Shamanic Music - Use of Sounds

Use of Sounds

See also: Sound mimesis in various cultures and Imitation of sounds in shamanism

Sound is tactile; whereas visual information is experienced at the surface, auditory information seems to be both outside and inside the body. In oral cultures in which survival involves close contact with nature, sound often connects inner feelings to features of the natural environment. In many cases, this holds also for the music in shamanistic practice, including e.g. onomatopoeia, imitation of animal cries etc.. The shaman's use of sound is to catalyse an imaginary inner environment which is experienced as a sacred space-time in which the shaman travels and encounters spirits. Sound, passing constantly between inner and outer, connects this imaginary space with the actual space of the ritual in which the shaman is moving and making ritual actions and gestures.

It has been suggested that the sound material used by the shaman constitutes a system of sounds. This idea of a semiotics of the sound material would imply a symbolic language shared between the shaman and the surrounding community. However, the evidence suggests that any symbolic language elements are understood only by the shaman and perhaps by other shamans initiated by this shaman. In other words the symbolic language - if there is one - is more likely to be shared with the spirits than with a human community.

A shaman may use different sounds for different ritual purposes:

• Setting up the sound-space of the ritual

A very important element in Siberian shamanism is the use of hanging metallic objects - possibly including small bells - attached to the shaman's ritual cloak and to the inside of the drum and also sometimes to the beater. This sets up a continuously moving sound field, heard as a single complex sound. A further element is the spatialisation of sound brought about not only by the shaman's movement, but also by techniques of singing into the drum to create the illusion of the voice coming from elsewhere. Different individual shamans and different local traditions may use different sounds. For example, in the south of Tuva and in Mongolia the khomus, or jaw harp is commonly used in shamanising.

• Preparation

Particular sounds, like bells, may be used for purifying the place in which the ritual is to be performed. This is because a ritual involving contact with the spirits is always potentially dangerous, and one of the dangers is that of pollution.

• Calling and sending back spirits

A bell may also be used for calling or sending back spirits. Shamans will also imitate the sounds of birds and animals in order to call spirits. Sami shamanic singing, called Joik, is also about summoning, for example, animal spirits, rather than singing about them or representing them: the spirit is experienced as being present.

• Healing

Within shamanic ritual, sound can also be used as a healing power, conceived as a way of directing spiritual energy from the shaman into an afflicted person. In Tuva sick persons are said to have been healed by the sound of a stringed instrument made from a tree struck by lightning.