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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