Music of the 'True North': A Study of the Interaction of Canadian Music and an Inuit Community

The idea of the North plays a vital role in Canadian identity discourse at political, social, and artistic levels, as an imagined space and place to explore the nation's greatness. Contained within this imagined North are self-perpetuating stereotypes of Inuit -- the real Northern residents who live their lives entirely within that space. The North garners attention based on political and economic gains. The North is the site of the Northwest Passage. The North is a place to be protected under the guise of Arctic Sovereignty. The North is the locale of the largest Indigenous land claims settlement in the world. With each wave of interest, composers turn to the North as a source of inspiration, addressing the question of what it means to be Canadian. The North is also home to the majority of Canada's Inuit population, whose experiences transpire far removed from southern Canada and from these projections of their homeland.;This dissertation brings the imagined idea of North and the real, tangible North into discourse through musical repertoire. This exercise examines the human element of the North through two lenses; that presented by Euro-Canadian composers in their interpretations and imaginings of the North since the national Centennial celebrations of 1967, and that presented by the Inuit inhabitants in the small Hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut. Adding Inuit voices complicates the discussion about the North, as the reality for Inuit rarely matches what composers and audiences conceive when they turn their gaze northward.;The North is neither a singular place, nor an historical one. It is a complex, multi-sited, living space. Providing ethnographic examples from one community does not seek to speak to the diversity of the North, but rather aims to highlight one instance that challenges the model of Canada as an imagined community, united around its Northern lands. Examining the music of the North from both perspectives allows insights into the relationship between Canada's center in the South and its periphery in the North.