Traditional Native American Songs

These melodies are directly from or (as best I know based on documented evidence) are strongly
rooted in traditional Native American melodies. These songs include some songs from the Indianist
movement that have traditional roots.

By the Waters of Minnetonka

Death Song of the Cherokee Indians

Earth My Body

The Huron Carol

Kayowajineh

Maliseet Love Song

Membertou's Three Songs

Origin of the Flageolet

Wendeyaho (Tinhanama)

Yaquis Deer Dance

Yuma Lullaby

Zuni Sunrise

By the Waters of Minnetonka Sheet Music for Native American Flute

By the Waters of Minnetonka is Thurlow Lieurance's most well-known composition. Many versions
and arrangements were published, and many recordings were released between 1913 and the
1950s.There are uncertainties about the exact date of composition. Different sources give dates of
1911 or 1912 for the first hearing of the Native American melody on which the song is based.
Publication was probably in 1913.
According to a typewritten account from the Lieurance Collection at the Special Collections of the
Library of the Wichita State University ([Wolff 1996]):

"By the Waters of Minnetonka" was inspired by a Sioux Love Song recorded by Mr. Lieurance in
October, 1911, on the Crow Reservation in Montana. The tune was sung by Sitting Eagle, a Sioux.
No one knows how old this Sioux Love Song is. It moves on today and into the future. This love
song is based upon the following legend:
Moon Deer, daughter of the Moon Clan, loved Sun Deer of the Sun Clan. Tribal law forbade
marriage between the two clans. It was decreed that daughters of the Moon Clan must marry into
the Eagle Clan. The two lovers, in tears, ran away far to the east and north. They came to a
beautiful lake called Minnetonka (Minne means water; Tonka means large and round). Their
happiness was disturbed because their traditional enemies, the Chippewa, lived on the north shore
of this lake. They feared to return home and be separated, and finally in desperation they decided to
end it all. The legend states that they disappeared beneath the waves and were no more. The waves
moaned a rhythmic sound and the pines crooned their love song.
Many moons afterwards the warriors of the Sioux drove the Chippewa north to Lake Superior. One
night while they were camped on the shores of Lake Minnetonka, they heard the waters singing a
weird melody and, in the moon-path on the waters, two lilies appeared and grew to the skies. The
lilies were the spirits of Moon Deer and Sun Deer.

Thurlow Lieurance, 1922

Speaking about hearing the Native American melody for the first time, Mr. Lieurance was later
quoted as saying:

That night marked an epoch in my life, opened to me a new world. What work I have since done
has been due chiefly to that song. Thousands of people have heard it, clothed with the harmonizing
which our ears demand; it is lying upon music Tables all over the land, has been sung by many of
the world's famous singers, including Schuman-Heink, Julia Culp and Alice Nielson. (Kansas
Teacher, 1940)
The notes preceeding the sheet music published by Theodore Presser Co. in 1914 (song number
17550 - [Lieurance 1914]) provide some overlapping and some additional information:

Two lovers of the Sun and Moon clans of the Sioux Indians, loving against tribal law, fled to
escape torture, and let themselves sink together into the waters of the lonely Northern Lake. The
silver ripples, it is told, mourn above them, and the winds bear the cry afar. But in the song they
will arise from the depths of the lake for you; you will hear the steady and regular beat of their
paddles and see the diamond-spray drip off in the moonlight as they pass, once again, in their
ghost-canoe.
A violin typifies the wind, if you choose, echoes the soft harmonies of the accompaniment which
rocks to and fro on harp chords, between the major key and its relative minor, in and out of that
singular domain musicians know as the added Sixth chord and its derivatives.

Transcription and Performance Notes

I've done two arrangements for the Native American flute, below.
The first is based on the original melody transcribed by Lieurance. This melody stretches the range of
the Native American flute a bit beyond what may be comfortable. It also uses the major second note
that requires half-holing on pentatonic minor flutes.
The second arrangement avoids these issues by a few modificiations to the melody that (I hope) are
in keeping with the overall spirit and feeling (and chord structure) of the song.

