Cool Stuff Blog #1
Lindsey Hardin
ALGAITA
The point of this blog is to find three things that I find interesting and three things that I want to learn more about from the Native American culture or the Sub-Saharan African culture. I am always fascinated to learn about new instruments and the sounds they make. The first thing fascinating I found was an instrument that was played in Sub-Saharan Africa called the Algaita. The Oboe is an instrument that you may know that most closely resembles the Algaita. Like the Oboe, it has many finger holes and a wide opening at the end. This instrument is played mainly at festivities and/or ceremonies. You play this instrument by putting your mouth on the circular piroutte and blowing through the double reed. The Algaita is a type of aerophone because it is an instrument that produces sound by the instrument vibrating by itself.
JINGLE DRESS
The Jingle Dress sparked my interest when we briefly discussed it during class. This tradition derived from the Native American culture. The Jingle Dress Dance is mainly seen in Powwows and is performed by women. The dance required women to not cross their feet, never dance backwards, and be light on your feet. Many say that there should be exactly 365 jingle cones on the dress. Metal cones are attached which help create the sound when the women dance. The story of how the Jingle Dress came to be is what makes it so fascinating. The granddaughter of a medicine man was once sick and his spirit guides came to him and told him to make the dress. He told his granddaughter that if she danced in the dress that it would soon heal all her sickness.
CHICKEN DANCE
Another thing I found interesting that we barely discussed during class was the Chicken Dance. This came from the Native American culture as well. I heard it mentioned during the one of the videos we watched in class and I knew that it sounded like something I should research. This dance was performed by men and the dress attire involves wearing many feathers on their body. The dancers wear vibrant colors to show off their feathers on the outfit.
The story of the Jingle Dress is really neat! I wonder how difficult it is to dance in this? Especially if there are certain moves the women cannot do. I really like how the Native American culture and music provides such a deep meaning to everything they do, and it is all to help or benefit one another is some type of fashion.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about the Chicken Dance, but you explain it well. I love the colorful feathers that they are wearing in the picture.
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting that they have wear 365 jingle cones, I wonder if they fall off when they are dancing. A lot of the men's costumes for the Native Americans have feathers on them
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see information about the Algaita! Wind instruments--especially reed instruments like the algaita--are more common in Northern Africa than Sub-Saharan Africa, but there are a few like the algaita that wandered south over time. I have a similar instrument from Morocco--a Rheta--that I'll bring to class next week when we start Arabic Music.
ReplyDelete