Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-06-06
(By w. II. BANFILL)

no THE pioneers who came TO the
west before the Indians had been
Weaned from the warpath and the
Scalp-dance, the tOmtOmS and lncan-
tations of the redmen were anything
but musical and the idea that musical
composers would n day study their
forms OF melody for original and beau
tiful musical themes would have seemed
preposterous to them. The Indian was
credited with a Superabundance of
blood-curdling yells and with the abil-
'kiyi-ing" and that was all.
Quite different is the attitude of such
men as Thurlow Lieurance and Charles
Wakefield Cadman, who have become
famous largely through their adapta-
lions of Indian song motives to Amer
lean music. They give the American
Indian a place second only to the
American negro in contributing a dis
tictive note to the music of the world.
Lieurance and Cadman have had
much parallelism in their work of
which h most outstanding instance Is
the wide popularity enjoyed by n
song written by each composer. Cad
mar is known best for THE Land of
the Sky-Blue Water" and Lieurance for
by the Waters of Minnetonka," both
love songs and both celebrating the
land Of the Sioux.
The inspiration for the music Of "By
the Waters OF Minnetonka," however.
came TO Lieurance at a Grow tribal Gel
ebration while he was visiting his
brother, Edward Lieurance, at that time
a government physician at Crow ASen-
cy, now a physician at the state hos
pltal at Warm Springs.
At this celebration in the summer Of
1911, there came visitors from other
tribes as was and still is a common GUS
tom when reservation authorities will
give their consent. The friendly rival
ry in their games and dances extended
to their singing and chants, and a
Sioux Indian sang a song which was
the source from which Lieurance drew
his music.
During the summer which Lieurance
spent on the reservation while recover
ing from al accident which left him a
partial cripple, he studied the songs and
folklore OF Crows and CheyenncS, Of
ten making long trips by team and
wagon over rough roads to attend onle
gathering where he might gather new
Indian themes. OF the Is themes in
the Indian Rhapsody, one of his prin-
cipal productions, two are Cheyenne
and four are Crow melodies.
LII q tdlh Will NIL. hlCul dilCt StVcI dl
years ago, he said: There is a great
difference in the musical Characters
tics Of the various Indian tribes. The
Grow Indians have some wonderful
music in the songs connected with the
tobacco planting and the owl dance
but they have no love songs. The male
Crows have some very good voices.
THE Cheyenne, on the other hand,
has some wonderful love songs and
some beautiful myths. While the Crows
do not have the flute, the Cheyennes
are very expert with it. The Indian
flute, which is more accurately known
as a %flageolet, is the most primitive of
all musical wind instruments and the
only one known among Indian tribes.
John Turkeylegs is a great artist on
the flute and he secures some wonder
full effects on his crude cedar instru-
ment.
I'm the American Indian, the COM
poser, artist and dramatist have the
most UNEMPLOYED field for material that
there is anywhere in the world. The
Indians have a great body of lore only
One-tenth of which has been recorded.
Just as the apparently uninteresting
music Of the Hungarian gypsy has be-
come n of the chief sources or rO-
mantle themes, the American composer
has a wonderful opportunity in har-
monizing the noise" of the Indian in
to wonderful melody.
Although Mr.. Lieurance had started
as early as 1901 among the Kiowas to
study Indian songs as to their history
and characteristics, it was not until
after his work with the Crows that he
thought of using them for the basis of
musical composition. Here, however,
he received the inspiration to harmon
ize and develop the Indian melodies,