Musiques Et Chants Inuit (Eskimo Point Et Rankin Inlet)

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1990

Label: UMMUS

The songs were recorded in Rankin Inlet and in Eskimo Point in 1975, 1976 and 1977.
Master tapes: Secteur électroacoustique, Faculté de musique, Université de Montréal.

©℗ 1990 UMMUS

A. Personal Songs (Ajajait)
The drum dance is a most significant mode of social interaction among Inuit and a privileged symbol of their cultural identity.
In the Central Arctic, drumming and dancing take place simultaneously with the singing of a personal song by the women's chorus. These personal songs provide the key to understanding the personality (inua) of the dancer; they talk about the dancer's life and are identified with his name and his soul. The stanzas (Tainirk) of the songs are closed by a refrain (Kimmik).

B. Animal Songs (Nariutit Pisirk)
Animal songs are part of an anonymous repertoire. They make use of onomatopoeic sounds in imitation of the animals they portray in the story. Their formal structure is free. Inuit of the Central Arctic believe that birds and animals share the souls of their respective species.

C. Vocal Games
Vocal games are particular to the Inuit. They are usually performed by two women facing each other very closely or with both heads underneath a kitchen pot wich functions as a resonator. The game consists of the repetition of words without (known) meaning in a kind of tight rhythmic "canon" where the strong accents of one voice coincide with the weak accents of the other. Vocal treatments include alternation of breathing in and out, of voiced and voiceless articulations, of sound placement in the chest, throat and nose areas and of changing registers.

The game is over when one of the partners is incapable of following the changing patterns proposed for imitation and, thus, loses the competition.

Vocal games are found under different names in th Eastern and the Central Arctic. In Eskimo Point they are called Qiaqpaa.

The Niaquinaq is a vocal game whose performance, associated with hand gesture, may precede a Qiaqpaa. Its text is sometimes used for didactic purposes: "The head (niqi) and the brain (karetak) keep us alive".


Total: 66:44

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