Sheet Music - Original Melody - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

By the Shores of Minnetonka - Original Melody - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - Page 1

By the Shores of Minnetonka - Original Melody - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - Page 2

Sheet Music - Original Melody - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

By the Shores of Minnetonka - Original Melody - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - Page 1

By the Shores of Minnetonka - Original Melody - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - Page 2

Sheet Music - Modified Melody - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

By the Shores of Minnetonka - Modified Melody - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - Page 1

By the Shores of Minnetonka - Modified Melody - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - Page 2

Sheet Music - Modified Melody - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

By the Shores of Minnetonka - Modified Melody - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - Page 1

By the Shores of Minnetonka - Modified Melody - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - Page 2

Death Song of the Cherokee Indians - Sheet Music for Native

American Flute
From the Harvard Dictionary of Music ([Apel 1969]), page 33:

In the 18th century, F. W. Marpurg, the German music historian, published Remarks on Three
Songs of the Iroquois (Berlin, 1760), and an early attempt at adaptation of an actual Indian melody,
call Alknomook or Alkmoonok (The death song of the Cherokee Indians), was first published in
London in 1784. In America, James Hewitt included Alkmoonok in the score he arranged and
composed for the ballad operaTammany (1794).
The following is from [Ritson 1794]

(reprinted also in [Ritson 2009]

):

The simple melody of this song, as we are informed by its fair author, was brought to England
ten years ago by a gentleman named Turner, who had (owing to some singular events in his life)
spent nine years amongst the natives of America; he assured the author, she continues, that it was
peculiar to that tribe or nation called the Cherokees, and that they chanted it to a barbarous jargon,
implying contempt for their enemies in, the moments of torture and death. She adds that, The
words have been thought something characteristic of the spirit and sentiments of those brave
savages; that we look upon the fierce and stubborn courage of the dying Indian with a mixture of
respect, pity and horror; and that it is to those sentiments in the breast of the hearer that the death
song must owe its effect.

Death Song of the Cherokee Indians (1794)

Another version of this song appears in [Sonneck 1905]

in [Sonneck 1921]
, pages 6364.

, later reprinted

Sheet Music - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Death Song of the Cherokee Indians - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Death Song of the Cherokee Indians - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Earth My Body - Sheet Music for Native American Flute

I was introduced to this chant by Wayne McCleskey at the Vashon Island flute gathering the Summer
of 2002. The earliest mention of Earth My Body that I've found is from Julie Forest Middleton's 1998
book Songs for Earthlings, which cites it as a contemporary chant of unknown authorship
([Middleton 1998]). According to Ian Prattis in his 2011 collection, the words are from an Earth
chant sung by children, in countless languages, around the world ([Prattis 2011]).

Lyrics
The English lyrics to the chant are:

Earth my body, Water my blood, Air my breath and Fire my spirit

And here are some translations into various languages. Many are using Google Translate if you are
a native speaker of the language and have a better version, of if you would like to contribute a new
language, please Contact Me.
Arabic (Google Translate):

Chinese (Simplified) (Google Translate):

French (Google Translate):

Terre de mon corps, mon sang de l'eau, l'air mon souffle et mon esprit d'incendie
Hebrew (Google Translate):

, ,
Japanese (Google Translate):

Russian (Google Translate):

, ,

Spanish (Google Translate):

Tierra mi cuerpo, agua mi sangre, la respiracin de aire y fuego mi espritu

The Melody and Performance Notes
There are many melodies that have been used for Earth My Body. The melody transcribed below is
from Wayne McCleskey at the Vashon Island flute gathering the Summer of 2002.

Note that it uses an unusual note on the Native American flute: the Fire note can be fingered as

, or even

depending on the particular flute you're playing.

