Hello everyone! For this last blog post, I am going to be talking about the music of the Inuit, who are native to Alaska region and Canada. To start off, and to give some context, let's start with their cultural background!

Firstly, the Inuit live all across the artics- from Siberia to Greenland- although just about half of the population live in Alaska. It is also important to note that the name “Inuit” actually translates to “the people” and that, although not too far from Native peoples of the United States mainland, that are actually more similar to those of East Asia, culturally and linguistically speaking. It is also known that the Inuit do not reside in one place, but they move around following hunting seasons: seal, caribou, and fishing. Additionally, opposed to other Native American traditions we have studied, the Inuit have “bilateral kinship,” meaning that both the mother and father’s sides are equally important, rather than a matrilineal society. When it comes to religion, they also believed that “the forces of nature are essentially malevolent,” due to the harsh climate. However, once the “whale trade” began, the Inuit were terribly impacted. Not only was it difficult with the whale trade essentially taken from them, but when the U.S. had bought Alaska disease was also brought in. This pushed them to have to move away from their inland communities towards the coast. From then till now, conditions have only worsened.

In their culture, music and dance had an important role, as they would have what are called “karigi” (ritual dance houses) where they would dance and recite stories during feast times. As you can probably infer, these poems would be about nature and the soul, and they would sing both secular and religious poems with dance to accompany.

In traditional Inuit music, the drum is pretty much essential; you’ll see it is used for any dancing, storytelling and music. Their common drum is a frame drum, called the qilaut, with a handle and with stretched caribou skin over a wooden frame, traditionally. Nowadays, it is more synthetic. These drums also come in a variety of sizes, up to a meter long, and it is hit with a stick called a qatuk along the wooden edge. Here is a video of what the qilaut looks like and how it is played

 

What is really cool about their music, is what we call throat singing, or “katajjaq” in the native language of inuktitut. Like many other cultures, their music was created to resemble nature, with no types of work songs or love songs. Originally, their music was only used for spiritual purposes and ceremonies, and when the Europeans arrived, so did more secular music like “dancing gig,” along with new instruments, such as the accordion and fiddle.

Now, throat singing is quite competitive, much like a game, and it is classified as overtone singing, where you are able to distort the note that you are singing to create its overtones, while breathing in and out. These competitions will have two women sing the intervals back and forth, with a certain rhythm between strong and weak notes, until it is “indistinguishable.” This technique is used to mimic the sounds of nature, like the caribou. This game will continue until one of the participants can no longer go on or until one messes up, and it was originally used to entertain one another while the men were gone on long trips. Here below is a video of two sisters who talk a little bit more about the history of throat singing and demonstrate how it is done!

And here is another example of throat singing! It is a little bit of a poor video quality, but it gets better as it continues and is a good example.

Another type of traditional Inuit music is pisiit. Pisiit is a type of traditional music that was used to tell the stories of what has happened in the past and singing these types of songs is a “living tradition.” When performing these songs,  the only instrument (other than the voice) is the qilaut. In the video below, there is an example of these songs, along with a brief translation of what she is singing. 

An additional style is drum dancing. This type of music combines a single drummer performer along with an Ayaya singer (ayaya is music about personal stories). For these songs there is no specific dance, but the dancers will follow the drummer’s song and rhythm. This activity is usually performed at a gathering after a successful hunt or to honor someone who died. Typically, when one drummer is done, others will then take the drum and play their own song, and this continues throughout the night. The drum dancing is often seen as a celebration of good times, good fortune and happiness. 

As I was searching around for different kinds of examples of this, I discovered that, naturally, there are some variations in how it is performed (number of drummers, setting, etc.) but they all had the common idea of singing about various stories while someone (or a group) dance and play the drum. Down below is a video that kinda encompases what the styles had shown. 

Lastly, in today’s world you can hear western music influences all throughout the region, including folk, hiphop, and rock. This of course leads to some syncretic music as you could assume! This is a band called “The Jerry Cans,” and they are a mostly indie rock group, except they also have throat singing, accordion and violin. Their music talks about their home communities and about themes of “love, anxiety, desperation and grief.” Below is a song of theirs, I think it sounds really cool!

Bentham, Morgan. “Traditional Inuit Music.” leapintothevoidwithme (blog). April 12, 2016,  https://leapintothevoidwithme.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/traditional-inuit-music/ 

Canadian Geographic. “Performing arts.” Inuit. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/performance-arts/#:~:text=everyone%20to%20enjoy.-,Music,and%20throat%20singing%20in%20English.&text=The%20technical%20characteristics%20of%20Inuit,a%20relatively%20small%20melodic%20range. 

J. Sydney Jones. “Inuit.” World Culture Encyclopedia. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Inuit.html

The Jerry Cans. “About.” The Jerry Cans. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://www.thejerrycans.com/about 

Travel Nunavut. “Music and Performance.” Travel Nunavut. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://travelnunavut.ca/things-to-see-do/music-performance-art/

Music and Family

For this entry, I decided to interview my Dad! It is a little lengthy of an interview, but here we go!

