Peyote songs are a form of Native American music

Native American music

American Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...

, now most often performed as part of the Native American Church

Native American Church

Native American Church, a religious denomination which practices Peyotism or the Peyote religion, originated in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans in the United States...

. They are typically accompanied by a rattle

Rattle (percussion)

A rattle is a percussion instrument. It consists of a hollow body filled with small uniform solid objects, like sand or nuts. Rhythmical shaking of this instrument produces repetitive, rather dry timbre noises. In some kinds of music, a rattle assumes the role of the metronome, as an alternative to...

 and water drum

Water drum

Water drums are a category of membranophone characterized by the filling of the drum chamber with some amount of water to create a unique sound. Water drums are common in Native American music, and in some forms of African and Southeast Asian music....

, and are used in a ceremonial aspect during the sacrament

Sacrament

A sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites.-General definitions and terms:...

al taking of peyote

Peyote

Lophophora williamsii , better known by its common name Peyote , is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline.It is native to southwestern Texas and Mexico...

.
Peyote songs share characteristics of Apache music (Southern Athabascan) and Plains-Pueblo music

Pueblo music

Pueblo music includes the music of the Hopi, Zuni, Taos Pueblo, San Ildefonso, Santo Domingo, and many other Puebloan peoples, and according to Bruno Nettl features one of the most complex Native American musical styles on the continent...

, having been promoted among the Plains by the Apache people. Ed Tiendle Yeahquo composed over 120 peyote songs, many are still sung in NAC today. Vocal style, melodic contour, and rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

 in Peyote songs is closer to Apache than Plains, featuring only two durational values, predominating third

Third

Third may refer to:*3 , such as the 3rd of something -see also Ordinal number *Fraction , such as 1/3*1/60 of a second, or 1/3,600 of a minute *Third World, economically underdeveloped nations...

s and fifths

Perfect fifth

In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is a musical interval encompassing five staff positions , and the perfect fifth is a fifth spanning seven semitones, or in meantone, four diatonic semitones and three chromatic semitones...

 of Apache music with the tile-type melodic contour, incomplete repetition

Incomplete repetition

Incomplete repetition is a musical form featuring two large sections, the second being a partial or incomplete re-presentation or repetition of the first....

s, and isorhythm

Isorhythm

Isorhythm is a musical technique that arranges a fixed pattern of pitches with a repeating rhythmic pattern.-Detail:...

ic tendencies of Plains-Pueblo music. The cadential

Cadence (music)

In Western musical theory, a cadence is, "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music...

 formula use is also probably of Apache origin. (Nettl 1956, p.114)

In recent years, modernized peyote songs have been popularized by Verdell Primeaux

Verdell Primeaux

Verdell Primeaux is a Dakota Yankton/Ponca singer and songwriter in the Native American Church tradition of peyote songs, accompanied by rattle and water drum...

, a Sioux

Sioux

The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

, and Johnny Mike, a Navajo

Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...

. Jim Pepper

Jim Pepper

Jim Pepper was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and singer of Native American ancestry.-Biography:...

, who came from a Kaw

Kaw

Kaw may refer to:* Kaw , a Native American tribe* Kaw, French Guiana, a town in French Guiana* Kaw , a character in The Chronicles of Prydain* Kaw City, Oklahoma, a city in the United States* Kaw Lake, a lake in the U.S...

 and Creek family, used a peyote song he learned from his grandfather as the basis for "Witchi Tai To", which has since gone on to become a jazz and pop standard.