Discuss and give an example of each of these general features of Native-American music: “music that is straight from the emotions,” vocables, time characteristics, and repetition

What will be an ideal response?

• "music that is straight from the emotions"—piercing falsetto, portamentos (pitch sliding at the end of phrases or swooping down over wide musical intervals)
• time characteristics—music is commonly not in Euro-American meters and often accompanied by driving drums and/or rattles
• vocables—sung syllables without any (lexical) meaning; for example, the Sioux Grass dance. (Many other examples of vocables in traditional Native-American music appear in the chapter and could also be mentioned.)
• repetition—varied repetition of musical ideas (melodies, rhythmic patterns)—is common throughout Native-American music; for example, the repeating four-note motive in the Zuni lullaby.