A Musical Trip Through Inuit Culture

The Inuit people of the Circumpolar North have a musical tradition that includes singing, dancing/storytelling, drumming, and throat singing. Throat singing is usually performed by women, it can be a game between two women. While throat singing is performed in other cultures in the Russian Arctic, Northern Japan, Scandinavia, Tibet, Mongolia, and South Africa. Inuit people's uniqueness is that it is female-focused. The oral traditions that have been passed on from generation to generation without documentation of when throat singing begin make it hard to discern when Inuit people began to throat sing. Inuit throat-singing is considered a verbal art.

 

Canadian Inuit regions where throat singing occurs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elements of Inuit music/singing

Timbre-relatively small melodic range/microtonality.

Complex rhythmic organization. You can hear the up and down pitch changes and energetic and concentrating sounds.

Elements of throat singing (or katajiaq in Inuktuk).

The type of traditional competitive song is considered a game. This is unique to the Inuit.

An example of overtone singing. A unique method of producing sounds vocally.

Harmonic elements can be heard by breathing and guttural noises. These noises are made to mimic the Inuit way of life of the animals, birds, and sea mammals that sustain their way of life.

Rhythm is often set when holding each other's arms and the back-and-forth signing noises,

Functions:

Traditionally used in spiritual ceremonies, i.e., before a hunt or to sing to children. While the men were out hunting the women would gather and perform throat singing. At times the women would be so close that their lips would touch and the air from each other’s throat and nasal cavities would go into the other woman and her body would be like a resonator.

 

Karin and Kathy Kettler, throat singers, and drum dancers performing at the Circumpolar Music Festival (via Alaska Dispatch/Vimeo).

 

I personally enjoy the sounds and energy that the Inuit throat singers produce. When the duets are competing with one another, it gives the music more energy and influence for the spectator. The sounds, dynamics, and versatility have interested me to learn more about throat singing and how the sounds are produced in the human body.

 

These are a few examples below of Inuit Throat Singing

 

Lowell Folk Fest - NukariikInuit throat singing - YouTube

 

 Inuit throat singing - - Video Search Results (yahoo.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Works Cited

“Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada.” Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada, https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/.

Richardson, Jennifer. “Inuit Throat-Singing: A Guttural Game Gets a Cultural Resurgence.” Atlas Obscura, Atlas Obscura, 30 Jan. 2014, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/throat-singing-from-canada-s-inuit#:~:text=The%20Inuit%20live%20mostly%20in%20the%20polar%20region,1999%E2%80%94as%20well%20as%20Northern%20Quebec%20and%20Baffin%20Island.