In treating of the subject of the history and evolution of music in America it is but natural to turn first to the music of the aborigine. Strictly speaking, the music of the American Indian has played little or no part in the development of our art music, and is introduced here only because of its interest as belonging to the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. Crude and primitive it was and crude and primitive it remains. Where the Indian has taken up the arts and civilization of the white man he has left behind him the peculiar features of his own arts and ceremonies. Thus it is that the music of the aborigine still remains as it was before the people of Europe had dreamed of the existence of this continent.
Research on the subject of Indian music has been made during the past few years by several American ethnologists and musicians. From the results of their study much has been learned of its derivation and characteristics. Much has been lost beyond recovery, but, as time goes on, that which has been saved will become of great historical value as touching the life and musical efforts of the American Indian. Civilization is fast driving him either to accept the ways of the white man or to complete extinction. As he disappears his music goes with him, and what is left remains but as an echo of the days when he roamed unmolested over the continent which has been wrested from him.
From what has been saved of the Indian music it is to be seen that much use was made of it by the people who gave it birth. Such as it was, it accompanied them from cradle to grave and played a vital part in their life. To the Indian, music acted as a means of communication between himself and the unseen but all-powerful spirits. Superstition is always rife among primitive peoples, and in invoking the aid of the spirits inhabiting the earth — air, fire and water — speech was not sacred enough for the purpose, so untutored man broke into song. This universal use made of music in all religious rites and ceremonies has been noted among all peoples from the earliest times. Making practically no advancement over the customs and usages of his forefathers of centuries ago, the Indian has continued to adhere to his primitive songs and musical utterances and, as far as may be learned, the Indian music of today remains just what it was before it ever greeted the ears of the white man.
For purposes of comparison, this music may be likened to that heard in Europe in the early centuries of the Christian era, when all the arts were subservient to that of war. Rude cradle songs were sung, as were also love songs of a kind, but the main use made of music was as an adjunct to the religious ceremonies and to those dealing with fighting and battle. Where the emotions are crude the expression of them will necessarily be so, and any individual coming of a civilized race would, on hearing the musical efforts of the Indian, instantly recognize them as the product of an uncultured people.
With the Indian, music never assumed an objective plane ; it was cultivated simply as a means of expressing his subjective mood. There never was any effort at producing music for its own sake, but did he wish to make more impressive his religious songs and war songs he gave them a musical utterance, his naturally guttural voice but adding a touch of barbarism to them. On account of the Indian custom of strapping the pappoose or infant to a cradle-board and leaving him to swing from a bough or pole, cradle songs are comparatively rare. Where at all in use, they exhibit the same characteristics found in such songs the world over — a low croon, often sung impromptu, and with the idea of lulling the child to rest. When able to run about and play their childish games, simple songs and rhymes came into common use. Following the custom of children everywhere, they invent such songs as are fitting for the game then taking their attention, and at night the children are often entertained by some old myth or tale sung in a monotonous chant by one of the older members of the tribe.
In his early youth music again is closely associated with the life of the Indian. When the time comes for him to be initiated into the religious rites and mysteries of his tribe, the ceremonies connected therewith are performed with the aid of music, both vocal and instrumental. The love song is another musical product of his early manhood, for when the Indian youth decides that it is time for him to set up his own wigwam his love song, addressed to the maiden of his choice, may be heard in the early dawn when the women go to the spring for water. Or, if the youth feels incapable of a vocal declaration of his passion, he has recourse to the mystery whistle or flageolet and plays thereon his love calls.
Such customs, though still in use to some extent, are, with the Indian himself, rapidly dying out and may be spoken of in the past tense. Where the Indian has accepted the ways of the white man he has largely dropped his own individuality. Where he had his own particular and individual songs they have been lost with his other heritages. Indian songs were not, however, drifting bits of music that could be picked up anywhere and everywhere among the tribes indiscriminately. On the contrary, each and every song had its particular owner, who could, if he so chose, sell it to the member of another tribe, the sale involving on the part of the original owner some instruction as to its rendition.
As a rule, however, these songs belonged to societies, secular or religious; the Indian having a most complicated and highly developed ritual. Many of these songs are found to be peculiar to particular tribes or political organizations, or to some rite or ceremony, the medicine men having a monopoly of the religious songs. Songs of mourning frequently were rendered by women alone, such ceremonials among the Indian women being reminiscent of the " mourning women" of the Scriptures, while the historic songs hold within their themes elements and facts which link the Indian to American prehistoric times. The antiquity of many of these songs is shown by their occasionally containing words the meaning of which is entirely lost.
