Pueblo Musical Communities

Brenda M. Romero is an associate professor on the musicology faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles (focusing on indigenous and Hispano traditions of New Mexico), as well as bachelor's and master's degrees in music theory and composition at the University of New Mexico. She performed the violin for the Pueblo ofjemez Matachina Dance for nine years, aiding the tradition's ability to continue until a local player could take over.

The Pueblos belong to the Southwest culture area that centers on Arizona and New Mexico and includes the Athapaskan-speaking Dineh (Navajo and Apache) tribes. The Pueblos, whose roots in this area are ancient, were already advanced agricultural peoples who built multiple-storied apartments of adobe and stone masonry and had developed their religions and native arts to a high degree when the Spanish arrived in 1598. (The word "pueblo" has subsequently taken on two meanings; besides describing specific groups of Native Americans who live in the southwestern United States, it is also the word used to refer to their villages.)

The Pueblos maintained a kind of governance, based on the abundance of corn, that resembles more the city-states of the groups in Mexico and not so much the North American Plains model of portable living, following the buffalo. Nineteen pueblos survive in New Mexico today, subdivided into northern Tanoan-speaking groups mostly on the Rio Grande and Jemez rivers, the western Keres-speaking groups, and the Zuni of western New Mexico, whose language is related to indigenous groups in Mexico. In addition, the Hopi, of a Uto-Aztecan, Shoshonean linguistic family, live in Arizona adjacent to Navajo reservations (as are the Zuni in New Mexico). The Hopi and Zuni have preserved their masked ceremonials that were suppressed by the Spanish and almost disappeared in the northern and western pueblos. They are centers of the kachina spiritual practice, in which effigies of mythical characters carved of cottonwood are honored daily. The kachinas, in their various guises, appear in person during ritual observances, the center of traditional musical life in all the Pueblos.

The majority of Puebloans today commute to urban centers and engage in a wide variety of employment. Sometimes problems arise when the ceremonial calendar requires individuals to take time off to attend a Pueblo event. They also face demands on their time as they prepare for feast days while trying to maintain jobs outside the community.

MUSIC

It is rare to see a complete musical ethnography on a Pueblo community. A great deal of secrecy still surrounds the traditional belief systems, and since traditional music contexts revolve around religious ceremonials, this poses significant limitations for fieldwork. Christian missionaries have long established an Hispano Catholic church repertoire and newer, Protestant worship musics in English are being disseminated. The Matachina is a Dance of Conquest introduced by the Spanish to the Pueblos, where it has

taken on its own character and meaning. (For more information, see Volume 5 of American Musical Traditions for the entry on Latino musical communities in New Mexico and Colorado.)

The Matachina remains the only Pueblo ceremonial to use European instruments (violin and guitar), although some Pueblos have a version that uses only the drum and a male chorus, and the ceremonial dress has been reinterpreted to conform to traditional formats. The tradition of "borrowing" or "receiving" ceremonies from outside groups is a longstanding practice that underscores the importance placed on the power of ritual as the basis for survival. New contexts in which one hears music in the Pueblos have been added, so that it is not uncommon to hear Pueblo rock bands. In Hopi an annual Sun-splash features famous reggae musicians like Ziggy Marley. The Hopi are also receptive to bringing performances by other indigenous peoples around the world, including Australian Aboriginal and Peruvian groups.

TRADITIONAL FORMATS

The most intensive part of the ritual calendar is during the winter months, when fresh food is least available. Food sharing is a regular aspect of both public and private communal ceremonies. In the pueblo of Jemez, a syncretism of Pueblo and Spanish-Mexican ideas of food sharing and posada, or shelter, has led to a tradition in which the household that has the Infant Jesus (usually made of porcelain) receives and feeds anyone at any time except between the hours of 2:00 A.M. and 5:00 A.M., for the two weeks starting on December 24 and ending January 6. The "Infant's House" is draped in brilliantly colorful rugs, tapestries, scarves, shawls, tinsel, and artworks, lending the ambience a magical quality. During this time the house becomes the center for a variety of music, dance, and dance/drama performances in honor of the Holy Child, whose shrine is placed in a corner of the room for all to see and worship. It is common to see female burlesques of Matachina and other dances in the Infant's House, when humor is especially given a free reign, as well as shortened versions of traditional dances that might take place during other times of the year.

The ritual calendar is typically divided into summer (turquoise) and winter (pumpkin or squash) ceremonials. Among the Tewa the summer moiety is responsible for the summer ceremonials, such as the communal rain and corn dances. The winter moiety, whose leader is called the Hunt Chief, is primarily responsible for hunting ceremonies, such as the Deer Dance. (When a tribe becomes too large for a single organization, its members typically divide into two subgroups, each of which is known as a moiety.) In contrast, among the Jemez and many of the Keres-speaking groups, both Turquoise and Pumpkin kivas (literally the Pueblo sacred ceremonial meeting chambers) prepare dances for the same communal celebrations, including the Catholic feast days. The pueblo of Jemez is unique in that the Turquoise kiva dances the "Spanish" version Matachina with violin and guitar, and the Pumpkin kiva dances the drum/chorus version immediately following (or vice versa). The Pueblos have many dances to honor animals. Most, if not all of the Pueblos, have eagle and buffalo dances, the latter said to have been brought to the Pueblos by Plains tribes such as the Kiowa. The male Tewas in San Juan Pueblo are obligated to dance the Turtle Dance on December 26, and those not participating are roped into the dance in their street clothes by two frightening kachinas. The Bow and Arrow Dance songs of Tesuque Pueblo refer to the songs of birds in the springtime. For nearly a hundred years, Taos Pueblo has encouraged its younger dancers to learn the virtuosic Hoop Dance, which requires the dancer to dance through complicated arrangements of hoops at a very fast tempo.

Most of the public music and dance ceremonies in the Pueblos are male-dominated, although women are responsible for seeing that food giveaways and feasting are well organized. Everyone, including men, women, and children, is obligated to dance in the communal dances, such as the annual corn dances, which are often danced barefoot in the blazing sun.

FORM

Pueblo musical forms are among the more complicated formal structures used by indigenous peoples in the Americas. It is common to hear a brief introduction to a song, which in some cases, such as the Tewa Turtle Dance, also connotes the ceremony to which the song belongs. Long verses follow, usually including a contrasting section or sections. The words are carefully crafted poetic images that emphasize the Pueblo presence in harmony with the natural world and its forces. Care is taken to give texts sympathetic prayer magic, and entire songs are repeated ritualistically; four times is necessary to engage the unseen forces of the four cardinal directions. The drama of the multiple, somber, low-ranging voices and the dance they accompany is ornamented by sudden shifts from duple to triple time, and immediately back to duple, often simply pausing to hear the syncopation in the drum on the third beat then continuing. The Tewa refer to this technique as taí or pause, and it is heard across pueblos from Taos to Hopi.

HISTORY

The Pueblos are somewhat unique in contrast with other American Indian tribes in North America, in that they were able to launch a successful revolt against the Spanish colonists in 1680. When the Spanish returned, they were never again to control the innermost workings of the Pueblo societies they continued to dominate. For this reason the Pueblos were able to maintain a more traditional core of ceremonial music culture that provided for music complexes with a wide variety of ritual and healing functions. The Pueblos are unique in an open, evolved male choral sound with rich, low timbres. They learned Spanish polyphony well but later abandoned it. The vestiges of this tradition are in the female-dominated church hymn and folk liturgical genres that have replaced the polyphonic music of the early church.

PUEBLO MUSICAL COMMUNITIES

MUSIC

TRADITIONAL FORMATS

FORM

HISTORY

BIBLIOGRAPHY