Inuit music
Encyclopedia
Traditional Inuit music, the music
of the Inuit
, has been based around drums used in dance music as far back as can be known, and a vocal style called katajjaq (Inuit throat singing
) has become of interest in Canada and abroad.
Characteristics of Inuit music include: recitative-like singing, complex rhythmic organization, relatively small melodic range averaging about a sixth, prominence of major thirds and minor seconds melodically, with undulating melodic movement.
The Copper Eskimos living around Coppermine River
flowing North to Coronation Gulf
have generally two categories of music. A song is called pisik
if the
performer also plays drums and aton
if he only dances.
did not have a word for what a European-influenced listener or ethnomusicologist's
understanding of music, "and ethnographic investigation seems to suggest that the concept of music as such is also absent from their culture." The closest word, nipi, includes music, the sound of speech, and noise. (Nattiez 1990:56)
Until the advent of commercial recording technology, Inuit music was usually used in spiritual ceremonies to ask the spirits (see Inuit mythology
) for good luck in hunting
or gambling
, as well as simple lullabies
. Inuit music has long been noted for a stoic lack of work
or love song
s. These musical beginnings were modified with the arrival of Europe
an sailors, especially from Scotland
and Ireland
. Instruments like the accordion
were popularized, and dances like the jig
or reel
became common. Scots-Irish
derived American
country music
has been especially popular among Inuit in the 20th century.
(also pirkusirtuk and nipaquhiit) is a type of traditional competitive song, considered a game, usually held between two women. It is one of the world's few examples of overtone singing
, a unique method of producing sounds that is otherwise best known in Tuvan throat-singing. When competing, two women stand face-to-face and sing using a complex method of following each other, thus that one voice hits a strong accent while the other hits a weak, melding the two voices into a nearly indistinguishable single sound. They repeat brief motifs at staggered intervals, often imitating natural sounds
, like those of geese
, caribou
or other wildlife, until one runs out of breath, trips over her own tongue, or begins laughing, and the contest is then over. "The old woman who teaches the children corrects sloppy intonation of contours, poorly meshed phrase displacements, and vague rhythms exactly like a Western vocal coach." (Nattiez 1990:57)
. The strong accent of one participant coincides with the weak of the other. The breathing of the players are thus also alternated. Vocal techniques include voiced and voiceless articulations and different articulations, and different placement of sound in the chest, throat and nose areas.
Vocal games are unique to the Inuit.
has been broadcasting
music in Inuit communities since 1961, when CFFB
was opened in Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories. Charlie Panigoniak
was the best-known of the early Inuit recording stars, and he remains a popular guitarist
. The most famous Inuit performers, however, are Susan Aglukark
, Lucie Idlout
and Tanya Tagaq. In Greenland, there is an Inuit hip hop
crew called Nuuk Posse
, which formed in 1985 and raps in the Kalaallisut language
.
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
of the Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
, has been based around drums used in dance music as far back as can be known, and a vocal style called katajjaq (Inuit throat singing
Inuit throat singing
Inuit throat singing or katajjaq, also known as the generic term overtone singing, is a form of musical performance uniquely found among the Inuit...
) has become of interest in Canada and abroad.
Characteristics of Inuit music include: recitative-like singing, complex rhythmic organization, relatively small melodic range averaging about a sixth, prominence of major thirds and minor seconds melodically, with undulating melodic movement.
The Copper Eskimos living around Coppermine River
Coppermine River
The Coppermine River is a river in the North Slave and Kitikmeot regions of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada. It is long. It rises in Lac de Gras, a small lake near Great Slave Lake and flows generally north to Coronation Gulf, an arm of the Arctic Ocean...
flowing North to Coronation Gulf
Coronation Gulf
Coronation Gulf lies between Victoria Island and mainland Nunavut in Canada. To the northwest it connects with Dolphin and Union Strait and thence the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean; to the northeast it connects with Dease Strait and thence Queen Maud Gulf. To the southeast lies Bathurst...
have generally two categories of music. A song is called pisik
Pisik
Pisik are a form of Inuit drum dancing. Songs with dancing but without drumming are called aton. Each pisik functions as a personal song to a drummer and is accompanied by dancing and singing. Each drummer has his own style and are performed during gatherings...
if the
performer also plays drums and aton
Aton
The term Aton may refer to:* Aten or Aton, the disk of the sun, regarded as a deity in ancient Egyptian mythology* Aton Capital, a Russian investment bank* ATON, abbreviation for Aid to Navigation* Archive of Turkish Oral NarrativePeople...
if he only dances.
