2001 Qilloowawya, "Hitting the Rawhide": Serenade Songs from the Nez Perce Music Archive - Book Review

American Music Teacher, Feb-March, 2003 by Myrna Capp

Edited by Loran Olsen. Northwest Interpretive Association (909 1st Ave., Ste. 630, Seattle, WA 98104-3627), 2001. 38 pp., $19.95.

This thirty-eight-page booklet with CD, containing thirty-six Nez Perce song selections, supporting information, musical notation, translations and photographs, is a gift from the Nez Perce past. Beginning with the earliest wax cylinder recordings, recorded examples of Serenade Songs are followed through the 1970s, illustrating the persistence and importance of this significant oral tradition.

The booklet is intended for anyone with interest in learning about this particular song tradition of the Nez Perce, but it will have particular value for ethnomusicologists whose focus is North American Indian studies.

Qilloowawya means "Hitting the Rawhide," and it refers to the songs that accompanied a once-significant activity no longer seen, heard or experienced in Nez Perce land.

Included in the booklet are ten characteristics of qilloowawya, as represented in its most important model, the song Inim hama; sources for qilloowawya; the connection with Flathead Indian "Canvas Dance"; the form of one model song; the function, or uses, of qilloowawya in the culture; Great Basin and Plains examples; some useful questions for discussion or to ponder; twentieth-century usages or developments; brief information about the CD selections; selected notated musical examples; and biographical notes, including bios related to the topic from the contributors to the project. A nice addition would have been a map indicating where the Nez Perce were/are located.

At first glance this booklet seems overly technical and intended for ethnomusicologists and/or specialists in the field. However, if one takes the time to listen to the CD and read the text carefully, the richness and importance of the material become more and more clear. The musicians photos and bios emphasize the interesting "human" side of the project.

This booklet gives evidence of the thorough research undertaken by Loran Olsen and others. The integrity and respect for the informants on the part of the researchers are evident in the quality of the interviews and shared material. In the Northwest United States, Olsen, a respected pianist, emeritus professor of music at Washington State University and researcher, has long been revered by his friends and colleagues for his interest in, and enthusiasm for, sharing his work with the Indian tribes of the area, especially those in the eastern part of Washington state.

As music teachers, performers and students, when we understand musical traditions of non-Western cultures, such as the Nez Perce Serenade Songs, we gain appreciation of the rich cultural diversity in our own backyards.

Myrna Capp, Seattle, Washington.