Teton Sioux Music and Culture

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 589 pages
• Published by: University of Nebraska Press March 1, 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0803266316
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0803266315
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.7 inches
• Weighs: 2.6 pounds

Product Review
Raymond J. DeMallie : "Frances Densmore''s modestly titled Teton Sioux Music and Culture is one of the many volumes that resulted from her prolific life-long project to record and transcribe the traditional music of American Indian peoples. The book explores the role of music in all aspects of Sioux life, and is a classic of the descriptive genre produced by members of the Smithsonian''s Bureau of American Ethnology. Music serves as the vehicle for organizing this detailed account of traditional religion, warfare, and social life, enriched by first-person narrations by the Lakota men and women who worked with Densmore from 1911 to 1914 to preserve their songs by means of a wax cylinder recorder, the modern technology of that period. The evident quality of the narratives (translations from Lakota) as well as the complete transcription and translation of all the Lakota lyrics to the songs, resulted from Densmore''s close collaboration with Robert P. Higheagle, who shared her dedication to the project and was an exceptionally capable translator and cultural mediator. The material recorded here on such topics as dreams and visions, healing, the Sun Dance, and buffalo hunting—all with appropriate musical transcriptions and song lyrics—makes Teton Sioux Music and Culture one of the most significant ethnographic works ever published on the Sioux, as well as an important land-mark in the study of ethnomusicology."—Raymond J. DeMallie, author of The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk''s Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt

Reader Reviews
I was told by people in Wakpala, SD, that this is the best account of the coming of White Buffalo Calf Maiden. She came to the people who lived in this area of South Dakota, and the current residents are their descendents. When Frances Densmore came and asked to record their music and culture, the whole Tribe consulted and having heard of her reputation for honesty and integrity, they agreed to tell her the whole story of the White Buffalo Calf Maiden(Woman) and how she gave them the Sacred Pipe.And they told her all of their sacred rituals and songs. The scores and words are all here, interwoven with the text. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)