War is not conducive to the development of the gentler arts of any nation, and research discloses that the Indian has been no exception to this rule, for the more warlike tribes had few if any songs. It has been found that the Ojibways, the Zuni, the Moquis and the Omahas had a fairly large number, but the more aggressive Iroquois, Apaches and Comanches possessed little of song except that of a more primitive character and of the kind dedicated to war.
In addition to the religious songs, war songs, love songs, and songs of mourning, there were the mystery songs, which belonged exclusively to the medicine men, and the convivial or social songs which accompanied the games and which were used as exorcisms to secure good luck. Festive and solemn events were marked by their individual, standard song, which consisted of a few short words or a phrase or two, repeated many times, the one theme of the composition being insistently emphasized with much force. The rendition was characterized by sincerity, and in particular songs with a marked degree of pathos. Many of these songs, devoid of measure and rhyme as they were, have come down to posterity in the form of picture-writing, while the music is simplicity itself.
There is a certain consistency as well as import in these picture-songs. They inspire the singer to love, to adore the object of his affection or to perform deeds of combat and daring. These symbolic writings form the true key to the songs of the North American Indian, and show to what extent the neumic symbols were applied. It is one of the most primitive modes of annotation. The picture-writing was used only to recall to the reader ideas which already existed in his mind, and were well fitted for the Indian because of his disposition, which was pensive and reminiscent.
The Indian never devised any system of notation for expressing the melodies to his songs, these being carried in the memory and passed from one generation to the next by the medicine men or priests of the tribe, who frequently were chosen on account of their retentive memories and good voices. It is marvelous how so many songs could be retained through the passing years by this crude process of preservation.
Having little or nothing in the way of a fixed scale, the musical efforts of the Indian were rhythmical rather than melodic. In the rendition of his songs accompanied by the drum, voice and instrument were seldom in the same rhythm, this serving to create a peculiar effect. Although the difference is most pronounced, it does not impair the sense of symmetry. Where the melodies can be applied to our tonal system it is found that the majority are formed in the so-called pentatonic scale, a scale of five notes in which the fourth and seventh tones of our octave are missing. But in general the musical system of the Indian, if such it may be called, differs entirely from our own owing to the use of intervals less than the half tone, which is the smallest interval of which we take cognizance.
Some interesting experiments were conducted by Doctor Fewkes, who had Indians sing to piano acompaniment. It was found that very noticeable deflections in pitch were intentionally produced by the singers. In the rendition of his songs the Indian is guided entirely by his emotions, the effect of sentiment being to flatten the pitch, as seen in the love songs, while the emphasis used in the war songs called for a sharpening of the tone. The use of the falsetto voice also tended toward irregularities in this relation.
No harmonic efforts ever have been made by the Indian. Though it has been stated that he has an inherent feeling for harmony, it never has developed in any of his musical productions, for these are crudely melodious throughout, and though they may suggest harmonies to the cultured ear, there is no doubt that if the Indian had received the same suggestion he would have at least made some efforts in this direction. His songs are always rendered in unison and lose rather than gain by the process of harmonization.
With the Indian the dance was almost inseparable from his song. Religious songs and war songs invariably were accompanied by dancing, or the statement might be inverted and be equally correct, so close was the connection. Where the words of the song were improvised, interjections such as he, ha, heh, frequently were introduced, to better punctuate the rhythm. In fact some of the songs were sung throughout without words, or to words having no sense or meaning. In these wordless songs, the gentler emotions were sung to flowing vocables, while in the war songs they were aspirate and explosive.
Very crude were the instruments used by the Indians. The earliest explorers speak of the drum, and it is known that certain tribes used drums of two kinds. The mah-dwah-kequon, which was about two feet in length and made from a hollowed tree-trunk, had one end covered by a board, while over the other end was stretched an undressed deerskin on which to strike. This kind of drum, invariably met with among the Ojibways, was heard at sacred feasts only. The second kind, designated by the same tribe as ta-wae-gun, was made on the order of the common snare drum used by our military bands, and was the principal instrument at all festivals and on all amusement occasions.
Mr. Catlin, one of the first Americans to go to the far West for the purpose of studying the Indian in his native environment, gives a description of an instrument known as the mystery whistle. He speaks of it as being very ingeniously made, and says that the sound is produced on a principle entirely different from that employed in any wind instrument known among civilized inventions. He dwells particularly upon its peculiar sweetness of tone. He heard an Indian boy play it, and though making repeated efforts, he himself never succeeded in making a sound upon it. Miss Alice Fletcher, who spent some years studying the Indian in his native environment, probably had this instrument in mind when she wrote that " the native flageolet has proved a trusty friend to many a youth to whom nature had denied the power of expressing in vocal melody his fealty to the maiden of his choice."
