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Instruments Archives: Whistles

Native American/First Nations Music (Northwest Coast)

Native American/First Nations tribes of the Northwest U.S. and Canadian coast, such as the Tshimshian, Makah, Ouiluete, Kwakwaka’wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth, is rhythmically complex and sometimes features multiple voices singing different tones at the same time (“polyphony,”) which makes it unique among /Native American/First Nations forms. It also features more diverse instrumentation than other Native American/First Nations music,
including many kinds of drums, horns, whistles and flutes. Music of the Salish nations, who live immediately to the east of the Northwestern tribes, is a bridge between Northwestern music and the music of the Inuit, who we’ll discuss next.

Northwest Coast instrumentst: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nort/hd_nort.htm

Watch a performance of a snowbird song from the Sḵwxwú7mesh people | Listen to a “paddle song” performed by the Xwamstut dance group of the Sechelt (Salish) nation | Watch a performance of a Sechelt (Salish) honor song

 

Native American/First Nations Music (Great Basin)

Great Basin tribes, such as the Ute, Shoshoni and Painte, live/lived mainly in the U.S. Southwestern deserts of Utah and Nevada. Their music is relatively simple, with short and straightforward melodies placed within a small vocal range that are often repeated in pairs.

Mayan (Mexico, Guatemala)

The Maya civilization, dominant for over a thousand years–most so from the years 200 to 900 A.D.–in the lands we now know as Mexcio and Guatemala, was full and rich and certainly included volumes of Many music, but since there was no recording mechanism at the time, and because the Maya didn’t use musical notation, almost all of it has been lost. Spanish conquerors from the 16th century did note some Mayan music and learned enough about lingering Mayan rituals that ethnomusicoligists and anthropologists are confident that music was central to Mayan ceremonies and life events. The Maya favored flutes and drums and built their instruments from the nature around them–they used conch shells for trumpets and turtle shells as drums. The Mayan song Xtoles is believed to be one of the world’s oldest continually sung melodies. Watch a performance by Mexico’s Coro Universitario Estudiantil.

COUNTRY: Guatemala, Mexico
KEY INSTRUMENTS: Conches and other natural trumpets, Flutes, Maracas, Tortoisehell drums, Whistles


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