Bice''waan Song Music: Miller, George (Inke''tonga) (Big Shoulder) Notes This song was collected by Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche. It is included on Omaha Indian Music: Historical Recordings from the Fletcher/La Flesche Collection (AFC L71). From the liner notes of the Omaha Indian Music album: Composers of love songs used melody and vocables to convey emotion (1893, pp. 53-54, 146-150; 1911, pp. 319-321). The true love-song, called by the Omaha Bethae waan, an old designation and not a descriptive name, is sung generally in the early morning, when the lover is keeping his tryst and watching for the maiden to emerge from the tent and go to the spring. They belong to the secret courtship and are sometimes called Me-the-g''thun wa-an - courting songs. . . . They were sung without drum, bell or rattle, to accent the rhythm, in which these songs is subordinated to tonality and is felt only in the musical phrases. . . . Vibrations for the purpose of giving greater expression were not only affected by the tremolo of the voice, but they were enhanced by waving the hand, or a spray of artemesia before the lips, while the body often swayed gently to the rhythm of the song (Fletcher, 1894, p. 156). George Miller''s probable year of birth is 1852. Created/published 1897/08/24 Original Format wax cylinder recording Alternate Title(s) Love Song Related Audio Commentary on Bice''waan Song Call Number AFS 20,313: 2a Digital ID afcomaha 2031302a Oscar Howie collection of American Indian Art. The essay will compar and contrast the two.