Recordings
Here is a straight recording of the melody I made on December 2, 2011 on a low C# Native American
flute by Brent Haines of Woodsounds Flutes. I'm playing both the low and the high versions of the
melody twice, just as an example, the second time through uses a bit more ornamentation than the
first time:

Sheet Music - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Earth My Body - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Earth My Body - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

The Huron Carol

The Huron Carol (also called Jesous Ahatonhia, Jesus is Born, and Nol Huron), is often considered to
be the first Canadian Christmas carol. It is likely to have been written by the Jesuit missionary Jean
de Brbeuf (1593-1649), who taught the song to the Hurons near Georgian Bay in about 1642
([Herbermann 1913]). He was apparently casting religion in terms that his Huron flock could relate
to, using the Great Spirit for Jesus and speaking of the Wise Men as three chiefs.
Brbeuf ministered to the Huron Indians for 22 years, until disaster struck in 1649. From the liner
notes of ([Mills-A 1960]):

In 1649 an Iroquois war party invaded Huronia, killing or driving out all the Hurons, and
destroying the missions. Refusing to leave their flock at St. Joseph, Fathers Brbeuf and lalement
were captured and died at the stake after enduring many hours of savage torture.
Some of the Hurons escaped to Lorette, near Quebec City, and there their descendants live to this
day. They did not forget Father Brbeuf's carol, and about 1750 another Jesuit, Father de
Villeneuve, heard them singing it and wrote it down. Then it was translated into French under the
title Jesus est n and it is still sung in that form in Quebec. In 1926, a Canadian poet, J. E.
Middleton, wrote the English words, which have become widely known.
Here is an excerpt from a version performed by Alan Mills of ([Mills-A 1960]):

Excerpt from The Huron Carol - from Canada's Story in

Song by Smithsonian Folkways ([Mills-A 1960]).

Backing Track for Native American Flute in E Minor

Gary Cope recorded a backing track for the melody that appeared on a limited-production CD-R of
backing tracks ([Cope 2004]).
He graciously gave me permission to include his backing track on the on Jam Tracks in E Minor CD.
Here's a recording of my overdub to that track, on an E minor Native American flute. I'm mostly
following the lead sheet (below) the first time through, and gradually improvise over the core melody
more and more each time through:

This backing track (i.e. without my overdub) is available on Jam Tracks in E Minor.

Sheet Music - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

The Huron Carol - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

The Huron Carol - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Kayowajineh - Sheet Music for Native American Flute

This song comes from the personal songbook of the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger. It appears
in Where Have All the Flowers Gone ([Seeger-P 2009], page 87) with the notation:

Forty years ago I learned the Seneca canoe song "Ka-yo-wa-ji-neh," from Tehanetorens (Ray
Fadden). I have tried to teach it to others exactly as I learned it.
Recordings
Here is an excerpt of this song from the album Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay, sung by Pete Seeger and
Ed Renehan. I've also included a flute recording I made on October 17, 2011 of the arrangement on
this page:

Sheet Music - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Kayowajineh - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Kayowajineh - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Maliseet Love Song Sheet Music for Native American Flute

The Maliseet Love Song was collected by Natalie Curtis (Burlin)
in the early 1900s and published in The Indians'
Book([Curtis 1907]).
Click on the image at the right to see the original transcription
and related notes.

Recordings
Here is a recording I did on our Recording Kiosk over a backing
track played by Jim Parker. This is in the key of G minor at 90
beats / minute, played three times:
and here is an excerpt of a recording by Laura Lee Perkins
and Ken Green from thier First Light CD ([Perkins 2000]):

Backing Tracks
Backing tracks in various keys and at various tempos are
available for this song (and based on this transcription) on
theFlute Haven Recording Kiosk web site.

Maliseet Love Song

Original Curtis Transcription

Maliseet Home Range

Elda Tate's Version

The second image at the right shows a transcription by Elda
Tate from [Tate 2004], based on the Natalie Curtis
transcription. However, notes some differences:

The tempo marking is significantly faster: a half note = 80

beats / minute rather than what appears to be the original
notation of a half note = 50 beats / minute. I'm not sure if this
is intentional or a transcription error.

