Using Multimedia to Expand the Audience of ... - Richard Repp

Using Multimedia 4
[I] spent … ten months among the Coras and Huichols. At first the natives
persistently opposed me; they are very distrustful of the white man, and no
wonder, since he has left them little yet to lose. But I managed to make my entry
and gradually to gain their confidence and friendship, mainly through my ability
to sing their native songs, and by always treating them justly. (Preface, para. 17)
In 1898 I made my last expedition to Mexico… staying there for four months. I
revisited the Tarahumares and Huichols….Sixty melodies from these tribes were
recorded on the graphophone. (Preface, para. 20)
The author describes how secluded a people the Huichol were at that time, and
surprisingly they still are today.
In contrast, Rodney Gallop’s journal article “The Music of Indian Mexico” (1935)
displays detailed pictures of indigenous cultures holding their instruments dressed in their
traditional attire. The author recognizes that the traditional societies in Mexico were
changing or disappearing by the 1930s because of European enculturation. Gallop
collected images and transcriptions, including examples of tonic-dominant song models
performed by indigenous cultures during mestizo-catholic celebrations. The pictures
show a variety of native instruments: horizontal carved log drums, pipes and small
drums, tall drums, homemade fiddles, gourds and ankle rattles. His writing also includes
examples of folk song transcriptions that show “a blend of European melody and native
rhythm” (p. 211), which developed roughly between the mid-1600s and mid-1800s.
Gallop discusses the “Indian influence on a Spanish foundation” (p. 210) of music, such
as how music was performed in “pre-Cortesian” (p. 211) times (before 1519) and at the
time of his observation of the practice of traditional, sacred celebration. He refers to the