#katajjaq

[davidstanleytravel]

An Inuit elder lights a qulliq (oil lamp) aboard a cruise ship off Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut, Canada. A demonstration of traditional throat singing (katajjaq) followed the lighting.

[luxusdollhouse]

Hey guys everyone needs to listen to this album RIGHT FUCKING NOW its so fucking good and its sooooo beautiful like the instrumentals are gorgeous and its so wonderful to hear katajjaq in a contemporary context like go listen to this album im serious

[pyomatic]

honestly idk why enya got such hate in the 2000/2010s. girl made her own conlang to sing in, thats iconic. peak weird girl.

[shamandrummer]

Music Born of the Cold

Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq won the Polaris Prize in 2014 for Canada's best album of the year. Animism contained sounds never heard before in Canadian pop music: breathy throat singing, screeches, roars and other human sounds for which the English language has no names. Tagaq's music was ambiguous. She seemed a shamanic figure.

Suddenly, she and other throat singers were everywhere. Indigenous artist Caroline Monnet incorporated Tagaq soundtracks into her hypnotic art videos. Some touring rock groups hired throat singers as opening acts. For a time, no television variety program was complete without a guest spot for throat singers.

Tagaq may have seemed like a new and unique voice. But she had basically jazzed up a genre of Inuit music that has been performed on the land we now call Canada for thousands of years. Inuit throat singing, or katajjaq, is a distinct type of throat singing uniquely found among the Inuit. It is a form of musical performance, traditionally consisting of two women who sing duets in a close face-to-face formation with no instrumental accompaniment, in an entertaining contest to see who can outlast the other. One singer leads by setting a short rhythmic pattern, which she repeats leaving brief silent intervals between each repetition. The other singer fills in the gap with another rhythmic pattern.

The sounds used include voiced sounds as well as unvoiced ones, both through inhalation or exhalation. The first to run out of breath or be unable to maintain the pace of the other singer will start to laugh or simply stop and will thus be eliminated from the game. It generally lasts between one and three minutes. The winner is the singer who beats the largest number of people.

Originally, katajjaq was a form of entertainment among Inuit women while men were away on hunting trips, and it was regarded more as a type of vocal or breathing game in the Inuit culture rather than a form of music. Katajjiniq sound can create an impression of rhythmic and harmonious panting. Inuit throat singing can also imitate wind, water, animal sounds and other everyday sounds.

Notable traditional performers include Qaunak Mikkigak, Kathleen Ivaluarjuk Merritt, as well as Alacie Tullaugaq and Lucy Amarualik who perform in the katajjaq style. Several groups, including Tudjaat, The Jerry Cans, Quantum Tangle and Silla + Rise, also now blend traditional throat singing with mainstream musical genres such as pop, folk, rock and dance music. 

Tudjaat (Madeleine Allakariallak and Phoebe Atagotaaluk) performed on the song "Rattlebone" from Robbie Robertson's 1998 album Contact from the Underworld of Red Boy. The album is composed of music inspired by Aboriginal Canadian music (including traditional Aboriginal Canadian songs and chants), as well as modern rock, trip hop, and electronica, with the various styles often integrated together in the same song.

To learn more, watch this video of Inuit throat-singing sisters Karin and Kathy Kettler from Canada. The sisters carry on the traditions of the elders from their mothers' village in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik, which is located in northern Quebec.

[jeffdwoodward]

Rock'n'Roll.

Just a few of my concert photos from over the years. Above: Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead, and Johnny Greenwood. Below: Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

Above: Incredible Inuit katajjaq (Inuktitut syllabics: ᑲᑕᔾᔭᖅ) duo Piqsiq. Below: Edmonton singer/songwriter/actor/all round talent Lindsey Walker.

Above: Lindsey Walker's guitars. Below: Elena Tonra of Daughter.

Below: Torquil Campbell of Stars.

[trombonegoofus]

I'm a music teacher. Maybe don't go Lady Gaga -> Sun Ra haha. Though I'm not surprised to learn that she knows about him, she's totally filling the same ecological niche. He's got cool stuff, he's got bad stuff. I listen to him periodically because he made music over such a long time span, and changed and learned so much throughout, that I always find something new and interesting each time I try, but like. His later afrofuturism stuff is so intellectual and complex and bizarre that it's hard to get into. It's still awesome, but if your ear isn't trained for that kinda stuff, it's off-putting, and you'll probably not appreciate the artistry

It'll sound like some lunatic just making sounds. If you know what like Schoenburg and Webern were up to, Sun Ra isn't that hard to listen to, because you've already had your perception destroyed by Wozzek or whatever. But it takes experience for your ear to accept something alien as being music. If you only listen to The Beatles or some shit, I imagine that Czardas would sound wrong.