The melody has been substantially altered from the Curtis

transcription. I believe that this is an attempt to accommodate
a starting note of

, which seems to cause issues

throughout the melody.

Maliseet Love Song

Elda Tate Transcription

Transcription and Performance Notes

First of all, note that I've dramatically changed (and simplified) the time signature from the original
transcription.
Second, I've selected a starting note of
, which seems to solve the issues of the Tate
transcription, while still keeping the melody within the range of the low register of the instrument.
I have not included the tempo marking feel free to use the tempo that suits the situation.
There are two versions for six-hole flutes, with slightly different fingerings. The first version uses the
standard fingering and the second version uses some alternate fingerings that make it easier to play
(for most people).
The melody is interesting in that it changes from major (first and second lines) to minor (third line)
and back to major (fourth line). Also note that it uses phrases of seven bars rather than a typical
eight-bar cycle.

Sheet Music - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes (Standard Fingering)

Maliseet Love Song - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes (Standard Fingering)

Sheet Music - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes (Alternate Fingering)

Maliseet Love Song - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes (Alternate Fingering)

Sheet Music - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Maliseet Love Song - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Membertou's Three Songs - Sheet Music for Native American

Flute
Marc Lescarbot (1570-1641) provided us with the oldest existing transcriptions of a songs from the
Americas three songs by Henri Membertou (-1611), sakmow (grand chief) of the Micmac First
Nations tribe.
Lescarbot was a French lawyer with a passion for exploration and adventure. He readily accepted an
assignment for a client in the Canadian Maritime Provinces, and arrived in May of 1606
([Reid 2010]). He was based in Port Royal, present-day Nova Scotia until the summer of 1607 and
took an interest in the lives of the region's native peoples. He became keenly aware of the tension
between colonization and the desire for quick profits versus the realities of harvesting a colony's
natural resources in a responsible manner sentiments he published in 1609 in his Histoire de la
Nouvelle-France ([Lescarbot 1609]).
Sometime during Lescarbot's stay in North America, he transcribed three songs of the Micmac
(Souriquois) healer and chief Henri Membertou.

Henri Membertou

Canada Post Stamp

Henri Membertou was the grand chief of the Micmac tribe located near the first French settlement in
Acadia, near Port Royal in present-day Nova Scotia, Canada. As a young man, he had met the
French explorer Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) and throughout his life developed good relationships
with French explorers. Late in life, he converted to Christianity and adopted the first name Henri in
honor of the late king of France, Henry IV ([Bumsted 2007]).
In 2007, Canada Post issued a 52 stamp dedicated to Membertou as part of their French Settlement
Series. Since there were no reliable portraits of Chief Membertou, illustrator Suzanne Duranceau
conceived a portrait with the assistance of historian Francis Back ([CanPost 2007]).

The Songs
Lescarbot later published an account of Membertou's songs in Chapter 5 of the third edition of his
book ([Lescarbot 1617]) using solfege notation for the melody. Here are the words and solfege
melody of the three songs, from the Project Gutenberg 2007 edition ([Lescarbot 2007]):

