Ute music facts for kids
Ute music is the traditional music of the Ute people, an Indigenous tribe in North America. Many Ute songs have been recorded and saved. Each song has a special meaning or tells about an experience. These experiences can be about social life, religious beliefs, or feelings. Many Ute songs are social songs. They include songs for war, social dances, parades, healing, love, games, and storytelling.
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The Story Behind Ute Music
Just like other Native American music, much of Ute music is inspired by nature. The Ute people even called nature "mother." This shows how much they respected it. Many Ute songwriters, especially from the Northern Ute tribes, have said they received their music through dreams.
The Ute Native Americans lived in the Great Basin area. They faced challenges from people like the Spanish and the Mormons who came into their lands. Through these tough times, their music stayed important for their people.
How Ute Music Sounds
Most Ute songs are like chants. They don't have many words. The meaning of the songs comes more from the singer's feelings than from the lyrics. The singing style is often deep and strong, not always clear or smooth. One Ute singer said it sounds like singing while riding a horse at a fast gallop.
The range of notes in Ute songs is usually small, often staying within one octave. Most songs start with higher notes and then go down to lower notes as the song continues. The notes might sound a bit flat or sharp to some listeners. This is because Ute music uses its own natural modes (special scales) instead of trying to be perfectly on pitch. Most of these notes stay steady.
Unlike many types of music, Ute music does not have regular rhythmic groups like measures (bars).
Instruments in Ute Music
The Ute people use common Native American musical instruments for their war and dance songs. These include the morache, the hand drum, a large drum, and the flageolet.
The Morache
The morache is a common instrument among Indigenous American tribes. It's like a special rattle made from a notched stick. You play it by rubbing a shorter stick or bone across a longer stick that has cuts (notches) on its side. To make the sound louder, one end of the long stick was originally placed on a shallow basket. Today, many people use a piece of zinc instead of a basket.
The Hand Drum
The hand drum is a small drum, about 12 inches across. It's made from a piece of wood bent into a circle. A wet animal skin is stretched over the top. Holes in the skin match holes in the wood to hold it tightly. A handle is made from two strips of cotton cloth tied together in the middle to form a cross. You play the drum by hitting the skin with a drumstick. The drumstick is a round stick with a head made of white cloth wrapped around one end.
The Large Drum
For some dances, like the Turkey dance and Women's dance, a much bigger drum is used. About 8 to 10 singers will sit around this drum. They sing as they play the drum together. Sometimes, as many as 14 people can sit around the large drum.
The Flageolet
The flageolet is a type of wind instrument. It's similar to flageolets used by other Indigenous American tribes. It looks a bit like a common flageolet. It's made from a straight piece of wood. The wood is hollowed out by splitting it in half, removing the soft center (pith), and then gluing the pieces back together. It's about 11 inches long and just over an inch wide. You play it by blowing into a whistle mouthpiece and covering some of its 6 sound holes with your fingers. It's known for having a good tone. Sometimes, it was moistened to make the sound even better. The Ute flageolet was said to have a wide range of notes but was made for Indian music. A Ute person who made and played the flageolet once said, "American song tunes cannot be played on it but Indian music can be played on it."
Ute Singing Style
Singing is a very important part of Ute music. Native American singing is unique. The way they use their voices can be hard to describe. Common features include a strong tremolo (a shaking sound in the voice). Also, singers often start a note a little sharp and then quickly slide down to the main note. A Native American singer uses a quick tightening of the glottis (part of the voice box) to separate notes. This allows for very short notes, like eighth and sixteenth notes, without needing to use many words or syllables.
Dancing with Ute Music
Ute music is often performed with dancing. The dances are full of special meanings and symbols.
The Ute Bear Dance
A famous ceremonial dance of the Ute tribe is the Bear Dance. There are many different Bear Dance songs. They have complex rhythms and melodies. These songs and dances are often part of festivals that last for several days, sometimes up to a week. One such festival is the Tam-Nam Nacup Springtime Festival. Some people say the dance was first used for courting, but today it is mostly a dance for fun and good feelings.
How the Bear Dance Began
The Ute Bear Dance comes from a common story told by the tribe's leaders. The dance is said to be as old as the Ute culture itself. There are many different versions of the story. One popular story is about a Ute man who went hunting at the end of winter. As he traveled, he saw a bear come out of its cave where it had been sleeping all winter. As the bear walked outside, it started to dance, moving forward and backward. The man watched from far away, afraid to get closer because the bear might attack him. He studied the bear's movements carefully. He liked what he saw and went back to tell his people what he had learned.
Bear Dance Music
The music for the Bear Dance includes singing, drums, and a morache. The morache is used to make a growling sound. This sound is meant to copy the howl of a bear. Singers also use gliding notes on downward progressions to imitate bear sounds. There is a steady drum beat while the morache is rubbed up and down. The rhythm is strong and steady, more important than the tune itself. Usually, only the men sing for the Bear Dance.
How the Bear Dance is Performed
The dance itself comes from the story of the bear. It is called Mamaqui Mawats, which means "to move forward and back." This describes how the bear moved when it came out of its cave. The dance begins with a band member asking the band leader to start the dance. The leader can agree or say no. It is mostly a social dance, but it also has some religious meaning. The Bear Dance leader, who started the dance with the band, leads the dance. Both men and women take part, but they face different directions. The women face the band, and the men face east, opposite to the women.
Bear Dance Beliefs
Ute people believe they are related to bears. The bear is seen as the wisest of all animals. Long ago, it was believed that Ute people would turn into bears before they died. While they believe this transformation doesn't happen anymore, they still feel a special connection with bears. They believe they are still distantly related. The dance itself creates a link between the people and their ancestors. It became a sacred (holy) dance for those who took part. Even so, it is mostly known as a social dance, and everyone involved has a lot of fun.
Preserving Ute Music
Ute traditional songs have been passed down for many generations. They were never written down. Instead, people learned them by listening and repeating. However, since the early 1900s, many anthropologists (people who study human cultures) and ethnologists (people who study different cultures) have worked to save and record this music.
Frances Densmore's Work
Frances Densmore was a key person who helped document the music of over 30 different Native American tribes in the United States and Canada, including the Ute tribe. She used a phonograph cylinder recorder (an early sound recorder) and a box camera. Most of her studies were supported by the Bureau of American Ethnology. She worked there from 1907 to 1933, and again after 1939. Over the years, she developed a theory about Indian music. She understood that its melodies and harmonies were different from Western music.
During her research for the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution, she recorded 3,591 cylinders of Indigenous music. These recordings were later moved to the National Archives and then to the Library of Congress. There, they were copied onto large acetate discs. By 1915, about 900 songs had been recorded. Over her entire career, more than 2,400 songs were written down from her recordings. This collection is considered a "great recorded treasure of the American people." Her work greatly helped save Ute music.
Why Some Oppose Documentation
Some people do not agree with documenting Indigenous music, especially the work of Frances Densmore. A Native American woman named Marcie Rendon wrote a play called "Song Catcher: A Native Interpretation of the Story of Frances Densmore." Rendon disagreed with Densmore's work. She felt that Densmore, being from a different culture, should not have recorded their sacred music. The play explores how such studies could feel like an invasion of privacy. From the view of Indigenous people today, it questions if such studies could harm the people being studied. Along with Rendon, some Native American people believe that their music should stay within their own society.