Jazz is pretty easy to get into. You listen to an album, you say "hey that tenor sax solo ripped, who's that?" And it's super easy to find out who that is, and it's more than likely that they've done a ton of other recordings. Jazz was and is so collaborative.

But 100% listen to the traditional music of other cultures! You'll love it. Katajjaq is so cool. Gamelan is really interesting. Hawaiian music is really fun to learn about, too. Calypso is cool. Give this a listen and maybe research what the hell he's talking about. IIRC Calypso is super political. It sounds cool!

Also, you know... don't count out classical music. What you have in mind when you think "classical composer" isn't really accurate today. My favorite is Anthony Barfield. I'm playing his piece, Red Sky, it kicks ass. Very hard. He wrote this piece for Demondrae Thurman called the Heritage Concerto, it's so cool.

And if you don't like something? Cool. Be chill. I made myself listen to a lot of rap a while ago, because I wanted to make sure I could talk about it if asked. It was better than I thought.

I still think if you want to broaden your taste musically you should do it by literally branching out. Take something you already like, look into it’s influences, and give those a try, find something you like then do that again and again and it’s infinite. Yes, by the nature of music in the 20th century this *will* eventually take you invariably outside your genre zone and national zone, if you’re willing to give it a try. (If you like Lady Gaga, she references Sun Ra on her first album and loves him, and from there you’re already a second away from so much music from Africa and Asia, let alone the entire jazz tradition…) Getting into music in a broad and general way is such a magical trip it’s indescribable. Look up the samples, check the wiki ask friends look up the references etc…

[alwaystoday]

No quiero tu vergüenza, no me pertenece! Tanya Tagaq - Tongues I don't want your shame, it doesn't belong to me!

[theiconicmeghanmarkle]

Never forget that Camilla and Charles were caught on camera laughing at the Inuit women during their performance of Katajjaq.

That video of Camilla walking past those Maori performers . . . cunt consort, indeed.

[graveyarddirt]

PIQSIQ’s first Christmas album, Quviasugvik: In Search of Harmony, is a haunting collection of carols sung to the beat of katajjaq, traditional Inuit throat singing. Each track is an eerie and mournful tribute to the complicated relationship many Indigenous Peoples have with the tradition of Christmas. With their dark and ethereal style, PIQSIQ carves out a place to sit in this vast colonial landscape and listen as traditional roots pierce through.

The album opens with Carol of the Bells, the actualization of a dream the sisters have envisioned for many years, brought to life with full choral arrangements and a solid throat singing beat. What Child Is This is a chilling arrangement inspired by the sisters’ painful longing to comfort the children who were stolen away to experience their first Christmas in Residential Schools across the Arctic. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen travels through interesting harmonic soundscapes, grounded with the highs and lows of tonal throat singing and a melody gently steeped in an air of Arctic lore. Qimuksiq: Dogsled Ride is an entirely new composition by PIQSIQ and an anthem to the joy that ensues when Inuit gather together for celebration. The album concludes with Carol of the Bells: Remix, which combines PIQSIQ’s ethereal quality with beats that are sure to spark movement and joy.

* Listen to/purchase: Quviasugvik: In Search of Harmony, by PIQSIQ

[pyomatic]

wild take but.... music is so good

[desertislandcloud]

Inuit throat singing - "Pandemonium" is the feeling of our worlds being thrown upside down

Inuit throat singing - "Pandemonium" is the feeling of our worlds being thrown upside down. -- #musicblog #music #newmusic #musician #musicislife #musicblogger #hiphop #musiclife #musicvideo #blog #rap #musiclover #spotify #instamusic #hiphopmusic

With our music, we invite you to experience the sounds of traditional and contemporary katajjaq – Inuit throat singing. “Pandemonium” is the feeling of our worlds being thrown upside down. It’s an adaptation of traditional throat songs Nirliit (geese) and Naujaat (seagulls) combined with futuristic dance floor beats, perfectly conjuring up the cathartic madness of the…

[ritualvirtuality]

i used to post like.. art pop and breakcore/hyperpop/glitch shit whatever in my music tag (vv) and i think its extremely funny that its now all like musique concrète (kind of) and pansori and katajjaq and anything with sainkho namtchylak in it… wait like a year ill probably circle back around dont worry

[dickpuncher420]

obsessed with the idea that bc sokka was alone with all the women in his village he learned how to throat sing and sometimes he and katara will have katajjaq competitions but the first time zuko overhears them he just thinks something’s very wrong with momo

oh my god zuko noo 😭

[afenvs3000]

The sound of music (in nature)

When someone mentions music, I initially think of the songs I have downloaded on my phone or what begins playing on the radio when I start my car. However, that is not the only way that music can be presented in our everyday lives. The chirping of birds during spring, the underwater whistling created by whales, sound of waves crashing on a rocky shore and wind rustling through the trees are all examples of the how in nature there is music being portrayed. But the relationship between music and nature is not just one-sided, nature can also be evident in music.

