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This article is part of theMusic of Canada series. |
Quebec |
Maritime Provinces and Cape Breton Island |
Prairie Provinces |
Inuit |
First Nations''' |
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 songs. These musical beginnings were modified with the arrival of European 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 Inuits in the 20th century.
The Canadian Broadcasting Service has been broadcasting music in Inuit communities since 1961, when a station was opened in Iqaluit, Northwest Territories. Charlie Panigoniak was the best-known of the early Inuit recording stars, and he remains a popular accordion-player. Perhaps the most famous internationally, however, is Susan Aglukark or the group Kashtin, whose 1994 debut, Akua Tuta, may have become the first album by an Inuit performer to achieve platinum status in Canada.
Katajjaq is a type of traditional competitive song, held between two women. It is one of the world's few examples of throat-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. The two women continue singing, often imitating the sounds of geese, caribou or other wildlife, until one begins laughing, and the contest is then over.
Katajjaq