Holoet ho ho h h ha ha haloet ho ho h
Re fa sol sol re sol sol fa fa re re sol sol fa fa
Egrigna hau egrigna h he hu hu ho ho ho egrigna hau hau hau
Fa fa fa sol sol fa fa re re sol sol fa fa fa re fa fa sol sol sol
Tamema alleluya tameja douveni hau hau h h
Sol sol sol fa fa re re re fa fa sol fa sol fa fa re re
Solfege notation can be adequate for conveying a melody, but it says nothing about the rhythm of a
song. Rhythm had traditionally been conveyed using a number of standard rhythmic modes, but
European composers were responding to music that called for increasingly more complex rhythms by
developing a notation system that conveyed the rhythm as part of the written music. The system
of mensural notation was developed that incorporated the rhythm in to the shape of the note heads
on a written five-line staff. Mensural notation is the predecessor to the present-day modern music
notation.
Shortly after Lescarbot's return to France, a religious movement began to educate, catechize, and
baptize Canadian indigenous cultures. The secretary of Louis XIII asked the Rcollet Franciscan order
to send missionaries to Canada, with support from Anne of Austria, the consort of Louis XIII. In
1623, Gabriel Sagard-Thodat, a French missionary, arrived in Quebec and proceeded on to live with
the Huron Indians ([Herbermann 1913]).
Things did not go well. After struggling to learn the difficult Huron language, Sagard-Thodat shared
their incredible hardships. However, he won the affection and respect of the Hurons.
Sagard-Thodat was ordered back to France in 1625 after another missionary, Nicholas Veil, was
drowned in Riviere des Prairies (then renamed Saut du Rcollet). He began writing about his travels
and, in 1636, Sagard-Thodat published a four-volumes work ([Theodat 1636], in French). Volume
two, pages 291 and 292 contains Lescarbot's transcriptions in solfege notation. In addition, SagardThodat included his own arrangement of these songs, scored in mensural notation for four-part
vocal harmony. These arrangements appear on four un-numbered pages of some editions of volume
two. Catalog number 102 of the antiquarian bookseller Quaritch, dated October 1866 describes this
book as containing four pages at the end which give the native words and the music of a Huron
song and a Souriquois hymn ([Pilling 1888]).
Here are images of the four un-numbered pages, from the 1866 edition of Sagard-Thodat's
narrative ([Theodat 1866]):

First and Second Membertou songs from [Theodat 1866]

Third Membertou song from [Theodat 1866]

Transcription and Performance Notes

Rather than use the Re Fa Sol solfege syllables of the original Lescarbot transcription,
I've transposed these down to the equivalent La Do Re syllables. This provides the same scale
steps between the notes, and the La Do Re syllables are more natural for the native American
Flute.
Three transcriptions are given below:

The three songs of Membertou, as transcribed in [Theodat 1866]. ... MENSURAL ...

The first song of Membertou, given in two starting positions on the Native American flute:

and

An arrangement of the first song as a full performance piece. See the notes below on the structure of
this arrangement.

Sheet Music - Core Melodies - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Membertou's Three Songs - Core Melodies - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Core Melodies - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Membertou's Three Songs - Core Melodies - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - First Song - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Membertou's First Song - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - First Song - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Membertou's First Song - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Full Song Arrangement - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned

Flutes

In this full song arrangement, the core melody is repeated twice at

then once at

, transposed up to start at the

a section at

that repeats the core melody starting at

Note that at the end of the piece at

note . Then an

. Then

using

at the starting note,

section is repeated, followed by

and

sections are repeated.

, the melody is modified slightly to resolve the melody.

This arrangement is a classic way to take a simple melody and create a longer piece using what is
knows as a 12-bar blues structure.

Membertou's First Song - Full Song Arrangement - Six-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning - page 1 of 2

Membertou's First Song - Full Song Arrangement - Six-Hole Flutes -

Pentatonic Minor Tuning - page 2 of 2

Sheet Music - Full Song Arrangement - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned

Flutes

Membertou's First Song - Full Song Arrangement - Five-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning - page 1 of 2

Membertou's First Song - Full Song Arrangement - Five-Hole Flutes -

Pentatonic Minor Tuning - page 2 of 2

Origin of the Flageolet - Sheet Music for Native American Flute

This melody comes from the Mandan and Hidatsa legend of the Origin of the Flageolet. The melody
was collected and transcribed by Frances Densmore in herMandan and Hidatsa
Music ([Densmore 1923]
), pages 8084:

Flageolet Melody, from [Densmore 1923]

, page 83

Transcription and Performance Notes

Two versions of the melody are transcribed below:

The original melody as shown in Frances Densmore's 1923 publication. This melody is in a major
mode that requires some cross-fingerings on the Native Amercian flute.

A variation of the original melody, converting it to a minor key. This version requires no crossfingerings and is probably easier to play for less experienced players.
The two versions provide a great example of the difference between a major and a minor melody.

