Pillorikput Inuit: Inuktitut Arias for All Seasons

Written by Andrew Timur
Published in The WholeNote, 25 January 2016

Musicologist and pianist Tom Gordon, professor emeritus of the School of Music at Memorial University in St. John’s, NL has long been fascinated by the sacred music performed by the Inuit Moravians of Northern Labrador. Unlike other Christian denominations, Moravian missionaries not only placed a high value on personal piety and missions, but also particularly encouraged the place of music in worship. Digging to understand this music’s history, Gordon sifted through hundreds of manuscripts in Moravian church archives along the Labrador coast.

What emerged was a rich musical practice with roots back to the 1770s and 1780s when European Moravian missionaries founded settlements in Northern Labrador at Nain, then Okak and Arvertok, the first (of many more) Christian missions to the Inuit in what is now Canada. They came to preach Christianity and one of their prime tools – and legacies – was music.

Quite rapidly the music imported from Europe evolved, in the words of Gordon, as an “expressive practice re-conceived to reflect the spirituality and aesthetic preferences of Inuit musicians.” It was music heard almost exclusively within the modest clapboard walls of Labrador Moravian churches. There it remained, almost unknown to the outside world, until now.

From these communities’ extensive repertoire of brass music, congregational singing and choral music, Gordon has chosen 16 tracks of solo sacred arias and duets, reconstructing them from church manuscripts. The result is the impressively documented and performed CD Pillorikput Inuit (Behold, the People), true not only to the letter of the source manuscripts but also to the Inuit spirit of its performers and tradition-keepers. The music chosen celebrates key annual liturgical events like Christmas and Easter, as well as the community celebrations of Married People’s Day and Church Festival Day.

Featuring the classically trained Inuk soprano Deantha Edmunds and Moravian Inuit music expert Karrie Obed, both singing in Inuktitut, the repertoire includes music by two leading European composers of their day, Handel and Haydn. As expected, songs by lesser-tier yet fascinating Moravian composers such as Johann Daniel Grimm (1719–1760), the American John Antes (1740–1811) and the English clergyman Christian Ignatius Latrobe (1758–1836) are also well represented. Organ, wind and string instrumental accompaniment, and the Innismara Vocal Ensemble from St. John’s provide suitable period support throughout.

What is unique in these performances? It’s not so much the repertoire or the conventional instrumental forces employed. It is rather the deeply heartfelt renditions of these European songs in Inuktitut representing a hybrid Inuit performance practice dating back over 225 years in Canada’s North that I find so moving. It seems to me Pillorikput Inuit represents the tip of the iceberg of the rich Inuit musical heritage the rest of us in the South are just beginning to discover, and enjoy.

Source: https://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/booksrecords2/potpourri/25805-pillorikput-inuit-inuktitut-ar

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Pillorikput Inuit: Inuktitut Arias for All Seasons . [2016]. Compact disc. Deantha Edmunds, Karrie Obed, Innismara Vocal Ensemble. Booklet (26 pp) with photographs and song descriptions in English and in Inuktitut.

Moravian missionaries arrived in Labrador in the mid-eighteenth century, bringing with them the sacred musical traditions of Europe. With Pillorikput Inuit (Blessed are the People!) Executive Producer Tom Gordon (who also created the performing editions of the music) and Music Director Kellie Walsh present contemporary recordings of this historical repertoire, bringing together Inuit singers from Labrador and trained classical musicians to create a crisp, clear sound from the manuscripts found in the churches of the Labrador coast. For the first time, we can hear these arias in their Inuktitut translations under ideal conditions. As the liner notes remark, early audio recordings are filled with the “hisses and pops” of early tapes (p. [ii]). What risks being lost in a new project such as this is the voice of the Inuit of Labrador—but thanks to the choices of the producers, the listener retains this privilege. While much of the repertoire is not actively sung today, this collection introduces the audience to how one region’s Indigenous communities responded to the introduction of Western Art music over the past two centuries.

The first sounds of the disc set the tone for anyone ready to listen and won- dering what to expect of Moravian music in Labrador. The organ and strings gently establish periodic phrases for the entry of the sweet trombone of Chris Miller. It is the voices, however, that provide the distinct sound of this record- ing. Two Inuit singers, Deantha Edmunds, soprano, and Karrie Obed, tenor, are the featured artists of this disc, and the album is at its best when both voices shine. Edmunds is “Canada’s first classical singer of Inuit descent” ([ix]), while Obed, who has been the lead tenor of the Nain choir for over two decades, represents the traditions of Labrador on this recording. (p. [x]). The juxtapos- ition between these voices is striking for their difference: Edmunds presents a clear classical soprano, while Obed’s tenor is more timbrally characteristic of traditional Inuit singing. The combination, however, contributes to the sense that this music is intended for all—whether trained or untrained, in the celebration of the Moravian traditions in Labrador, and their translation and re-purposing for the Inuit population there. The song texts are presented in Inuktitut, transforming their meaning across cultural boundaries from Western European centres to the Canadian eastern arctic. The collection of composers—some more recognizable than others—includes leading writers and clerics from Moravian and non-Moravian traditions, with a focus on Dresden and London-based musicians.

