Abstract
Vocal music remains a central part of the cultural life of native tradition in the interior of Alaska even as language shift from Athabascan languages to English has accelerated in the last 30 years. The elders are still engaged in musical composition and documentation, but their number is quickly diminishing. Many elders have shown a concern for the continuation of song-making which is essential above all in memorial ceremonies. Young people have also developed the ambition to learn and to carry on this practice. This chapter focuses on the on-going processes in the middle to lower Tanana River area and the situation of language knowledge and song-making there. Song and language are closely related and how the two interact in the learning and practicing situations will be explored. It will also consider the interplay among elders, younger learners, Athabascan language teachers, teachers of music in school, archivists and researchers in processes of transmission.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of Athabascan elders, including the living: Susie Charlie, Eliza Jones, and Sarah Silas; and some no longer living: Evelyn Anderson, Neal Charlie, Geraldine Charlie, Bergman Silas, and Dorothy Titus. Language learners and workers David Engles, Bertina Titus and Norman Carlo have kindly shared their experience and expertise with us.
This work has been supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH HD-50298-08) and the Swedish Research Council through the project In the borderland between song and speech. Vocal expressions in oral cultures.
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Tuttle, S.G., Lundström, H. (2018). Transmission of Song-Making in Interior Athabascan Tradition, Alaska. In: Leung, BW. (eds) Traditional Musics in the Modern World: Transmission, Evolution, and Challenges. Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91599-9_7
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