This is the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of Native American music. One of my favorite recording artists, Tori Amos, recording a quick song called "Wampum Prayer" for her album "Scarlet's Walk". The song is sung acapella and the contour and pattern reminds me of the music we heard in class. The song is an original composition telling the tragedy of the Trail of Tears.
To let you know we're not the only ones doing African drumming circles in class. Here are some Japanese folk doing the same thing.
This video shows the making of Djembe drum in Ghana. Enjoy!
Anna, those lyrics sung by Tori Amos are very beautiful. I feel a special connection with them because I know that my ancesstors once walked the 'Trail of Tears'. I suppose I'm just very emotional, but it's heart breaking to know what happened to those people.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Japanese drumming. They had an art to it, although not as rhythmically complex as African drumming, it was still fun to watch!
Also, I can't believe the time and effort the African people take to make these drums. Stabbing and hollowing out the wood would take so many hours...it just goes to show that their music is extremely important to them.
Tori Amos: Very cool! I don't know a whole lot about her nor her music, but I know that she is considered a musical genius and is widely acclaimed by critics and her fans (duh)(and that she did a remarkable cover of Slayer's "Raining Blood"). It looks like she knows how to breath from her diaphragm, too. I was expecting the song to be in the Wampum language, for some reason, but it's just as effective in English - to me as a native speaker, anyway. It seems that even professional musicians of popular music are well in touch with cultures outside of their own, which I think is very healthy.
ReplyDeleteThe middle video is interesting, because it won't be the only time we see Japanese musicians exploring the music of another culture. Someone else posted a video of a Japanese girl doing an African dance, and we'll see a Japanese panpipe player in Peru later in the semester. Too, the gigantic JVC DVD/CD series I use a lot was put together in Japan.
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