Transcriptions and Choral Arrangements of Five Wichita Melodies

Abstract

Preservation of Native American music is a timely and necessary endeavor. In the hopes of preserving the music of one Southern Plains tribe, this document examines five melodies and four choral arrangements of the Wichita Tribe, or Kitikiti’sh. It provides transcriptions in standard Western notation from audio recordings located in Indiana University’s Archives of Traditional Music of two Wichita lullabies, two Wichita Ghost Dance Songs, and one Wichita Baptist Hymn. This document addresses the elements of composition such as pitch/scales used, rhythm, and diction present in the audio recordings, the resulting transcriptions, and discusses how the transcriptions became the basis for the four choral arrangements.