorial
(with alternating solo and chorus). Dances include men's solos, as well as
ritual dances and social round dances.
Almost no archaeological evidence exists for prehistoric music in the Americas; all that is known from pre-Hispanic civilizations is a few preserved instruments (such as panpipes and ocarinas in Peru) and painted or carved scenes of musicians and dancers. In Mexico officials organized rituals for each month, with hundreds of richly costumed, carefully rehearsed dancers and musicians. Responsorial singing was practised; sophisticated scales and chords were apparently used, and compositions seem to have been formally structured, with variety in melody and in combinations of metres. The harps, fiddles, and guitars found in the Native American music of present-day Mexico and Peru were adopted from the Spanish.
Elsewhere in South
America, indigenous music was relatively unaffected by European music. The pentatonic
scale of the Incas spread to some other regions, but earlier scales of three or
four notes also survived. Polyphonic singing, characterized by various voices
and melodies, developed in some areas, notably in Patagonia. Flutes are still
sometimes played in harmony, and the music of some tropical forest peoples is
often a complex combination of voices, percussion, and flutes.