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((More citations needed|date=December 2021))
((NativeAmericanmusic))
'''Navajo music''' is [[music]] made by the [[Navajo]]s, mostly hailing from the [[Four Corners]] region of the Southwestern United States and the territory of the [[Navajo Nation]]. While it traditionally takes the shape of ceremonial chants and echoes themes found in [[Diné Bahaneʼ]], contemporary Navajo music includes a wide range of genres, ranging from country music to rock and rap, performed in both English and [[Navajo language|Navajo]].

==Traditional==
Traditional Navajo music is always [[vocal]], with most [[Musical instrument|instruments]], which include [[drum]]s, [[Drum stick|drumstick]]s, [[Rattle (percussion instrument)|rattle]]s, [[rasp]], [[flute]], [[whistle]], and [[bullroarer (music)|bullroarer]], being used to accompany singing of specific types of song.((sfnp|Frisbie|McAllester|1992)) As of 1982 there were over 1,000 ceremonial practitioners qualified to perform one or more of thirty ceremonials and countless shorter prayer rituals,((sfnp|Frisbie|Tso|1993)) otherwise known as 'Medicine People', which restore ((lang|nv|hózhǫ́)) which holds the [[semantic field]] of 'harmonious condition' and '[[beauty]]', good health, serenity, and balance.((cn|date=November 2020))

These songs are the most [[sacred music|sacred]] holy songs, the "complex and comprehensive" spiritual literature of the Navajo, may be considered [[european classical music|classical music]],((sfnp|McAllester|Mitchell|1983)) while all other songs, including personal, patriotic, daily work, recreation, jokes, and less sacred ceremonial songs, may be considered [[popular music]]. The "popular" side is characterized by public [[performance]] while the holy songs are preserved of their sacredness by reserving it only for ceremonies (and thus not featured on the recording listed at bottom).((sfnp|McAllester|Mitchell|1983))

[[File:Cross Canyon Echoes.jpg|thumb|left|Members of the Navajo Song & Dance singing group "Cross Canyon Echoes" sing for a charity event in Window Rock, Arizona.]]
The longest ceremonies may last up to ten days and nights while performing rituals that restore the balance between good and evil, or positive and negative forces. The ((spell-nv|hataałii)), aided by [[sandpainting]]s or masked ((spell-nv|yéʼii bicheii)), as well as numerous other sacred tools used for healing, chant the sacred songs to call upon the Navajo gods and natural forces to restore the person to harmony and balance within the context of the world forces. In ceremonies involving sandpaintings, the person to be supernaturally assisted, the patient, becomes the [[protagonist]], identifying with the gods of the [[Diné Bahaneʼ|Diné creation stories]], and at one point becomes part of the story cycle by sitting on a sandpainting with [[iconography]] pertaining to the specific story and deities.((sfnp|McAllester|1981))

The [[lyrics]], which may last over an hour and are usually sung in groups, contain narrative [[Epic poetry|epic]]s including the beginning of the world, [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]], [[morality]], and other lessons. Longer songs are divided into two or four balanced parts and feature an alternation of [[chant]]like [[Verse (popular music)|verse]]s and buoyant [[melody|melodically]] active [[refrain|chorus]]es concluded by a [[refrain]] in the style and including lyrics of the chorus. Lyrics, songs, groups, and topics include [[Repetition (music)|cyclic]]: Changing Woman, an immortal figure in the Navajo traditions, is born in the spring, grows to adolescence in the summer, becomes an adult in the autumn, and then an old lady in the winter, repeating the life cycles over and over. Her sons, the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer and Born-for-the-Water, are also sung about, for they rid the world of giants and evil monsters. Stories such as these are spoken of during these sacred ceremonies.((sfnp|McAllester|1981))

The "popular" music resembles the highly active [[melodic motion]] of the choruses, featuring wide intervallic [[Steps and skips|leap]]s and melodic range usually an [[octave]] to octave and a half. Structurally, the songs are created from the complex [[repetition (music)|repetition]], division, and combinations of most often no more than four or five [[Phrase (music)|phrases]], with short songs often immediately following each other for continuity as needed in work songs. Their lyrics are mostly [[vocable]]s, with certain vocables specific to [[musical genre|genres]], but may contain short humorous or satirical texts.((sfnp|McAllester|1981))

==Shoegame songs==
((unsourced|section|date=December 2021))
[[File:Navajo Shoegame.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Residents of Fort Defiance, Arizona play a round of Navajo Shoegame.]]
Long ago when the animals roamed the earth they came together to play ((spell-nv|Késhjééʼ)), or the Navajo moccasin game. ((spell-nv|Yéʼiitsoh)) (Giant) and Owl discussed putting a game together and they came up with the Navajo Shoegame. There is a story that goes with this, however it remains only to be heard orally by a Diné.

Today throughout the Navajo Nation, many families play the Navajo Shoegame. At times, local communities play against each other during the winter season. There are also many prominent Navajo Shoegame singers throughout the Navajo Nation. Notably the Nez family of [[Bayview-Hunters Point, San Francisco|Hunter's Point]], Arizona, and [[Pinedale, New Mexico]], who are very well known for their singing and playing of the game. Leo Nez Sr. and his son Titus Jay Nez<ref>((Cite web |title=NYE Events,123118 ((!)) Gallup Independent |url=https://gallupindependent.photoshelter.com/image/I0000hF55v_RgbTI |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=gallupindependent.photoshelter.com))</ref> who come from the Nez family are very well known for their singing of Shoegame songs and attendance of Shoegames throughout the Navajo Nation. Other notable singers include the late Jimmy Cody of [[Sweetwater, Arizona]], Addison Begay of [[Sanostee, New Mexico]], and Sammie Largo of [[List of Navajo Nation Chapters|Tsayatoh, New Mexico]].