Recording
Here are two recordings I made on October 29, 2011. They are each taken once through the melody,
with no repeats, and are both on the same flute, an F# minor flute by Colyn Petersen:

Sheet Music - Original Major Tuning - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Origin of the Flageolet - Original Major Tuning - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Sheet Music - Minor Version of the Melody - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned
Flutes

Origin of the Flageolet - Minor Version of the Melody - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Wendeyaho Sheet Music for Native American Flute

Sheet Music Variation A Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Wendeyaho Variation A Six-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music Variation A Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Wendeyaho Variation A Five-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music Variation A Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

(Inverted Fingerings)

Wendeyaho Variation A Six-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning (Inverted Fingerings)

Sheet Music Variation A Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

(Inverted Fingerings)

Wendeyaho Variation A Five-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning (Inverted Fingerings)

Sheet Music Variation B Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Wendeyaho Variation B Six-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music Variation B Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Wendeyaho Variation B Five-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music Variation B Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

(Inverted Fingerings)

Wendeyaho Variation B Six-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning (Inverted Fingerings)

Sheet Music Variation B Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

(Inverted Fingerings)

Wendeyaho Variation B Five-Hole Flutes Pentatonic Minor Tuning (Inverted Fingerings)

Yaquis Deer Dance - Sheet Music for Native American Flute

I first heard this melody in 2002 at the Arizona State Museum in Tuscon. It is one of the songs that
is used in the Yaquis culture with the Deer Dance. This excerpt from [ASM 2001], page 10, provides
some background:
Yaquis [yah-kee] are a Uto-Aztecan speaking people whose homeland is the Yaqui River
valley of Southern Sonora. They call themselves Yoemem[yoh-em-mem], or People. Their
nearest neighbors are the Mayos, with whom they share many customs and beliefs. For
many Yaqui, the heart of their culture is the five enchanted worlds that mirror the land in
which they live. These mystical realms play a part in the everyday life of the Yaqui people.
One of the most important worlds is the Sea Ania or Flower World. The flowers of the Sea
Ania unite the people and connect them to their past. The deer dance is an important
ceremony that lets Yaqui people communicate with the Flower World. It is performed at
Easter, as well as other times of the year. It is an excellent example of how Yaquis combine
their own spiritualism with traditional Catholic rituals.
In the deer dance, Saila Maaso [see-lah mah-soh] little brother deer leaves the Flower
World to visit the Yaqui people. The dance was created a long time ago after a man saw the
deer having a party of their own in the woods. He practiced their dancing and was able to
do it himself. The deer songs that are now part of the ceremony were traditionally used for
hunting. For Yaquis, songs are bridges between the natural world and the enchanted
worlds. They are the language that unites people and animals. The participants in the
ceremony are: the Deer Dancer, Deer Singers, Musicians, and the Pahkola dancers who are
the ceremonial hosts and who often perform clownish antics.
Despite their visions of beautiful spiritual worlds, the history of theYaqui people is full of
harsh realities. Following Mexican independence in 1821, the Mexican government stepped
up attempts to control Yaqui farm lands. For ninety years, Yaqui guerrilla fighters resisted
attacks by the Mexican government. By 1880, Yaquis created a formal army of 4,000
troops; the fighting which took place after this time was known as the Yaqui Wars.
The Mexican army finally defeated the Yaqui troops at the battle of Buatachive in 1886.
Many Yoemem fled hundreds of miles to the United States to avoid deportation, or
execution. As a result of the years of fighting, the Yaqui population dropped from 20,000 to
less than 3,000.
Today, Yaqui people live in small communities in southern Arizona as well as in their
Mexican homeland. In Tucson there are four Yaqui communities: New Pascua, Old Pascua,
Barrio Libre and Yoem pueblo in Marana. The Yaquis' vision of the enchanted worlds, like
the Flower World, along with their religious ceremonies, like the Deer Dance, bind them
together and help them endure as a people.

Transcription and Performance Notes

Two versions of the melody are transcribed below:

The original melody as I heard it in Tuscon. This melody is in a minor mode and fits nicely on the
Native American flute.