Cultural role
Traditionally InuktitutInuktitut
Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...
did not have a word for what a European-influenced listener or ethnomusicologist's
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
understanding of music, "and ethnographic investigation seems to suggest that the concept of music as such is also absent from their culture." The closest word, nipi, includes music, the sound of speech, and noise. (Nattiez 1990:56)
Until the advent of commercial recording technology, Inuit music was usually used in spiritual ceremonies to ask the spirits (see Inuit mythology
Inuit mythology
Inuit mythology has many similarities to the religions of other polar regions. Inuit traditional religious practices could be very briefly summarised as a form of shamanism based on animist principles....
) for good luck in hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
or gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
, as well as simple lullabies
Lullaby
A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
. Inuit music has long been noted for a stoic lack of work
Work song
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
or love song
Love song
A love song is about falling in love and the feelings it brings. Anthologies of love songs often contain a mixture of both of these types of song. A bawdy song is both humorous and saucy, emphasizing the physical pleasure of love rather than the emotional joy...
s. These musical beginnings were modified with the arrival of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an sailors, especially from Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Instruments like the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
were popularized, and dances like the jig
Jig
The Jig is a form of lively folk dance, as well as the accompanying dance tune, originating in England in the 16th century and today most associated with Irish dance music and Scottish country dance music...
or reel
Reel (dance)
The reel is a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type. In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz, and is also the name of a dance figure ....
became common. Scots-Irish
Scots-Irish American
Scotch-Irish Americans are an estimated 250,000 Presbyterian and other Protestant dissenters from the Irish province of Ulster who immigrated to North America primarily during the colonial era and their descendants. Some scholars also include the 150,000 Ulster Protestants who immigrated to...
derived American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
has been especially popular among Inuit in the 20th century.
Katajjaq
KatajjaqInuit throat singing
Inuit throat singing or katajjaq, also known as the generic term overtone singing, is a form of musical performance uniquely found among the Inuit...
(also pirkusirtuk and nipaquhiit) is a type of traditional competitive song, considered a game, usually held between two women. It is one of the world's few examples of overtone singing
Overtone singing
Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out the lips to produce a melody.The partials of a sound wave made by the human voice can be...
, a unique method of producing sounds that is otherwise best known in Tuvan throat-singing. When competing, two women stand face-to-face and sing using a complex method of following each other, thus that one voice hits a strong accent while the other hits a weak, melding the two voices into a nearly indistinguishable single sound. They repeat brief motifs at staggered intervals, often imitating natural sounds
Sound mimesis in various cultures
The imitation of natural sounds in various cultures is a diverse phenomenon and can fill in various functions. In several instances, it is related to the belief system...
, like those of geese
Goose
The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....
, caribou
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
or other wildlife, until one runs out of breath, trips over her own tongue, or begins laughing, and the contest is then over. "The old woman who teaches the children corrects sloppy intonation of contours, poorly meshed phrase displacements, and vague rhythms exactly like a Western vocal coach." (Nattiez 1990:57)
Vocal Games
Inuit vocal games are usually played by two women facing each other in close proximity. They use the other participant's oral cavity as resonators but may also play under a kitchen pot for the resonances to be more pronounced. The game consists of repeating meaningless words in tight rhythmic canonCanon
-Culture and arts:*Canon , material that is considered to be genuine*Western canon, the books, music, and art that have been the most influential in shaping Western cultureMusic...
. The strong accent of one participant coincides with the weak of the other. The breathing of the players are thus also alternated. Vocal techniques include voiced and voiceless articulations and different articulations, and different placement of sound in the chest, throat and nose areas.
Vocal games are unique to the Inuit.
Percussion
- The main percussion instrument is the wooden frame drumFrame drumA frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. Usually the single drumhead is made of rawhide or man-made materials. Shells are traditionally constructed of bent wood scarf jointed together; plywood and man-made materials are also used. Some frame drums have mechanical...
called the qilautQilautThe qilaut is a type of frame drum native to the Inuit cultures of the Arctic....
. It is made from boiling and bending stripes of wood about two to three inches wide into a circular frame with a handle protruding out. Dehaired animal skin, usually caribou, is stretched across the frame and fastened down with a string. The drum can reach one meter in diameter but are usually smaller, around one yard in length. It is struck on the edge of the rim by a qatuk, or a wooden beater. The resulting sound is a combination of the percussive attack from striking the wood and the resulting vibrations from the stretched membrane. Some groups such as the Inuit living around the McKenzie Delta use wands to beat the drums instead of thick wooden beaters. - Other percussion instruments include smaller drums and rattles
- The Jew's Harp has also been introduced to the Inuit people and are played by certain groups such as the Eskimos in Eskimo Point in CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
String instruments
- The tautirutTautirutThe tautirut is a bowed zither native to the Inuit culture of Canada.The Canadian anthropologist Ernest William Hawkes described the tautirut in 1916:...
is an Inuit bowed zither, similar to the Icelandic fiðlaFiðlaThe fiðla is a traditional Icelandic musical instrument, consisting of a box zither with two bowed strings. The strings pass over a bridge near the playing end of the instrument, and are tuned at the other end by two tuning pegs.-Similar instruments:...
. It is not clear as to whether the instrument is purely indigenous, or introduced by Nordic sailors either pre or post-Columbus. Inuit culture is one of the few New World cultures to have a chordophone tradition. - The kelutviaqKelutviaqThe kelutviaq is a one-stringed lute played by the native people of Nelson Island and southwest Alaska, United States.The instrument was attested as recently as 1971 by ethnomusicologist Ronald Walcott....
is a one-string fiddle or lute played by the Inuit of Nelson IslandNelson Island (Alaska)Nelson Island is an island in the Bethel Census Area of southwestern Alaska. It is 42 miles long and 20–35 miles wide. With an area of 843 square miles , it is the 15th largest island in the United States...
and southwest Alaska
Performance and broadcast
The Canadian Broadcasting CorporationCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
has been broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
music in Inuit communities since 1961, when CFFB
CFFB (AM)
CFFB is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 1230 AM in Iqaluit, Nunavut. The station broadcasts the programming of the CBC Radio One network, and serves as the regional network centre for Nunavut for the CBC North Radio One network....
was opened in Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories. Charlie Panigoniak
Charlie Panigoniak
Charlie Panigoniak is an Inuit singer-songwriter and guitarist whose albums reflect on northern life....
was the best-known of the early Inuit recording stars, and he remains a popular guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
. The most famous Inuit performers, however, are Susan Aglukark
Susan Aglukark
Susan Aglukark, OC , is an Inuk musician whose blend of Inuit folk music traditions with country and pop songwriting has made her a major recording star in Canada. Her most successful single is "O Siem", which reached #1 on the Canadian country and adult contemporary charts in 1995...
, Lucie Idlout
Lucie Idlout
Lucie Idlout is a Canadian rock singer.An Inuk from Iqaluit, Nunavut, she is the daughter of Leah Idlout d'Argencourt and granddaughter of Joseph Idlout, an Inuk hunter who was the subject of a National Film Board documentary, Between Two Worlds, in 1990 and was one of the Inuit hunters depicted...
and Tanya Tagaq. In Greenland, there is an Inuit hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
crew called Nuuk Posse
Nuuk Posse
Nuuk Posse is a hip hop group from Greenland. The group, whose members are Inuit, formed in 1985 under a different name, finally taking the name Nuuk Posse in 1991...
, which formed in 1985 and raps in the Kalaallisut language
Kalaallisut language
Greenlandic is an Eskimo–Aleut language spoken by about 57,000 people in Greenland. It is closely related to the Inuit languages in Canada, such as Inuktitut...
.
Source
- Nattiez, Jean-JacquesJean-Jacques NattiezJean-Jacques Nattiez, CM, CQ, FRSC is a musical semiologist or semiotician and professor of Musicology at the Université de Montréal...
(1987). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0-691-02714-5. - Nettl, BrunoBruno NettlBruno Nettl is an active ethnomusicologist and musicologist.Bruno Nettl was born in Czechoslovakia in 1930, moved to United States in 1939, studied at Indiana University and the University of Michigan, and has taught since 1964 at the University of Illinois, where he is Professor Emeritus of...
(1956). Music in Primitive Culture. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-59000-7.