Sound Sensations!

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Cheyenne Spiritual Songs Prayerware, by Wayne Leman I have compiled the 17 songs in this collection with the PIANOMAN program (written by Neil Rubenking), which is available on many bulletin boards and may be available on the same BBS from which you downloaded this file. PIANOMAN is also available on diskette for a shareware fee of $25.00 from: Support Group, Inc. P.O. Box 1577 Baltimore, MD 21203 1-800-USA-GROUP Each song in this collection has been converted to a stand-alone program (with .EXE filename extension) with PLAYER PIANO (PLAYRPNO.EXE) which accompanies PIANOMAN. Each song in this collection comes from a large repertoire of "indigenous" (that is, native to Indian people) music which Ma'heo'o, God, has given, often in very special circumstances, to Cheyenne Christians in Oklahoma and Montana. The songs originated in the Cheyenne language (or sometimes were a Cheyenne translation of the same song sung by a neighboring tribe in their language) and the melodies are traditional Indian music, as sung by tribes on the Great Plains. (The one exception in this collection is the song "If You Walk with Me, I Will Lead You", IFWALK-C.BAT and IFWALK-E.BAT, which is set to music adapted from some unidentified American folk melody.) These Cheyenne songs are joyfully sung today by Cheyennes and non-Cheyenne friends who live among them. All of these songs are found in a beautiful hymnbook, described below. To hear a song, simply type its MS-DOS filename to hear the music through your computer speaker. PIANOMAN itself allows title screens which can contain words of songs. However I have placed the words of the Cheyenne songs in separate documentation files, accessed by special Batch Files while the Indian music is playing, to allow for greater flexibility in the use of these music files. For instance, for every song you can listen to the music while following Cheyenne or English words that fit the music. There are two kinds of English words to the songs in this collection: direct English translations, found on the screen along with the original Cheyenne words, and "Singable English Translations", English translations which have been adapted so they can be sung to the Indian music (pages 202-213 of the hymnbook). (The Singable English Translations were made by ethnomusicologist David Graber, Rebecca Wenger, and myself, Wayne Leman. The Singable English Translations noted which were created for this collection were made just by myself.) A Batch File (with filename extension of .BAT, of course) will have a filename ending in the letter "C" if the words on the screen will be for the original Cheyenne version of the song. The filename will end in "E" if the words on the screen are "Singable English Translations". The melody line will be the same for either language, although in a few cases the number or length of notes repeated at the same pitch has been adjusted slightly for the Singable English Translations music, to enable it to conform better to the English words. In the following list, a number following the Batch filename refers to the number of the song in the hymnbook it is taken from; a B following a number stands for Back of the hymnbook, where the Singable English Translations are found. Cheyenne and English word versions of songs are grouped in pairs. Using the English translations of their titles, the Cheyenne songs in this music collection are: 1. Let Us Approach God APPROACC.BAT (5) APPROACE.BAT (not in hymnbook; created for this collection) 2. I Come to Your Way COME-C.BAT (61) COME-E.BAT (6B) 3. We Depend on Our Father DEPEND-C.BAT (138) DEPEND-E.BAT (18B) 4. Our Friend Jesus FRIEND-C.BAT (3) FRIEND-E.BAT (2B) 5. It Is the Most Beautiful Place Above HEAVEN-C.BAT (145) HEAVEN-E.BAT (19B) 6. Jesus' Way HISWAY-C.BAT (79) HISWAY-E.BAT (7B) 7. Sing an Honor Song to Jesus HONOR-C.BAT (16) HONOR-E.BAT (12B) 8. If You Walk with Me, I Will Lead You IFWALK-C.BAT (59) IFWALK-E.BAT (not in hymnbook; created for this collection) 9. Jesus in Heaven Had Mercy on Me Too JESUS-C.BAT (98) JESUS-E.BAT (9B) 10. Thank You, Jesus, for Leading Us LEAD-C.BAT (131) LEAD-E.BAT (14B) 11. God, Look on Me LOOK-C.BAT (155) LOOK-E.BAT (11B) 12. Jesus, Look Now on Us PITYUS-C.BAT (122) PITYUS-E.BAT (16B) 13. Jesus, We Rejoice REJOICEC.BAT (1) REJOICEE.BAT (1B) 14. Jesus the Savior SAVES-C.BAT (134) SAVES-E.BAT (17B) 15. Our Father Above Sent His Son Down SENT-C.BAT (26) SENT-E.BAT (4B) 16. Jesus, Here's Why We Are Singing SING-C.BAT (91) SING-E.BAT (8B) 17. Thank You, God, We Follow Your Way THANK-C.BAT (108) THANK-E.BAT (13B) If you try to pronounce the Cheyenne words on the screens, you can essentially consider the Cheyenne letters to have the same sounds as they do in English (this is an oversimplification, but a sufficient guide for beginning purposes here). The letter "x" has the same sound as it