The Indian also used another flute-like instrument, which was constructed of two pieces of cedar, each half round and then hollowed out until quite thin, and with four holes bored in it. The two parts were fastened together so as to form a tube, and sound being produced by blowing at the end. It is not known whether the design of this instrument was borrowed from that of the first white flute player who happened among the Indians, or whether it originated with the red man himself. Many of the tribes assert, however, that this instrument was " improved " after examples of like instruments used by the pale face. Another wind instrument is the war whistle, which was constructed of two clay pipes or tubes bound together side by side. It emitted two distinct sounds, one for battle and the other for retreat.
The rattle was also an instrument common among the Indians. By it they produced noise, if not music, to add to the enjoyment of their festivals. These rattles were of various kinds. The Algonquins used a gourd-shell in which a few dried beans were placed, while the turtle-shell was a favorite rattle among the Iroquois and other eastern tribes. This shell, with the skin attached was dried first, then a handful of flint corn was sewn up in the skin, and the skin of the neck stretched over a stick which served the purpose of a handle. The hoofs of animals, notably those of the deer, also were utilized by boring a hole in the narrow end of the hoofs and tying them to short sticks, which, being jerked up and down, produced a rattling sound.
For a long period, except from an ethnological point of view, research into the music of the North American Indian remained in abeyance. In the middle of the Seventeenth Century, the Jesuit missionaries, in their letters to the order in France, spoke of the native Indian music. They all speak of it as being somewhat heavy and grave in character, whether used in recreation or in devotion, yet they them-selves made use of the Indian's song as a means of interesting him in their particular religious exercises.
These missionaries early discovered that the Indian was incapable of prolonged mental application, therefore they set all prayers to music, and succeeded most admirably by these means in interesting him in their form of worship. One of these missionaries, Father Mau, in writing to the Franciscan order in France, in 1735, says : " I often wish that the Rev. Father Landreau, who is so fond of well executed church music, could be present at our high mass ; it would be a greater treat to him than anything to which he has yet listened. The men who lead off with the first verses he might take for a choir of cordeliers — Franciscan Friars — and the women for some great community of nuns. But what am I saying? Neither cordeliers nor nuns ever sang as do our Iroquois men and women. Their voices are both mellow and sonorous, and their ear is so correct that they do not miss a half tone in all their church hymns, which they know by heart."
Professor J. C. Fillmore and Mr. Edwin S. Tracy in later years have assisted Miss Alice C. Fletcher in her research in the domain of Indian song by harmonizing the melodies which she herself received from native sources. Mr. James R. Murie, an educated Pawnee, became her collaborator in recording the music of the rituals among the Omahas, the Dakotas, the Pawnees and other tribes. The songs belonging to the most important ceremonies were recorded by means of the graphophone, and then transcribed from the cylinders by Mr. Tracy, each transcription being verified by him from the singing of the Ku'rahus or medicine men.
During the past decade a few American composers have bestowed attention on the music of the aborigines with gratifying results. Among these the name of Edward Mac-Dowell stands pre-eminent for his adaptation of the melodies of the American Indian to orchestral purposes. In the preface to his "Indian Suite" (Op. 48), Mr. MacDowell says:
" The thematic material of this work has been suggested for the most part by melodies of the North American Indians. Their occasional similarity to northern European themes seems to the author a direct testimony in corroboration of Thorfinnkarlsefin's saga. If separate titles for the different movements are desired, they should be arranged as follows : I, Legend; II, Love Song; III, In War-time; IV, Dirge ; V, Village Festival."
In a quarterly published at Newton, Mass., in the interests of American compositions based on the folk-lore of the Indian, may be found a long list of more or less well-known writers who have made use of such material. Among the number may be mentioned Lawrence Gilman, Arthur Far-well, Campbell Tipton, Harvey W. Loomis and Edgar Still-man Kelley. None of these men, however, has won sufficient recognition as composers to attract unusual attention to their work in this field.
The most important work along lines suggestive of Indian music is Coleridge-Taylor's setting of Longfellow's " Hiawatha." In it the composer has made use of themes which, if not taken direct from Indian sources, are at least suggestive of such music. The text itself naturally would call for musical treatment after the manner of the music of the Indian.
