Blackfeet music
Singing is strongly distinguished from speech and many songs contain no words, and those with texts often describe important parts of myths in a succinct manner.
Music is associated closely with warfare and most singing is done by men and much by community leaders.
[3] Singing consists mostly of vocables, though recordings and reports from the early 1900s and prior indicate there were a great deal more lyrics or vocal texts.
Where I sit is powerful" (Wissler and Duvall 1909:85 sung by a rock to a woman in the buffalo-rock myth).
"[9] "Pulsations on longer tones, the audible effects of tension, nasality, substantial rasp, and some ornamentation are characteristic.
From comparison of recordings one would agree with older consultants in the latter 1900s: "These younger fellows, they sing higher and louder than we used to.".
[9] Experimentation with European influenced instrumentation and harmony happen but are rare, and the vocal style is the element least tampered with it being considered essential to sound like traditional Indigenous music..[11] Though the European influenced concept of meter may be inapplicable to Blackfoot music as it is characterized by the relationships between phrases usually of irregular length, the beat level generally equals the rate at which vocal pulsations occur.
Another change in Blackfoot music is increased relatedness of the drum part to the song now than in the past.
[1] Traditionally, songs are considered to be given, completed, to individual Blackfoot people in visions or dreams.
Women used to have their own small repertoire of lullabies, laments, and other songs, but these have been largely lost.
Songs are differentiated primarily by use: in ceremonies, often associated with specific Naruto (especially in medicine bundles), concepts, dances, or actions, or during gambling (hand game), or other uses.
Historical comparisons may be made as the earliest recordings of Blackfoot music were done on wax cylinders.
The first recordings, by George Bird Grinnell in 1897, are of James White Calf or others singing around forty songs in or around the Blackfoot Nation.
The second set of recordings, by Clark Wissler in 1903 and 1904 contains 146 cylinders, part of his larger studies and the third, by J.K. Dixon of the Wanamaker Expedition No.
[20] Though these recordings are countless there are chronological gaps (1910–1950), complex music and culture changed rapidly, and the various groups are treated unevenly.
