Suyá music

Suyá music is the music of the Suyá people, a tribe of about 150 people who live on the Suyá-Miçu River and are native to Mato Grosso, Brazil. Their houses are set up in a circle around the village square, where the majority of their ceremonies take place. Other buildings include a men's meeting house where there is almost always singing. Speech and hearing are highly valued in the social behavior of the tribe. The Suyá Indians symbolize their importance with body decorations that include ear and lip disks (also known as lip plates). In 1980, ethnomusicologist Anthony Seeger interpreted this body ornamentation as an emphasis on orality and listening as a principal means of perception, transmission, comprehension, and expression of fundamental values.

Music is a very important part of everyday life for the Suyá people. Their songs stem from ancient ceremonial songs derived from myths, songs learned from outsiders and songs taught to the community by "men without spirits". Men without spirits are men or women who have lost their spirits but can hear songs from animals, plants and insects. They are the ones who bring new songs to the community. Most Suyá music is vocal, although rattles and flutes are known to be used too. The reason for the emphasis on singing is that their music is passed down orally.

The Suyá people use music in myth telling, speech making, and singing. For example, they teach boys, as part of their initiation, how to sing certain songs; the boys learn and practice the songs under adult supervision in a special forest camp a short distance from their village. Although music is used by all members of the tribe, some forms are only used by adults, and some are further restricted to political and ceremonial leaders.

The Suyá people have only recently come to the notice of ethnomusicology, through the work of Anthony Seeger, who has collected most of the available written knowledge of the Suyá Indians.

Some of the Suyá Indians' singing occurs in the men's house. Suyá music, like that of most Ge-speaking Indians, is vocal—sometimes accompanied by rattles, but very rarely. Throughout Suyá history, singing and vocal music has been one part of a larger oral tradition and oral expression. The Suyá people decorate their earlobes and lower lips with heavy disks; this is believed to signify the importance of vocalization and listening.

Suyá music is ceremonial. Their songs were originally learned by a few special men and women, based on age, sex, and whichever group they belong to. These oral expressions are usually mostly masculine in sound. Suyá music exists in different forms:

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