does in German, a raspy sound in the back of the throat. The apostrophe symbolizes a glottal stop, which is not written in English, but which separates some English syllables, such as when someone says "Uh oh!" The vowel "a" has a short sound, as in English "Father". The vowel "e" is usually pronounced close to a short "i" sound, as in English "pit". The vowel "o" has a long vowel sound, as in English "note". A vowel with a caret (^) over it is voiceless (whispered) in Cheyenne speech--the usual symbol in Cheyenne print for this is a dot or small circle over a vowel. On the song screens I use the two letters "sh" which have the same sound as these letters do in English; in normal Cheyenne print, however, this sound is represented by a single symbol, the letter "s" with the letter "v" touching its top. You will notice some UPPERCASE syllables, usually A or HE, when you view words on you screen. We call these "vocables". They are musical "fillers", common to Indian music. They have no meaning, other than to fill out musical phrases. They add a unique quality of "Indianness" to these songs. As in the Cheyenne hymnbook, on the computer screen Cheyenne words are divided by hyphens into musical syllables to make it easier to match them to the notes heard through the speaker. Hyphens in parentheses, as in "(--)", following a syllable or word indicate that it is to be sung on the number of musical notes symbolized by the number of hyphens. If you wish to hear the music only, without viewing words on the screen, simply type the name of a file with a filename extension of .EXE. Indigenous Cheyenne music is sung a capella and in unison, with men singing an octave lower than women. There is no harmony, so you will hear only a single music line. However that music is fascinating, both esthetically and technically. It has a unique cultural flavor, typical of Plains Indian music. Notice, for instance, how most of the songs begin high and end at least two octaves lower. This is a common musical pattern in Plains Indian music. Cheyenne spiritual songs are typically sung through at least twice, so I have programmed the music to play each song twice. PIANOMAN requires that musical notes be only those found on a standard piano keyboard. Indian music, however, often has notes which are not on exactly the same pitch as notes on a piano keyboard. We have been forced to compile the music with PIANOMAN using only piano notes so there is a slight loss in the authenticity of the Indian music. But very little is actually lost and you will still be able to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the Indian music. Technical aspects of the Indian music in this collection are described well in an appendix (pages 196-201) of a hymnbook containing Cheyenne "indigenous" songs, including those in this collection, as well as songs which have been translated in the past by missionaries and set to European or American music. Song histories are also given in this hymnbook. The hymnbook is a beautiful brown hardback, of professional quality, with clear music typesetting. The Cheyenne lyrics for each song are given (there is a pronunciation guide in the Preface), along with an English translation. The hymnbook is titled "Tsese-Ma'heone-Nemeotôtse: Cheyenne Spiritual Songs" (copyright 1982). It is available from: Faith and Life Press Box 348 Newton, KS 67114 A set of four cassette tapes contains all of the songs in the hymnbook, in the same order in which the songs occur in the hymnbook, with most of the music sung by native Cheyenne singers. The tapes have accompanying explanatory notes, and everything is set in a cassette album available for $15.00 plus $2.00 postage ($5.00 for Canadian and overseas orders) from: Cheyenne Christian Education Project Box 37 Busby, MT 59016 The printed songs in the hymbook and the cassettes containing the music are all protected by copyright and production laws, so please do not use any of this music for commercial purposes. If you desire to use any of this music, for instance to include in curricula about Indian music, write for permission from the copyright holders, the Mennonite Indian Leaders Council, at the same address as that just given for the Cheyenne Christian Educatin Project. You may stop the music of any song by hitting any key while the song is playing on your computer. If you wish to hear all of the songs in succession, invoke the appropriate Batch Files by typing "CHEYENNE" to have screens with the original Cheyenne words or "ENGLISH" to have screens with the Singable English Translations. Speaker acoustics of different computers vary significantly. Generally, the larger the speaker and its sound box area, the better the sound will be. (But the sound from the small speaker on my laptop computer was acceptable enough for me to do much of the work for this collection on my laptop.) If you have access to more than one computer, try