The required sections for reading in The Indians' Book and Teton Sioux Music share a common topic of discussion between themselves. This topic focuses on how Native American music stands out from other cultures' music in its own distinctive ways. A way that Native American music stands out from other kinds of music is evident by its composition and the steps in making it. This involves the fact that Native American music consists of three main key features in its composition which are rhythm, melody, and harmony. Curtis' text mentions that each individual part plays a key role in bringing music together as a whole by incorporating a wide variety of noises along with a well-structured pattern of sound to and keeping them at a decent pace that appropriately fits a certain song to make their music sound professional. It is even mentioned that other forms of music, unlike Native American music, tend to not include harmony a great deal of the time. This topic also involves the organization of musical notes in a Native American music composition. Densmore's text explains how certain music notes are placed in a certain order to allow individual notes to serve as crucial structure points in a song and that the specific number of notes per measure, section, etc., is crucial to allow a the sounds in a song to cooperate with each other and keep the composition as a whole running smoothly and seen in tune with each other.
I would definitely expect these work practices from Native American music, because Native Americans always carefully consider how they want to arrange their music compositions before finalizing their work. I have already learned that from previous readings for this class and/or in the class itself that Native Americans will always take their music seriously and make sure that every detail about it is actually how they want it to be. The ways in which Native Americans approach their music in contrast to how other cultures do is an interesting case of "insider" vs. "outsider." This is so, because based on these facts about Native American music, it is clear that the Native Americans have their own self-taught special processes and methods that were created to enable them to come to final decisions on their music that have lead to exciting results for their people. In addition, this can generally confirm the fact of how other cultures are unaware of these practices which can be a big reason as to why their music may not be as significant as others.
Another way that Native American music stands out from other cultures' music is evident by symbolism and meaning behind the lyrics/words in songs. Curtis' text mentions the fact that in the general forms of written work by Native Americans, especially music, that an individual word can represent one full statement in Native American, whereas in English music it would take an entire sentence to get a statement across to listeners. Besides this, it is mentioned that the certain songs by Native Americans hold secretly hidden meanings behind them that only the person who created the song knows about. Densmore's implies that a certain number of the meanings behind Native Americans songs come from unreal experiences that they had, which sometimes happens in a person's dreams. This idea right here shows another case of "insider" vs. "outsider," since only the creator behind a song can personally connect with its meaning and understand the message within it since that person was the only one to experience it outside of the song in his or her lifetime. Due to this, the person can more so feel the emotions in the song than anybody else and be a part of the song unlike anybody else. In relation to this music, it can definitely be stated as a general fact that Native Americans tend to connect themselves with the Earth and as many of the living organisms and land settings on it as they can through certain song lyrics that they come up with. This fact definitely makes them stand out among other cultures to a certain degree. The ways in which Native Americans handle their music will always remain a significant part of their culture for a long time.
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