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• 1 2022-05-18T17:09:32+00:00 Transcription Practices 13 The history and legacy of transcription practices used for indigenous music plain 2022-06-07T20:20:03+00:00

  The transcription practices used for indigenous musics in the settler states part of North America evolved drastically over time. Some of the earliest transcriptions of indigenous music were done by French music scholars during the 17th century. These tended to be in western styles, leaving out details that could not be adequately portrayed by the transcription techniques current at that time. Because so many details were  left out, these transcriptions portray indigenous music as simplistic, or what they might have called  “primitive” and “uncivilized.” This can be seen in a transcription done in 1741 of a piece listed as “Tabagia Song”. 

  Though there are some forms of notation that attempted to depart from the standard western staves in order to more accurately capture how the music sounded, such as graphic notation, most music relied on staff notation. Some transcribers, like Alice Fletcher, wrote detailed summaries to accompany their transcriptions in order to provide some context about the cultural aspects or unique tonal qualities that could not be transcribed. Others, for example,  put rhythmic details or vocal effects above or below the staff for readers. These techniques attempted to maintain some authenticity to the original music, but most other transcribers abandoned any notion of attempting authenticity for accessibility to western classical musicians because they didn’t have the skills to transcribe beyond the familiar system.

  Alice C. Fletcher was well known for her transcriptions which are regarded as some of the earliest significant transcriptions of indigenous music. She began transcribing indigenous music during her first trip to the Omaha and Sioux reservations in 1881, beginning by transcribing some tunes by ear and later from phonograph recordings. When getting ready to publish her work, Study of Omaha Indian Music (1893),  she reached out to John Comfort Fillmore to assist with the accompanying transcriptions as she was not confident in her skills (Levine, 2002).  When Study of Omaha Indian Music was later published it included a “Report on the Structural Peculiarities of the Music” written by Fillmore. Fillmore, a notable arranger in his own right, attempted to increase interest in Native American music by making it “fit” into the euro american  music style. He adjusted certain pitches in order to make the music easier to play  by musicians trained in standard European music and for listeners to digest. He also provided many harmonizations of tunes transcribed by Fletcher, which were published in that 1893 volume and later in Indian Story and Song (1900).  
  Despite the inadequacies of western notation, the transcription techniques established during this time period set a precedent for transcribing music outside canonical Euro American traditions that lead to problematic thinking that can be seen in music to the present day. Techniques like alterations to fit the European standard staff and rhythm, providing minimal cultural context, and arrangements for piano accompaniment continued to plague such  adaptations of music. Transcriptions of  North American indigenous sonic practices  as a whole, starting with and shaped by the work done by Fletcher and Fillmore with Omaha and Sioux music, created a dynamic where indigenous music was a novelty to be altered and absorbed at the whim of the Euro-American musical world. As the techniques of this time period continued to be used, the social dynamics they were born out of were continually reinforced. The legacy of the transcription practices discussed above can be seen in musical studies that continue to be dominated by an exclusively Euro-American and/or White  perspective and problematic approaches to music not traditionally seen in the Euro-American canon. 

  Works Cited

  • Fillmore, John Comfort. 1893. “Report on the Structural Peculiarities of the Music” from Alice C. Fletcher with Francis La Flesche, A Study of Omaha Indian Music. Cambridge, Mass. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. 59-77.
  • Fletcher, Alice with Francis La Flesche. 1893. A Study of Omaha Indian Music. Cambridge, Mass. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
  • Fletcher, Alice C. and La Flesche, Francis. 1911. "The Omaha tribe." in Twenty-seventh annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1905-1906, 17–654. Bureau of American Ethnology.
  • Levine, Victoria Lindsay. 2002. “Reading American Indian Music as Social History” in  Writing American Indian Music: Historic Transcriptions, Notations, and Arrangements. Middleton, Wis.: Published for the American Musicological Society by A-R Editions, Inc.
  • Oldmixon, Mr. (John), 1673-1742: The British Empire in America: Containing the History of the Discovery, Settlement, Progress and State of the British Colonies on the Continent and Islands of America (second edition, corrected and amended, 2 volumes; London: Printed for J. Brotherton et al., 1741), illust. by Herman Moll.