Notes on Classical Native

Welcome to Classical Native 2008. Now in its third year, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is once again honored to present classical and classically informed music composed and performed by an array of exceptional Native artists. Performers from the East Coast (and one from across the Atlantic) will join them to provide our audiences with a glimpse of a vital and growing segment of the Native musical scene.

As in previous years, our concert series presents an intriguing mix that includes Native composers performing their own music, pieces by non-Native composers presented by Native instrumentalists, and works by Native composers performed by non-Native musicians. We believe that these often fascinating musical interactions among musicians and with the audience will lend new meaning to the idea of music as a universal language.

Classical Native grew out of conversations between Dr. Helen Scheirbeck, then the assistant director for the NMAI’s Public Programs Department, and members of her staff. As we began to explore what seemed to be a somewhat limited and disconnected group of musicians and composers, we learned that conversations among several Native composers were already taking place. Those conversations led to the formation of the First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI), an organization established in 2004 under the wing of the American Composers Forum. FNCI has since become an established entity that promotes Native composers of all genres and has become one of the NMAI’s most important partners in this endeavor.

Those of us working here at the museum, along with our colleagues at FNCI, have discovered unexpected facets of this heretofore obscure world, a richness of invention and variety that is growing exponentially. The efforts today of these and other organizations show that a great deal of energy and creativity is being tapped, and new musical partnerships are forming, often aided by grants and commissions. At the same time, new audiences and, perhaps equally as important, young Native musicians are being introduced to the world of classical music.

Since the inception of Classical Native, questions have been raised by both participants and audience members concerning its definitions and boundaries. The term “Native” itself raises many questions about identity, origins, community, and culture. Although that term is best debated in a different context, we can pose a question about the role that one’s “Nativeness” plays in musical compositions; it is fair to say that there are as many answers to this as there are composers.

What, then, can we say about this seemingly straightforward word, “classical”? The works of some composers who have participated in Classical Native, including Jerod Tate, George Quincy, David Yeagley, and the late Louis Ballard, suggest that form lies at the core of any definition of classical music, so that one finds symphonies, suites, concertos, and sonatas among their oeuvre. Additionally, their work is usually scored for orchestral instruments. Others, including Raven Chacon, Dawn Avery, and Barbara Croall, draw on other resources and inspirations, including nature, electronics, spoken word, indigenous instruments, and more.

In this age of genre-bending, where opera stars consort with country singers, string quartets play the music of Jimi Hendrix, and symphonies perform concerts of music from video games, easy definitions are hard to come by. In the Native musical world, a number of musicians who have made their marks as singer-songwriters and folk musicians are composing symphonic music, including Joanne Shenandoah, Bill Miller, and Arvel Bird. In this environment, one may well ask: What lines can or should be drawn, and who should be doing the drawing? As in many other artistic disciplines, the dialogue centers on form and function: And the question of “serious” versus “popular” (as if the two are mutually exclusive) plays into some definitions. How do we judge between what we hear in the concert hall and what we hear on the street (or, in the past, what was heard in the royal courts versus the countryside)? Is conservatory training a prerequisite to being a classical musician (most would answer “yes” to that), or can classical music evolve from much more informal circumstances?

Type “define classical music” into your web browser, and you will find some of the following: “a traditional genre of music conforming to an established form and appealing to critical interest and developed musical taste”; “the more serious forms of European and American music, as opposed to folk music, jazz or the many forms of popular music”; “written as opposed to music played extemporaneously”; or “music generally regarded as having permanent rather than ephemeral value.” Many have attempted to define the genre, yet perhaps the following statement found on answers.com most accurately sums up the issue: “This apparently simple question is almost impossible to answer satisfactorily.” To every definition of classical music there are both exceptions and changes over time. When Igor Stravinsky’s ballet music, The Rite of Spring, was first performed in Paris in 1913, audiences rioted. Nowadays most people would agree that this once-revolutionary sounding music falls comfortably into today’s classical category. What was once experimental now fits into modern sensibilities with ease.

So then, will the music heard during this series of programs be defined as classical? That judgment we will leave for you, the listener, to determine. What we can say for certain is that the talent assembled here will help expand the definition of what it means to be both Native and a classical musician. At Classical Native events you will find music informed by an attention to the organic sounds of nature, cultural experiences both on rural reservations and in big cities, as well as sounds of traditional songs, drums, and flutes. The time-honored classical sounds of cellos, violins, oboes, and pianos may draw from the heart of Native traditional, it may be enhanced by electronic effects and technologies not known in the time of Beethoven, and some will almost certainly be informed by ceremonies experienced as part of what defines the lives of Native people within contemporary culture.

Classical Native brings us music created by the confluence of cultures, infused with everything that is contemporary, and by much of that heritage that has been passed from generation to generation. With an open mind and your senses attuned, you may then arrive at your own definition, or you may find that definitions are, in the end, not all that necessary. At least, you may find that your notion of what is typically considered either classical or Native has been altered by the experience.

Thanks to all the participants and supporters of these programs, and thanks to you, the audience, for demonstrating by your presence your own innate curiosity about what is evolving today in the ever-fascinating, ever-changing musical geography of Indian Country.

Howard Bass, Cultural Arts Manager