 

Pillorikput Inuit is organized according to the “spiritual year” in Labrador, beginning with three arias for the Christmas season. The opening track, “kausiut nuijotit,” sets excerpts from Morning Star, Thy Cheering Light by Julius Otto of Dresden. This trio setting features Edmunds, Obed, and Miller (as noted above). This trio also offers an example of the changes introduced in Labrador, as a Labrador musician added the second voice, and Otto’s original ventilhorn solo was rewritten for trombone. Two shorter songs close this section while featuring the soprano voice of Edmunds: John Antes’s (an American-born Moravian composer) “Prince of Peace,” presented as “Jêsuse Immânuel Puaila- vik” in the Nain translation and “Engelit Killangmiugasekuit,” the translation of Haydn’s “The Marvelous Work Beholds Amazed” from The Creation. The latter work also includes Innismara Vocal Ensemble, a St. John’s based choir “dedicated to the performance of the intimate and hidden treasures of the vocal ensemble repertoire” (p. [xi]).

The first of two important local holy festivals frames the next two tracks, as we celebrate “Married People’s Day.” “Tattikartok Gudiptingnik iglunga” is an example of a song celebrating “love both for God and for mankind” used for this occasion. Composed by Leonhardt de Call, this rendition presents a duet between Edmunds and Obed in what the liner notes describe as “one of the most beloved pieces in the Labrador repertoire” (p. [vi]). Paired with this track is Handel’s “Wise Men Flatt’ring May Deceive Us,” from Judas Maccabeus, included in the Hopedale collection as “Jesusib najorningane .” Here, the organ and strings are joined by two flutes in support of the soprano voice.

Finally, the Church Anniversary Festival closes this compilation, with two tracks which commemorate the establishment of Moravian missions in Labrador on February 19 (p. [viii]).

The first of these is Carl Wilhelm Fliegel’s “Evening Prayer,” (“Evening Song” in the liner notes (p. [ix]) presented in Inuktitut as “Saimartigut, Jêsuse!”—written for chorus with soprano solo. The final, and title, track, “Pillorikput inuit opigosugungnartut” (“Blessed are the People”) returns to composer LaTrobe— the most represented composer in this collection. Obed’s voice opens this an- them for two soloists and choir, originally written for LaTrobe’s own church in Fulneck (in Leeds, UK). The liner notes for this final track describes the resonance of the words “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound, In thy name shall they rejoice all the day!” for the Inuit of Labrador “celebrating the arrival of Christianity among them” (p. [ix]).

The recording is packaged in a cardpaper Digisleeve, with liner notes in one side and the CD itself on the other. There are 12 pages of liner notes for this album presented in English and in full Inuktitut translation (tallying for a 24-page booklet). That the English comes first is not surprising, as it is English speakers that are likely the primary audience for this project—but the presence of Inuktitut also suggests a mutual interest in having this collection shared among the Inuit of Labrador. The notes themselves focus largely on the role this music played in local service and in the “spiritual year” in Labrador. Along the way, however, we also learn some biographical sketches of composers in the Moravian tradition, such as LaTrobe. We also discover links between Dresden (home to many of the German composers represented here) and Labrador through the Moravian Church. There are three black and white photos of Labrador churches and musicians (including the cover photo, which recurs toward the end of the booklet), along with a colour photo of soloists Edmunds and Obed on the sleeve. The booklet offers enough information to entice those interested not only in Moravian traditions in Canada, but also those with an interest in eighteenth-century music more broadly, in a very concise package. The liner notes also direct the reader/listener to a companion website (http://www.mun.ca/mmap/back_on_track/) for the archival recording, Ahâk, Ahâk! Moravian Music of the Labrador Inuit . On following this link, unfortunately, this reviewer was not able to find the materials listed in the liner notes. Instead, there was information about this CD, including two sample tracks—Ahâk Ahâk upkuerrutjilaukpunga and Kânnorle kanok, pivianadlarput . A separate CD from the “Back on Track” series, From the Big Land: Music of Makkovik featuring Gerald Mitchell (http://www.mun.ca/ mmap/research_pub/back_on_track/makkovik/) does contain one archival recording of country-inspired Inuit gospel music. The documentary film, Till We Meet Again: Moravian Music in Labrador is, however, available to view on the CBC website (http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2263655823) and contains numerous video and audio clips of vocal and instrumental music in the Moravian churches of Labrador.

Another challenge to this reviewer is the small number of Inuit musicians used in the project. In this light, I find Obed’s voice to be particularly captivating and wish there were more opportunities for him to be heard throughout the album. The liner notes begin with mention of the re-conception of this material to fit with the aesthetic and spiritual lives of Labrador’s Inuit population. Inclusion and translation of the Inuktitut lyrics to the anthems of this collection would help the Western consumer of the CD to appreciate and understand these aesthetic differences where the text is concerned. For those of us with some knowledge of the Inuktitut language (and for others, too), the presence of lyrics would further enhance the listening experience, allowing listeners to engage more deeply with the words. The exception here lies in the notes for Track 2, where lyrics for John Antes’s “Prince of Peace” are translated in both the Nain and Hopedale versions, illustrating regional differences in Labrador.

Pillorikput Inuit represents an important contribution to the study of music in the Labrador, music in Canada’s North, and music in Canadian Indigenous communities. The musical repertoire blends colonial and Indigenous perspectives and presents one community’s method of infusing Indigenous perform- ance into an introduced music. This audio recording provides the opportunity for listeners to engage in the spiritual life of Labrador Inuit through the lens of the Moravian Church heritage. The recordings themselves are of the highest quality, with each instrument clearly heard, yet always in support of the voices. At its best on those tracks which feature Karrie Obed’s tenor alongside soprano Deantha Edmunds, the listener participates in the blend of Europe and Labra- dor’s Inuit, immersing themselves in two hundred years of underappreciated musical history in Canada.