{"id":5882,"date":"2021-10-26T18:48:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T23:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=5882"},"modified":"2021-10-28T15:42:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T20:42:58","slug":"representations-of-indigenous-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/10\/26\/representations-of-indigenous-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Representations of Indigenous Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In my own independent research for our culminating semester project, I\u2019ve been exploring Indigenous song collection in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. So, with my exploration of the Sheet Music Consortium this week, I wanted to see what sheet music could tell me about this particular ethnographic practice. What is particularly challenging in my own research in Indigenous song collection is the tension between Indigenous musical practice and ethnographers like Frances Densmore who recorded songs, through both audio recordings and written scores. Though written scores, especially like those Densmore published in her bulletins (like <\/span>Chippewa Music<\/span><\/i><\/a>)\u00a0 for the Bureau of American Ethnology, can provide insight into Densmore’s experience with Indigenous music, there are still questions as to how accurately they represent concrete, traditional musical practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Though not representative of legitimate Indigenous music, I found a very interesting score for a piece of music called \u201cMy Chippewa Indian Song,\u201d written by Dave Reed from 1907.\u00a0 This song was written in the midst of Frances Densmore\u2019s career and contains a pretty interesting representation of, ostensibly, Indigenous women. Looking at the score, one of the first indicators that this song takes a primitive and \u2018othered\u2019 approach to describing Indigenous life is the tempo marking \u201cTempo di Habanera.\u201d Historically, the habanera has been used in music, like in Georges Bizet\u2019s \u201cCarmen ” to point towards someone who does not fit within the expectations of contemporary society. In \u201cCarmen,\u201d the habanera is of a provocative nature and speaks to the dramatic and, in many ways, uncontrollable nature of love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n