The attempt to understand the relationship between nature and music was of interest to philosopher Kant. He understood that there is something so powerful about the sounds in nature as he believed they were almost alien-like (Rothenberg, 2004). That belief was based on the wildness, irregularity, complexity and boldness of the created sounds and it is something that humans are unable to improve or fix (Rothenberg, 2004). The use of nature as an inspiration for music is something that should not be absurd as it is where we came from and it is also the very thing that connects us with all the other organisms on the earth.

Nature was so influential within the musical community that there was a word created to describe this relationship, soundscape. Soundscape describes how the environmental world is not only something that can be seen but also can be heard and like landscape, it is how environment is perceived by humans (Rothenberg, 2004).

While conducting research for my entry, I came across throat singing (or ‘Katajjaq’ in the Inuit Inuktitut language) which is an ancient vocal technique that is exclusive to the Inuit community (Remy, 2020). I wanted to share this with you guys as I felt that it further demonstrates the uniqueness of music and that music can be established in so many different aspects of our world.

Video demonstrating the Inuit throat-singing technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLMlkjnYe0U

Music plays a very important role in humans’ lives as it allows us to feel nearly all of our emotions (Galindo, 2009). A quote that I found that really simplified the representation of music in our lives was “Music is that language that helps us express and experience emotion.” (Shah, 2017). From growing up and singing the ABCs to help us learn the alphabet, to listening to your favourite song when you need a little pick me up or listening to the sound of the ocean to help you fall asleep are some of the almost infinite examples of how music is apparent in our lives and in nature.

It seems that when I think of any major event or milestone in my life, there’s always a song to accompany that memory. The song ‘Chicken Fried’ by Zac Brown Band, is a song that immediately takes me back to the natural landscape of the Rocky Mountains. As I have talked about before in my other posts, this summer I visited Banff and Jasper with my sister, and I remember that Chicken Fried was playing in the car when we were first able to see the mountains; the excitement and anticipation that we both felt was almost overwhelming because it was something that we both had been looking forward to all year.

Photo taken by me in Banff, Ab of the Rocky Mountains (2020)

To end off this weeks’ blog entry, I am interested in knowing how you guys incorporate music in your life?

I look forward to hearing from you guys.

Thanks for reading,

Alyssa

References

Galindo, G. (2009). The importance of music in our society. Retrieved from https://www.gilbertgalindo.com/importanceofmusic#:~:text=Music%20can%20raise%20someone's%20mood,The%20possibilities%20are%20endless.&text=It%20is%20an%20important%20part,an%20urge%20to%20create%20music.

Remy, J. (2020). ‘New wave’ of Inuit throat singers reach the Canadian mainstream music scene. Retrieved from https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2020/06/19/new-wave-of-inuit-throat-singers-reach-the-canadian-mainstream-music-scene/

Rothenberg, D. (2004). Nature in Music. Retrieved from https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/Nature-in-Music/2/

Shah, V. (2017). The role of music in human culture. Retrieved from https://thoughteconomics.com/the-role-of-music-in-human-culture/

[the-hot-zone]

A few songs for Olympians [zukka medical AU]

This is by no means a complete list. All of the artists on this list are Indigenous/First Nations except Andrew Bird and the HU. And I know The Jerry Cans use Inuktitut and katajjaq in their music, but I can’t find any information beyond “they’re from Iqaluit.” Someone correct me if needed. Some songs double as character songs and general vibe songs.

General Vibes

Land Back -- A Tribe Called Red, Ft. Boogey The Beat & Northern Voice You Got To Run (Spirit of the Wind) -- Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tanya Tagaq Caribou -- Tanya Tagaq  Immutaa -- Beatrice Deer Olympians -- Andrew Bird Ukiuq -- The Jerry Cans

Sokka

Stadium Pow Wow -- A Tribe Called Red, Black Bear  Ukiuq -- The Jerry Cans Nirliit -- The Jerry Cans  Yuve Yuve Yu -- The HU Native Puppy Love -- A Tribe Called Red  Swell (My Brother) -- The Jerry Cans

Yue

Jingle Dress Side Step -- Big River Cree Electric Pow Wow Drum -- A Tribe Called Red Indomitable -- DJ Shub, Northern Cree Singers Toothsayer -- Tanya Tagaq 

Zuko 

Shireg Shireg -- The HU Olympians -- Andrew Bird