Inuit music

Traditional Inuit music, the music of the Inuit, 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. Yupik music is the music of the Yupik peoples. Eskimo music is Inuit-Yupik music. Iñupiat music is the music of the Iñupiat.

Characteristics of Inuit music include: recitative-like singing, complex rhythmic organization, relatively small melodic range averaging about a sixth, prominence of major thirds and minor seconds melodically, with undulating melodic movement.

The Copper Inuit living around Coppermine River flowing North to Coronation Gulf have generally two categories of music. A song is called pisik (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 to a drummer and is accompanied by dancing and singing. Each drummer has his own style and are performed 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, 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.

Traditionally Inuktitut 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 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 Inuit in the 20th century.

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