User:Nhochfelder/Shamanic music

Shamanic music is music played either by actual shamans as part of their rituals, or by people who wish to evoke the cultural background of shamanism in some way.

A shaman uses various modes of sound--from their individual song to various instruments to mimesis--to which different ritual purposes are ascribed. In particular, the shaman's drum and qyl-qobyz are instruments played in shamanic rituals with the goal of communicating with and traveling to the cosmic, spirit worlds.

Recently in Siberia, music groups drawing on a knowledge of shamanic culture have emerged. In the West shamanism has served as an imagined background to musics meant to alter a listener's state of mind.

Korea and Tibet are two cultures where the music of shamanic ritual has interacted closely with other traditions.

Shamanic and musical performance
Shamans are considered to be experts in spiritual rituals in their various communities, and as having the capacity to enter an alternative, spiritual world that non-shamans do not have. Regarding specific geography, the Shamanic performance and ritual has been studied in various parts of the world, including but not limited to: Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Siberia. In the context of Siberian Shamanism, Shamanic music is performed for various purposes. In Siberian shamanic musical performance, the participation of the entire community in the performance enables a spiritual energy that is believed to help a shaman reach access to "healing spirits". Additionally, Shamanic music is viewed as a way for Shamans to build a connection between the corporeal world (the world of the audience) and the "spirit world" (the world of the shaman's altered state of consciousness). Similarly, music is viewed as the physical expression of the shaman's spiritual experience.

From a musical perspective shamanic ritual performances have the distinctive feature of. Breaks may happen because a spirit is proving difficult to communicate with, or the shaman needs to call a different spirit. Typically, phases of the performance are broken off abruptly, perhaps to be restarted after a gap, perhaps not. The rhythmic dimension of the music of shamans' rituals has been connected to the idea of both incorporating the rhythms of nature and magically re-articulating them.

Differences between shamanic music and possession music
It has been argued that shamanism and spirit possession involve contrasting kinds of special states of mind. The shaman actively enters the spirit world, negotiates with her or his own helper spirit and then with other spirits as necessary, and moves between different territories of the spirit world. These interactions can occur within or be produced by Shamanic music. Specifically, Shamanic chanting and melodies can be used to not only bring a Shaman to a state of consciousness that is rooted in the spirit world, but also to prepare an audience for a spiritual ritual. The possessed medium, on the other hand, is the passive recipient of a powerful spirit or god. This reflects on the different uses of music involved. Possession music is typically long in duration, mesmeric, loud and intense, with climaxes of rhythmic intensity and volume to which the medium responds by entering a trance state; the music is not played by the medium but by one or more musicians. The music played by the Shaman confirms the shaman's power (in the words of the shaman's song), and is used actively by the shaman to modulate movements and changes of state as part of an active journey within the spirit world.

Use of sounds in shamanic rituals and in spirit communication
See also: Sound mimesis in various cultures and Imitation of sounds in shamanism.

A shaman may use different sounds for different ritual purposes:


 * Setting up the sound-space of the ritual

A very important element in Siberian shamanism is the use of hanging metallic objects - possibly including small bells - attached to the shaman's ritual cloak and to the inside of the drum and also sometimes to the beater. This sets up a continuously moving sound field, heard as a single complex sound. A further element is the spatialisation of sound brought about not only by the shaman's movement, but also by techniques of singing into the drum to create the illusion of the voice coming from elsewhere. Different individual shamans and different local traditions may use different sounds. For example, in the south of Tuva and in Mongolia the khomus, or jaw harp is commonly used in shamanising.


 * Preparation

Particular sounds, like bells, may be used for purifying the place in which the ritual is to be performed. This is because a ritual involving contact with the spirits is always potentially dangerous, and one of the dangers is that of pollution.


 * Calling and sending back spirits

A bell may also be used for calling or sending back spirits. Shamans will also imitate the sounds of birds and animals in order to call spirits. For example, Sami shamanic singing (Joik) is used for the purpose for summoning animal spirits rather than singing about them or representing them; the spirit is experienced as being present.


 * Healing

Within shamanic ritual, sound can also be used as a healing power, conceived as a way of directing spiritual energy from the shaman into an afflicted person. In Tuva sick persons are said to have been healed by the sound of a stringed instrument made from a tree struck by lightning.