 Me: So starting off, what was your first, real, "music memory?” 

Dad: My first memory was listening to Led Zeppelin as a kid, I was probably about 8 years old, my brother listened to it a lot. Looking back, it was a way to bond with him and I really liked the way it flows; it felt like it never got old.

Me: Do you think you have any fond memories of music growing up?

Dad: Yes, my favorite memories were going to concerts when I was younger. In the fall, the “Poughkeepsie Civic Center and the Chance” theater had headliners weekly for 15$ a ticket, it was never more than 20$. It really exposed me to a lot of different bands and the top bands in my favorite genre. You could go with your friends and the venue was less than 5,000 people so it was a smaller setting and you could see your favorite bands up close. My favorite concert I saw there was Kiss and it was so loud that my ears actually rang for a week! Some other really cool bands I saw were Ozzy Osbourne, and well, Black Sabbath, Queensryche and more!. 

Me: What is your favorite artist now? 

Dad: Rob Halford!

Me: What about when you were younger, like my age, has it changed much over time?

Dad: In my 20’s it was definitely Metallica, stuff like the black album was my favorite. Over time though my taste in music has stayed pretty much the same, if anything it grew closer to British rock and metal but I still listen to the same music overall.

Me: Have you always liked the mainstream rock scene?

Dad: Hmm not really, as a whole I did not like what the big sellers were, like glam rock and Gun ‘n Roses etc. Much like rock now, a lot of it is over produced with no originality. It appeals to masses over what the artist wants, they make whatever sells.

Me: Interesting! Did you listen to other, non-rock genres at all? 

Dad: Pretty much no, I didn’t. I didn’t have much appreciation for the “top 40.” If it came on I would know the songs and all that but I didn’t go out of my way to listen to it.

Me: I’m curious about this one, what did your parents think of your music tastes?

Dad: You know, they never really said anything about it, other than Dad saying to turn it down!

Me: Hmm, so what did they listen to?

Dad: They would listen to “easy listening” and that was pretty much it. Your Grandpa liked maritime folk music, but that’s it. So they didn’t influence my music.

 

Me: So, what do you think about what kids my age listen to now.

Dad: To be honest I don’t think there’s a lot of excitement or depth, to me, it’s boring overall, across all genres. I think it has to do with how the songwriting process has changed. A lot of it is all just sampling.

Me: Oh yea, the process has totally changed. In pop now a lot of times you will get, like, 20 people all collaborating on a track rather than writing it just yourself or with your group.

Dad: Yea, like where we lived there are tons of small studios all throughout upstate, New York, and these celebrities would come up to the mountains and out of the city to focus on just their album away from labels.

Me: That’s interesting, like my friend who’s father turned their garage into a full blown studio, and had people come up and record- they lived over in Woodstock!

Dad: Yea, exactly!

Me: Now, I don’t think you were, but in case, were you in any type of music ensemble in school, like band or something like that? 

Dad: I didn’t do band class but I was affiliated with a rock band when I was younger

Me: Oh, tell me about that!

Dad: Well I didn’t play anything in the band, but I helped with the soundboard and lights for a local bar band in Canada. I really think it changed how I viewed the music scene; I didn’t know what technical abilities it takes to put on a show until I had to help out with that.

 

(For background in the upcoming questions, he was in Newfoundland, Canada for a number of years when he was in the Navy. In addition to this, he had gone to Nova Scotia every summer as a kid to visit family, that had not moved to the U.S. (his entire side of the family is from there.))

Me: Now here’s what I’m really interested in hearing about, what was your experience like with music in Canada.

Dad: Well, Newfoundland is famous for their “kitchen parties.” Almost every weekend there would be live music, in someone’s kitchen, where every friend and neighbor comes over to play together and have a good time. They would have guitars, accordions, bodhran drums (Irish frame drums), and then everyone sings and carries on. It’s like, Scottish and Gaelic folk music. All of it is about fishing and boats- they were work songs because it’s a fishing community. I got really into it because I was around it so much and I still really like it.

Me: Did you hear much music in Nova Scotia? I’d imagine it is really similar because they are both fishing communities.

 Dad: Yea, Nova Scotian music is very similar to “Newfie,” the only real defining difference is the accent because people in Newfoundland are mostly Scottish and Irish. And a lot of times it's actually in French! Really, all music in Canada is very regional; it doesn’t spread through Canada.

Me: Oh that’s interesting! Do you think music has ever had purpose to you?

Dad: In Canada, it was a way to get friends and family together- the kitchen parties were Friday nights and Sundays are like a feast with everyone over again. I miss it because the culture is so different here.

Me: Alright, well, that’s all I’ve got, thanks a lot!

Dad: Oh it’s no problem!

And in case anyone is curious, here's an example of Newfie music!