playing the songs on each. You may find that you prefer the sound quality on one of them. I have previously compiled and distributed to bulletin boards two collections of church music compiled with PIANOMAN which are of the musical genre "church hymns". The two earlier collections are archived as HYMNS.ZIP and HYMNS2.ZIP. They can be found on several Christian-oriented BBS's throughout the U.S., such as SMCIS (301-862-3160/862-1527; but note that my files are named HYMNS2.ZIP and HYMNS3.ZIP on SMCIS since there is another collection of hymns there named HYMNS1.ZIP). In March 1989 I uploaded a file, HYMNS.ARC, with most of the hymns in these two earlier collections, to Compuserve, where they are found in the IBMNEW forum, Music library (search on keywords PIANOMAN, HYMNS, or CHURCH). (PIANOMAN and its associated programs are also found in the Compuserve IBMNEW forum, Music library, as well as on many other BBS's.) At the same time as this Cheyenne song collection was released I have distributed a collection of 205 Old Time Favorite Gospel Songs (GOSPLSNG.ZIP), also compiled with PIANOMAN. Each song in the GOSPLSNG.ZIP collection has four part harmony simulated by PIANOMAN. GOSPLSNG.ZIP, like CHEYENNE.ZIP, is now available on Compuserve (IBMNEW forum, Music library; search on keywords PIANOMAN, FAVORITE, GOSPEL, or SONGS), and is being distributed to other BBS's. I enjoyed the time spent creating this Cheyenne music collection and found it a good way to relax from my regular job, which mostly involves Cheyenne words, and which I am also fortunate to enjoy very much. Some creators of collections, such as this one, justifiably distribute their work as shareware; I have decided to call my collection "prayerware": "if you like it, please pray for us". My wife, Elena, and I are missionaries and our work depends on prayer support. We have been Bible translators with the Cheyenne Indians of Montana and Oklahoma since 1975. We have four wonderful children, ages 15, 15, 12, and 12--yes, two sets of twins! We work with the Cheyenne Christian Education Project, mentioned above, and, besides helping to produce the Cheyenne hymnbook, continue translating the Bible into Cheyenne. We have also produced Cheyenne dictionaries, a grammar book, a language learning course called "Let's Talk Cheyenne: An Audio Cassette," numerous testimony booklets in Cheyenne with English translation, as well as larger books with Cheyenne folklore and history (all with English translations), and annual Cheyenne church calendars with Indian illustrations. An order form listing available materials and (nominal) prices for them is free for the asking from the Cheyenne Christian Education Project (address above). If you would like to write and tell us that you are praying for us, I'll put our address below. (I would appreciate it if you would mention how you received this file or what BBS (and its phone number) you downloaded it from.) If you would like to receive our newsletters telling about our work, just let us know and we would be happy to add your name to our address list. Our mission organization (Wycliffe Bible Translators) has a policy that its members not ask for donations, so you won't have to worry about appeals for money. We do put specific things to pray about concerning our work in our newsletters. Of course, if you have enjoyed this collection, and decided to pray for us, but also wish to express your appreciation for this collection in a financial way, we would joyfully accept it to help us with the family budget and our work with the Cheyennes. But you are under no obligation to respond monetarily if you decide to keep and continue enjoying this music, as you would be if it were designated as shareware. For those who are interested, there are still quite a few Cheyenne people who speak the Cheyenne language; for many it is their first language, their heart language, which they understand better than English. Cheyenne is a difficult language to learn, but it has great beauty, especially in its expressive descriptiveness. For instance, a "cow" is literally called a "whiteman's buffalo", "coffee" is "black broth", a "car" is a "thing that burns as it goes along", and a "church (building)" is a "holy speaking house". Words can be very long. One of my favorites was uttered by a young man in normal conversation: náohkêsáa'oné'seómepêhévetsêhésto'anéhe That's a single word! It means "I truly regularly do not pronounce the Cheyenne language well"! My other recent song collection, GOSPLSNG.ZIP (Old Time Favorite Gospel Songs), quite possibly will be found on the same BBS from which you downloaded this collection, should you wish to have it, also. GOSPLSNG.ZIP is also prayerware: if you enjoy it, please pray for us and our work. Thanks. FREELY YE HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY DISTRIBUTE! July 1991 Wayne Leman 843 1st St. W. Hardin, MT 59034 Compuserve 72617,2371