Music

North American Native considers Earth as a “mother”. Most of their activities of everyday life are related to the Mother Earth. They strongly believe in the power of the mind to think and create. Livestock, sheep and land are the things that hold the families together and make it strong. They are a patrilineal society. Monophonic group singing is the most common form of singing in North America. The song is “raised” by the leader. Singing is call-and-response and with pulsations. In Native America, music is used for thanks giving, insuring good harvests, placating animal spirits, celebrations, life cycle rituals, appealing for rain and maintaining harmony. Men dominate in music-making. Percussion, especially drums and rattles, are common accompaniment to keep the rhythm steady for the singers, who generally use their native language or vocables. Often songs make frequent use of vocables and other untranslatable elements. The song texts include both public pieces and secret songs, said to be “ancient and non-changing”, which are used only for sacred and ceremonial purposes. Different form of music in Native America also comes up with different dances. They create personal variations and different movements.
Indigenous Australian believes in land and dreamtime. Land is important both myth logically and for subsistence. Rainbow is a manifestation of the dreamtime, breaking into a material world. Spirit is considered to be neither human nor animals. In religion, it is often joining with ritual, and outsiders often conflate these concepts. However, important concepts identified with ritual are useful for analyzing music and religion. Aboriginal music is mostly voice and percussion. Music is rarely more than 2 minutes. The didgeridoo is commonly considered the national instrument of Aboriginal people, a conical wooden trumpet with no finger holes, usually measuring between 1.5 and 2 meters long.
These systems and cultures are different from western, for example, To... [continues]

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