The transmission of drum songs in Pelly Bay, Nunavut, and the contributions of composers and singers to musical norms

• Main Author: Vascotto, Norma Mae Kritsch
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2001
• Subjects: Nunavut; Pelly Bay; inuit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/15503; http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ58629.pdf

grantor: University of Toronto Inuit drum songs are snapshots of memorable activities in composers' lives, besides having an accompaniment function in drum dances and a general role in oral history preservation. I investigated the drum song repertoire of one extended family from Pelly Bay, Nunavut, looking for a broader social role independent of textual content and public performance. I looked musicologically at how composers and singers contributed to song style. With assistance from informants, I determined the transmission paths and the perceived meaning of the transmitted information, then related the socio-cultural to the musical findings. Musicologically, the songs showed a variety of expression within compositional norms. Interval make-up and melodic contour types were largely consistent. Scale appeared to derive from tonal centre relationships established early in the compositional process. Scale and interval complexity varied generationally, while microtonal make-up displayed compositional and performance components. Ornamentation showed positional uniformity, but variety in execution. Transmitted versions, faithful to the memory and style of the composer, showed musical alterations which reflected singer style and the transmission path. Transmission patterns reflected the importance of kin and fictive kin relationships. Consanguineal ties outnumbered affinal ones, with modes of transmission related to composer gender. Women's songs moved to daughters and granddaughters. Men's songs moved through their nuclear families, and then into sons' families by way of mothers and wives. Siblings were in transmission lines, but direct sibling to sibling transmission was not maintained. Songs reinforced namesake ties, and reflected beliefs about commonality of namesake traits. Song transmission in these cases reinforced the importance of song performance in reinforcing ties, and showed the role of women in this maintenance. Teaching and learning followed paths that dealt with obligatory and avoidance demands of traditional kin relations. Teaching methods have changed over time, and much of this is attributable to the change from oral to non-oral learning styles. Opportunities for teaching and learning are reduced in Pelly Bay today, though new contexts in school and home have developed. Reinforcement of traditional kin and fictive ties continues to be an important element in transmission, though a more generalized dispersal of songs seems to be developing. Ph.D.