ULABY: The language of the Wampanoag very nearly slipped away. ULABY: Some sounds from 1621 can be recreated. UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing) And take my soul to rest. Still, the first book published in North America was a book of hymns. ULABY: However, women could not sing in public alone, and harmonizing in church was seen as frivolous. UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing) Never weather-beaten sail. ![]() Doesn't matter whether your voice was good or bad, everybody liked to sing. PICKERING: Loved music, it's very much a musical culture. The Pilgrims have a dour reputation, but Pickering says they loved music. ULABY: But there's no record of people singing. PICKERING: During the course of the three days, they feasted, they played sports. Pickering's used to talking about the original Thanksgiving. It's a living history museum in Massachusetts where re-enactors tell about the Pilgrims' original colony and the native people who lived there first. ULABY: Richard Pickering is deputy director of Plimoth Plantation. Their ancestors celebrated together at the first Thanksgiving. ULABY: Some of these singers are actual Mayflower descendants others Wampanoag Indians. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) High heart and fearfully (unintelligible) I boldly trust in this. They came together on stage at Washington, D.C.'s, very modern National Museum of American History to sing their own holy music in counterpoint. ![]() The pilgrims - plain white caps and homemade shoes. NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: In the year of our Lord 2016, the Native Americans wore hawk feathers and soft brown deerskins. We know some of the foods that people tasted at the very first Thanksgiving in 1621, but what did it sound like in Plymouth Colony when Pilgrims and Native Americans gathered together? Was there music? NPR's Neda Ulaby met some historical re-enactors who have explored that question.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |