Inuit Music
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Traditional Inuit music (sometimes Eskimo music, Inuit-Yupik music, Yupik music or Iñupiat music), the music of the
Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
, Yupik, and
Iñupiat The Inupiat (singular: Iñupiaq), also known as Alaskan Inuit, are a group of Alaska Natives whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States borde ...
, has been based on 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, a relatively small melodic range averaging about a sixth, prominence of major thirds and minor seconds melodically, and undulating melodic movement. The Copper Inuit living around Coppermine River flowing north to
Coronation Gulf Coronation Gulf lies between Victoria Island (Canada), 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 De ...
have generally two categories of music. A song is called ' (also known as ''pisiit'' or ''piheq'') if the performer also plays drums and ''aton'' if he only dances. Each ''pisik'' functions as a personal song of a drummer and is accompanied by dancing and singing. Each drummer has his own style and performs during gatherings. One drum is used in the performance of a ''pisik'' and often begins in a slow tempo, gradually building in intensity. The wooden
frame drum A frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. It is one of the most ancient musical instruments, and perhaps the first drum to be invented. It has a single drumhead that is usually made of rawhide, but man-made mat ...
, called a '' qilaut'' is played on the edge with a wooden beater called a qatuk. The performer tilts the drum from one side to another and dances in rhythm of the beats.


Cultural role

Traditionally
Inuit languages The Inuit languages are a closely related group of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and the adjacent subarctic regions as far south as Labrador. The Inuit ...
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. Traditionally, " Eskimo songs seem to have been intended to be heard as parts of a whole—a series of auditory experiences." Until the advent of commercial recording technology, Inuit music was usually used in spiritual ceremonies to ask the spirits (see Inuit religion) for good luck in
hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
or
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, as well as simple lullabies. Inuit music has long been noted for a stoic lack of work or love songs. These musical beginnings were modified with the arrival of European whalers, especially from Scotland and Ireland. Instruments like the
accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...
were popularized, and dances like the jig or reel became common. Scots-Irish derived American
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
has been especially popular among Inuit in the 20th century.


Katajjaq

Katajjaq (also pirkusirtuk and nipaquhiit) is a type of traditional competitive, but cooperative, 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."


Influence from Western culture

Contact with European explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries brought Western influence to Inuit music. The microtonality and rhythmic complexity of the music was replaced with structures more resembling the structures of Western music. Many contemporary Inuit musicians now blend aspects of traditional Inuit music with mainstream popular music genres such as rock, pop and country music.


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 canon. 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.


Musical instruments


Percussion

*The main percussion instrument is the wooden
frame drum A frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. It is one of the most ancient musical instruments, and perhaps the first drum to be invented. It has a single drumhead that is usually made of rawhide, but man-made mat ...
called the qilaut. It is made from boiling and bending strips of wood about two to three inches wide into a circular frame with a handle protruding out. Detailed 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 Inuvialuit living around the Mackenzie Delta use wands to beat the drums instead of thick wooden beaters.Music
", ''InuitArtAlive.ca''. Accessed: December 07, 2016.
*Other percussion instruments include smaller drums and rattles *The Jew's harp has also been introduced to the
Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
and is played by certain groups such as the Inuit in Eskimo Point (now
Arviat Arviat (, Inuktitut syllabics, syllabics: ᐊᕐᕕᐊᑦ; formerly called Eskimo Point until 1 June 1989) is a predominantly Inuit Hamlet (place)#Canada, hamlet located on the western shore of Hudson Bay in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada ...
) in Canada


String instruments

*The '' tautirut'' is an Inuit bowed zither, similar to the ''fiðla'' or Icelandic fiddle. 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 cultures of the Americas to have a
chordophone In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some ...
tradition. *The ''kelutviaq'' is a one-string fiddle or lute played by the Yup'ik of Nelson Island and southwest Alaska


Distribution

The
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...
has been broadcasting music in Inuit communities since 1961, when CFFB was opened in Frobisher Bay,
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...
(modern day Iqaluit,
Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...
). The CBC Northern Service played a critical role in the distribution and promotion of Inuit music; as an essential cultural link between the remote communities of the Canadian Arctic, it often served as the only venue for
Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
-based musicians to record a song or an album. In 2016, the Nunavut-based band The Jerry Cans launched Aakuluk Music, the first Nunavut-based independent
record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
.


Notable performers


See also

* Yup'ik dance


References

{{Folk music, state=collapsed