Shaman's song[edit]
The shaman's song - or algysh  in Tuvan - is personal to the shaman and tells of her or his birthplace, initiation, ancestral pedigree, special gifts and special connections to particular spirits. The melody and words are composed by the shaman and generally remain the same throughout the shaman's professional life. The algysh is often sung near the beginning of the ritual and accompanied by drumming on the dungur drum. It serves to remind the shaman of their shamanic identity and power. It proclaims the shaman's abilities and announces the shaman to the spirits. In some traditions the shaman's song may be broken up into short sections, varied and recombined in different performances.

Shaman's drum[edit]
The single headed frame drum is widely used in shamanic ritual, often with metallic ritual objects dangling inside, held by an interior wooden cross-piece, and played with a special beater that may also itself be a rattle. The drum will be made of consecrated materials, a specially chosen tree as a tree struck by lightning and the skin of a carefully chosen animal, sometimes by a specialist drum-maker. It will also have been 'enlivened' usually by a more powerful shaman so as to give it its spiritual properties. The head is sometimes decorated with a graphic typically representing the division of the cosmos into upper, middle and lower worlds. A shamanic ritual often begins with heating the drum head over a fire to bring it up to the desired pitch.

A number of theories have been advanced to explain the importance of percussion in ritual music in general. One line of explanation is psychoacoustic, whereby the tempo of the drum enables the shaman to enter the desired brain wave state, which corresponds to the number of beats per second of the drum. The physical gesture of playing the drum is often integrated into a shamanic dance. For this reason the drumming is not restricted to regular tempo but may speed up and slow down with irregular accents. In some regions, the skin of a shaman's drum should be cut after his/her death. In others, not.

Different types of drumming patterns signify different purposes in shamanic ritual. Specifically, Manchu shamanic drumming uses a one-accented pattern to shift between parts of the cosmos, and three-accented pattern for worshipping gods. Additionally, Machu shamans use a five-accented drumming pattern to relay the gods' communications to the human audience. A seven-accented pattern is used to dispel demons.

In addition, the way a drum is held by a shaman has specific significance during a shamanic musical performance. For example, in Manchu shamanism, there are three different types of drumming positions and performances. "Drumming on the higher road" is a Manchu shamanic drumming ritual where the drum is lifted upwards and played towards the sky in an effort to worship the gods there. In addition, "drumming in the middle road" is a drumming ritual where the shaman holds the drum towards their chest. This not only enables contact with the gods who have come to the ritual, but also transmits the gods' messages to the audience of the performance. Lastly, Manchu shamans will perform "drumming on the lower road", a ritual in which the drum is played lower towards the ground in an attempt to drive off demons.

Qyl-Qobyz
The qyl-qobyz is a Kazakh two-string fiddle used in some shamanic rituals. Its strings are made of horse hairs and its body is carved from a block of wood and partially covered in camel skin. The qyl-qobyz is used by folk healers (baqsy) in shamanic rituals to help cure those with ailments. Baqsy 's were able to use the qyl-qobyz to enter a trance-like state that enabled them to communicate with the spirit world. This is partially a product of the instrument's sound, which has been described as melancholic and to be evocative of various sounds found in the natural world (such as wind and wolf howls).

In the instrument's history, it has had a specialized and sacred value. Prior to the Russian takeover of Central Asia, only the baqsy was able to use the qyl-qobyz. In addition, the qyl-qobyz was reserved exclusively for shamanic rituals during this time. As part of its understood power to cure and act as a liaison to the spiritual world, the qyl-qobyz also was to believed to have the supernatural effect of preventing death when played in shamanic rituals.

Influence on contemporary musical groups[edit]
Musicians began forming bands drawing on shamanic traditions starting in the late 1980s, in accordance with a cultural renaissance of Siberian native cultures. Cholbon and AiTal, in Sakha/Yakutsk, Biosyntes and early Yat-Kha in Tuva fall into this category. In the West bands began to apply the label 'shamanic' loosely to any music that might induce a trance state. This was partly due to the rarity of actual recordings of shamans' rituals. Meanwhile, the British-Tuvan group K-Space developed ways of combining improvisation, electronics and experimental recording and montage techniques with the more shamanic side of Tuvan traditional music. In Hungary Vágtázó Halottkémek(in English: Galloping Coroners) later Vágtázó Csodaszarvas set out under the banner of shamanpunk to use ethnographic materials as manuals on how to reach and communicate ecstatic states. From 2005 Vágtázó Csodaszarvas (Galloping Wonder Stag) continued Vágtázó Halottkémek music philosophy turning it into a neotraditional music style closer to world music, replacing electronic guitars and drums with acoustic volk instruments.

References[edit]
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