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Audio Recording Bice'waan Song

Bice'waaN Song

About this Item

Title

  • Bice'waan Song

Names

  • Miller, George (Iⁿke'toⁿga) (Big Shoulder) (Performer)
  • Fletcher, Alice C. (Alice Cunningham), 1838-1923 (Collector)
  • La Flesche, Francis, 1857-1932 (Collector)

Created / Published

  • August 24, 1897

Headings

  • -  United States -- Nebraska
  • -  Music
  • -  Field recordings
  • -  Songs

Genre

  • Music
  • Field recordings
  • Songs

Notes

  • -  This song was collected by Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche. It is included on "Omaha Indian Music: Historical Recordings from the Fletcher/La Flesche Collection" (AFC L71).
  • -  From the liner notes of the "Omaha Indian Music" album: Composers of love songs used melody and vocables to convey emotion (1893, pp. 53-54, 146-150; 1911, pp. 319-321).
  • -  The true love-song, called by the Omaha Bethae waan, an old designation and not a descriptive name, is sung generally in the early morning, when the lover is keeping his tryst and watching for the maiden to emerge from the tent and go to the spring. They belong to the secret courtship and are sometimes called Me-the-g'thun wa-an - courting songs. . . . They were sung without drum, bell or rattle, to accent the rhythm, in which these songs is subordinated to tonality and is felt only in the musical phrases. . . . Vibrations for the purpose of giving greater expression were not only affected by the tremolo of the voice, but they were enhanced by waving the hand, or a spray of artemesia before the lips, while the body often swayed gently to the rhythm of the song (Fletcher, 1894, p. 156).
  • -  George Miller's probable year of birth is 1852.

Medium

  • wax cylinder recording

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1948/123: AFS 20,313: 2a

Source Collection

  • Alice C. Fletcher and Francis La Flesche collection of Omaha cylinder recordings (AFC 1948/123)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title 17, U.S.C.) or any other restrictions in the material in this collection, except as noted below. Users should keep in mind that the Library of Congress is providing access to these materials strictly for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other holders of rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. See our Legal Notices and Privacy and Publicity Rights for additional information and restrictions.

The American Folklife Center and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

The Library of Congress has carefully researched these materials to ascertain possible legal rights embodied in the materials it contains. For the most part, the performers have been identified in this collection. In the case of the pow-wow recordings there are some stray voices which are audible but not identifiable. As is often the case with materials collected in the course of ethnographic field research, however, it is difficult or impossible to sufficiently identify specific songs sung by participants which precludes performing a comprehensive assessment of the copyright status of underlying musical rights in lyrics or compositions. The identification of specific speakers or singers included in sound recordings is also often difficult or sometimes impossible. The songs in this collection were created in traditional genres by anonymous authors and are part of the oral tradition.

Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these collection materials should contact the Folklife Reading Room for assistance.

Credit line

Please cite the source collection title, collection number, and repository, for example:

Alice C. Fletcher and Francis La Flesche collection of Omaha cylinder recordings (AFC 1948/123)

Omaha Indian interviews collection, 1983 (AFC 1983/026)

1985 Neptune Plaza Concert Series collection (AFC 1985/015)

Omaha Powwow Project collection (AFC 1986/038)

Omaha Indian interviews collection, 1999 (AFC 1999/014)

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Miller, George, Alice C Fletcher, and Francis La Flesche. Bice'waan Song. 1897. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/omhbib000480/.

APA citation style:

Miller, G., Fletcher, A. C. & La Flesche, F. (1897) Bice'waan Song. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/omhbib000480/.

MLA citation style:

Miller, George, Alice C Fletcher, and Francis La Flesche. Bice'waan Song. 1897. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/omhbib000480/>.