A variation of the original melody, converting it to a major key. This version requires some cross
fingerings.
I often use this version of the melody in workshops to demonstrate the difference between melodies
in minor and major keys.

Recordings
Here are two recordings I made of the minor and major version of the song.
The first recording was made on October 22, 2006, complete with guitar, shakers and background
flute harmony. The lead flute is a Little Horse A minor flute by Butch Hall.
The second recording of the major-keyed version was done on November 1, 2011, using those tracks
from 2006 that could be salvaged. Since the guitar background was done for the minor tuning, that
was dropped, as well as the flute harmony. This second version was played on an A minor flute by
Jon Norris.

Sheet Music - Standard Fingering - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Yaquis Deer Dance - Standard Fingering - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Simplified Fingering - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Yaquis Deer Dance - Simplified Fingering - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Yaquis Deer Dance - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Major Tuning Variation - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned

Flutes

Yaquis Deer Dance - Major Tuning Variation - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Yuma Lullaby - Sheet Music for Native American Flute

This lullaby comes from the work of Natalie Curtis, a pioneering ethnomusicologist who collected
traditional songs from many cultures. She published this Yuma Lullaby in 1921 ([Curtis 1921]
). Below are narratives of different lengths that are excerpted from the original Curtis publication
that describe this song:

Short Narrative
At a Hopi name-giving ceremony, the new-born infant was reverently carried at dawn to
the edge of the cliff to behold its father, the Sun, whose first rays welcomed the child into
the elemental world of which the new life was now a part. Solemnly the grandmother and
aunts waved ears of corn, symbols of fertility and plenty, reciting a short prayer while
pronouncing over the child its names. Slowly the sun rose, shining on the upheld infant
Into such a world was the Indian baby born.

Longer Narrative
So important, so sacred even, is the sense of fatherhood and motherhood that the Indian
expands the obvious human tie into a mystic, cosmic revelation between man and the lifegiving forces of Nature.
The simple philosophy of the natives of our land, whose great teacher is Nature, sees
hroughout all creation the birth-giving power of two opposite yet mating forces, the male
and female principles . these primal elements of existence become to the Indian the
Earth-Mother, within whose potent heart lie hushed and unborn all the seeds of life, and the
Sun-Father, awakener and fructifier. Man is the child of these cosmic parents behind whom
lies the great life-principle itself, too vast and unknowable to be defined, a force impersonal
and infinite the Great Mystery.
At a Hopi name-giving ceremony which I witnessed, the new-born infant was reverently
carried at dawn to the edge of the cliff to behold its father, the Sun, whose first rays
welcomed the child into the elemental world of which the new life was now a part. Solemnly
the grandmother and aunts waved ears of corn, symbols of fertility and plenty, reciting a
short prayer while pronouncing over the child its names. Slowly the sun rose, shining on the
upheld infant Dawn flooded the desert with swift waves of amethyst and gold. The
morning air, pure, unbreathed, untainted, seemed the very breath of a life infinite and
sublime The figures at the edge of the upsweeping crags of rock were as yet the only
human forms in a land whose vast horizon tossed against the sky in unbelievable colorsplendor. The birth-throes of the coming day throbbed glory and promise and beauty
unstained. Into such a world was the Indian baby born.

History
The initial transcription of the Yuma Lullaby was done by Natalie Curtis from wax cylinder recordings
she made in Southern Arizona. It was first published by her in American Indian Cradle Songs, The
Musical Quarterly, Volume 7, 1921, pages 551552. Her transcription carries the specific titles
Ashvar Homar Tashmatsk and the translation Song for putting Child to sleep.
The published transcription is now in the public domain in the United States and many other
countries, and was digitized by Google on October 18, 2007 from the library of Harvard University. It
has been made available as part of the Google Books project (http://books.google.com) and
downloaded on April 14, 2010 for this publication:

Natalie Curtis's Version of Yuma Lullaby from 1921

Transcription and Performance Notes

My arrangement for Native American flute does not show the words that were transcribed by Natalie
Curtis, so refer to the original transcription of you would like the words.
The key of the original transcription is one whole step higher than the standard key of Nakai
tablature, so if you would like to play it in the original key, play it on a G# or Ab Native American
flute.
The arrangement follows the exact notes of the 1921 transcription, but leaves out the grace notes
that were scored by Natalie Curtis on the first line. It also expands the repeated bars of the first
three lines, for easier readability.
At
there is a change of meter from 4/4 to 6/8 time, but not a change in tempo. One way to
handle this is to think of it as going from common 4/4 meter to triplets. You might try counting it as
one two three four, and change at
At

to chi kee dah chi kee dah.

there is a very unusual and interesting note to play in a lullaby! It evokes the jazz style, since

it is the flat five that is often used in jazz and blues. The fingering for this note is often

on

contemporary Native American flutes, but it might sound better using the
fingering on some
flutes. How do you tell which fingering to use? The sound of the flat five note should be half way

between
and
. So, try the two sequences:
gives the better sound for the middle note.

and

Sheet Music - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

and use the fingering that

Yuma Lullaby - Version 1 - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - page 1 of 2

Yuma Lullaby - Version 1 - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - page 2 of 2

Sheet Music - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Yuma Lullaby - Version 1 - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - page 1 of 2

Yuma Lullaby - Version 1 - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning - page 2 of 2

Zuni Sunrise - Sheet Music for Native American Flute

Zuni Sunrise is one of the most well-known traditional melodies played on the Native American flute.
I first heard it played by Steve Bliven in the Spring of 2002 and later learned it from Gary Stroutsos.
He had learned it from the Navajo flute player Paul Thompson who had learned it from Zuni flutist
Fernando Cellicion.
In 1904, the Smithsonian Institute published Matilda Coxe Stevenson's huge study title The Zuni
Indians: Their mythology, esoteric fraternities, and ceremonies([Stevenson 1904]). On page 150,
Stevension notes that The closing song to the rising sun, when the flute is played, is exceedingly
impressive.
An early transcription of this melody appears in [Stacey 1906]
, page 59, which is an extraction
of the melody of The Sunrise Call, arranged by Carlos Troyer for voice and piano and published in
1904 ([Troyer 1904]
). However, these melodies have been modified substantially since those
early transcriptions.
Here is a description of the ssome note :

The Sunrise Call is one of the most inspiring features of the morning ceremonials of the cliffdewllers. It assumes, however, a greater significance in its connection with the ceremonial for the
Coming of Montezuma, which is immediately announced thereafter.
Before the dawn of day breaks forth, the vibrating chime-plates are brought into action, their whirr
reaching the outermost dwellings of the pueblo and bringing the people to the roofs and tops of the
houses. All is alive, men, women and children all appear to obey the summons of the Sun-priest to
rise and greet the mother-of-life, the rising sun.
With his great tuma, and amid the roar of big drums, he blazons forth the call to rise to the
surrounding mesas, and receives from the a prompt and faithful response.
Having fulfilled his first duty, he next makes a fervent appeal in the form of a morning prayer, to
the Mighty Sun-god, imploring in a low and a tremulous voice aid and guidance for his people,
and concludes by repeating his first sunrise call again, to the distant mesas.

Transcription and Performance Notes

The version I've arranged below is my own take on the melody basically the way I play it as a solo
piece in performance. The piece is scored in parlando style, using note durations to roughly indicate

how long each note is held and a caesura symbol

to indicate a pause between phrases.

The song begins at

to the

with a series of calls that do not really resolve for a long time - until you get

note just before

. Personally, I like to repeat the in the

three times, and then end the piece on with a few calls at
just left up in the air.

and

sections two or

that do not resolve the listener is

Sheet Music - Six-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Zuni Sunrise - Six-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning

Sheet Music - Five-hole Pentatonic Minor Tuned Flutes

Zuni Sunrise - Five-Hole Flutes - Pentatonic Minor Tuning