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169west of the region (Densmore, 1930:659). According to Helen Roberts, the Oglala Siouxsang in parallel thirds and simple imitation-like call-and-response where the chorus startswhile the soloist is still singing. Her general remark is “choral singing was commonamong the Oglala Sioux” (Roberts, 1936:7). The Arapaho are also noted for suchcadencial two-part singing.Nettl also discusses the very interesting tradition of the use of the instrumentaldrone in this region. Drumming on the kettledrum, partly filled with water (andaccordingly specially tuned) accompanies singing with a steady instrumental “rhythmicdrone” . It is very interesting that according to Nettl (who transcribed such songs from theArapaho Peyote), the kettledrum is tuned to either the tonic of the melody, or a fifthbelow the tonic (Nettl, 1961:358). Polyphonic elements in Peyote songs are alsomentioned by Gooding (2001:445).Summarizing the information on polyphony among North American Indians,Nettl writes that out of six musical areas, identified in his seminal work on Indian music(Nettl, 1954), “only two, the Great Basin and the Athabascan, one an exceedinglysimple style and the other represented only by the Navaho and Apache, lack referencesto Polyphony” (Nettl, 1961:360). In the concluding part of the article Nettl discussesdifferent possibilities of the meager distribution of vocal polyphonic traditions amongNorth American Indians, and suggests two different models: (1) vocal polyphonictraditions among American Indians existed earlier much more widely, and the isolatedregions with elements of part singing are only the remnants of this old tradition, or (2) bythe time of the first contact with Europeans American Indians were “on the threshold ofdeveloping an elaborate polyphonic style” (Nettl, 1961:362). I do not want to discussthese very interesting historical issues in this part of the book, dedicated to a review ofthe information available from various sources. We will discuss this topic in the secondpart of the book, in a special section (or “case”), dedicated to the vocal polyphony ofAmerican Indians.South AmericaIt became a commonplace in ethnomusicological publications to note that SouthAmerican Indians’ singing traditions contain much more polyphony than those of theirNorth American counterparts. “In spite of the dearth of polyphony in North America, ithas often been taken for granted that Central and South American Indians had complexpolyphonic styles” (Nettl, 1961:354). According to Alan Lomax, “Polyphonic singing,which is frequently diffusely organized counterpoint, occurs in South America especiallyalong the eastern slopes of the Andes. In this area too one encounters an unemphatic,soft-voiced, subdued, feminine-sounding style, with a frequent use of harmony. Suchsinging can be heard in the backwoods of highland Peru (Q’eros) and from the Campa ofthe eastern Andean slopes, through Venezuela and Colombia, into southern Mexicoamong the Tzotzil” (Lomax, 1968:85)Q’ero.Probably one of the most interesting surviving musical traditionscomes from the small tribe of Q’ero (about four hundred people only left), who live in theCusco region of the Andes in Peru. Although some consider Q’ero to be Inca survivals,scholars think that Q’ero musical culture “probable reflects an even earlier diversity withan Inka overlay” (Cohen, 1998:225). Most importantly for our topic, the Q’ero have