==Children's songs==
((unsourced|section|date=December 2021))
Navajo children's songs are usually about animals, such as pets and livestock. Some songs are about family members, and about chores, games, and other activities as well. It usually includes anything in a child's daily life. A child may learn songs from an early age from the mother.<ref>((Cite web |title=Navajo Music ((!)) Navajo Code Talkers |url=https://navajocodetalkers.org/navajo-music/ |access-date=2023-11-26 |language=en-US))</ref> As a baby, if the child cries, the mother will sing to it while it's tied in the cradleboard. Navajo songs are rhythmic, and therefore soothing to a baby. Thus, songs are a major part of Navajo culture.

It may have been a kind of beginner's course in learning the songs and prayers for self-protection from bad things, skinwalkers, and other evil figures in Navajo traditions. Blessings, such as when one does with corn pollen in the early morning, may be learned as well.

In children's songs, a short chant usually starts off the song, followed by at least one stanza of lyrics, and finishing up with the same chant. All traditional songs include chants, and are not made up solely of lyrics. There are specific chants for some types of songs as well. Contemporary children's songs, however, such as Christmas songs and Navajo versions of nursery rhymes, may have lyrics only. Today, both types of songs may be taught in elementary schools on the reservation, depending on the knowledge and ability of the particular teacher.

In earlier times, Navajo children may have sung songs like these to themselves while sheepherding, to pass the time. Sheep were, and still are, a part of Navajo life. Back then, giving a child custody of the entire herd was a way to teach them leadership and responsibility, for one day they would probably own a herd of their own. A child, idle while the sheep grazed, may sing to pass the time.

==Peyote songs==
[[Peyote song]]s are a form of [[Native American music]], now most often performed as part of the [[Native American Church]], which came to the northern part of the Navajo Nation around 1936. They are typically accompanied by a rattle and water drum, and are used in a ceremonial aspect during the sacramental taking of peyote. Peyote songs share characteristics of [[Apache]] music and Plains-[[Pueblo music]].((sfnp|Nettl|1956|p=114))

In recent years, a modernized version of peyote songs have been popularized by Verdell Primeaux, a [[Sioux]], and [[Johnny Mike]], a Navajo.

==Contemporary popular==
[[File:Travis Friday.jpg|thumb|upright|Travis Friday, lead guitarist, lead vocalist and the songwriter for the Navajo country band Stateline]]
The Navajo music scene is perhaps one of the strongest in native music today. In the past, Navajo musicians were corralled into maintaining the status quo of traditional music, chants and/or flute compositions. Today, Navajo bands span the genres of punk, metal, hardcore, hip hop, blues, rock, death metal, black metal, stoner rock, country, and even traditional. Success of bands like [[Blackfire (American band)|Blackfire]], Ethnic De Generation, Downplay, Mother Earth Blues Band, Aces Wild, Tribal Live, The Plateros and other musicians have reignited an interest in music with the younger Navajo generations. Perhaps the best synthesis of tradition and contemporary is found in the musical marriage of Tribe II Entertainment, a rap duo from Arizona, Mistic, Rollin, Lil' Spade and Shade are truly right now, the only Native American rappers who can rap entirely in their native tongue. Their popularity and bilingual ability is yet another look at the prolific nature of the Navajo music scene.

In recent years, the Navajo metal scene has been growing rapidly underground. This growing metal scene is discussed in the book, ''Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Heavy Metal Scene (2020)''.((sfnp|Stone|Zappia|2020))

==References==
((reflist|20em))

===Sources===
* ((cite journal |last1=Frisbie |first1=Charlotte J. |last2=Tso |first2=Eddie |title=The Navajo Ceremonial Practitioners Registry |journal=[[Journal of the Southwest]]|year=1993 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=53–92 |jstor=40169873 |issn=0894-8410))
* ((cite AV media notes |author1-last=Frisbie |author1-first=Charlotte J. |author2-last=McAllester |author2-first=David P. |author2-link=David P. McAllester |title=Navajo Songs recorded by [[Laura Boulton]] in 1933 and 1940 |type=Liner notes |year=1992 |publisher=Smithsonian Folkways |id=SF 40403))
* ((cite journal |last1=McAllester |first1=David P.|title=New Perspectives in Native American Music |journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]]|year=1981 |volume=20 |issue=1/2 |pages=433–446 |doi=10.2307/942422 |jstor=942422|issn=0031-6016))
* ((cite book |author1-last=McAllester |author1-first=David P.|author2-last=Mitchell |author2-first=Douglas F. |contribution=Navajo Music |editor-last=Ortiz |editor-first=Alfonso |editor-link=Alfonso Ortiz |year=1983 |title=[[Handbook of North American Indians]] |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=605-623 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington |isbn=978-0160045790))
* ((cite book |last=Nettl|first=Bruno|author-link=Bruno Nettl|title=Music in Primitive Culture |year=1956 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-86340-8 |doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674863408))
* ((Cite book |last1=Stone |first1=Ashkan Soltani |last2=Zappia |first2=Natale A. |year=2020 |title=Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Heavy Metal Scene |publisher=Bison Books |isbn=978-1-4962-2250-3 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv14rmptb.6 |jstor=j.ctv14rmptb))

==External links==
* ((webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903015232/http://www.hanksville.org/voyage/navajo/ceremonials.php3 |date=3 September 2021 |title=Navajo Ceremonials))
* ((webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719080405/https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/missnavajo/music.html |date=19 July 2020 |title=Navajo Music)) Independent Lens, [[PBS]]

((Navajo Nation))

[[Category:Southwestern Indian music]]
[[Category:Navajo culture]]

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