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Katadjait

Sound recording, song and game; Katadjait throat singing from the Inuit tradition, performed by Nellie Echalook and Mary Iqualluk, as part of the programme Inuit Throat Singers and Gayle Ross, in the Main Tent at the Beyond the Border Festival, St Donats Art Centre, Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan, Wales, 6th July 1996.

Five sessions of Inuit throat singing by Nellie Echalook and Mary Iqualluk.

Throat singing has become a well-known form of Inuit music, usually performed by two women. Its origins lie in a game, the aim of which is to imitate the sounds of nature. The singers stand face to face, holding eachs other's elbows. It helps if one singer is taller than the other. Each singer alternately repeats a different sound in a fast rhythm creating a 'hocket'. The overtones of each singer's sounds are caught and given harmonic resonance in the other singer's mouth. The low pitched rythmic sound that is the trademark of throat singing, capture the sounds made by the different birds, animals and natural phenomena. Sometimes throat singing can be a contest to see who can sing the longest. It often ends in laughter. Some women are able to throat sing by themselves, using a large bowl or kettle held near the singer's mouth to give resonance. Like the Sami Yoik, Inuit throat singing is a uniquely oral tradition, with few words and much sound. The Inuit people have developed an acute sense of listening, and throat singing paints sound pictures of the tundra, giving brief glimpses of arctic life.

audience:- adult
language:- Inuktitut
    recording quality
condition:- good
completeness:- complete
duration:- 0 hours, 6 minutes, 53 seconds

Performing in programme Inuit Throat Singers and Gayle Ross were Gayle Ross, Nellie Echalook and Mary Iqualluk. Belgium ethnomusicologist Etienne Bours was also present on stage.

Beyond the Border Festival was founded in 1993 by Ben Haggarty, Artistic Director of the Crick Crack Club, and David Ambrose, the then Director of St Donats Arts Centre, Wales. The Festival was founded as The Beyond the Border International Festival of Storytelling and Epic Singing, but became known simply as Beyond the Border. The festival ran from 1993 to 2006 co-directed by the two founders: with Ben Haggarty programming storytellers and David Ambrose programming musicians. Since 2007 the festival has been directed by David Ambrose. The festival is a weekend event running on the first weekend of July annually; attracting around 2,500 people from across Britain and from overseas. The festival is sited at St Donats Arts Centre and in the grounds of St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan on the South Coast of Wales. Beyond the Border was initiated as part of the UK Year of Literature in 1995. The successful bid submitted by Academi Wales, prominently featured a storytelling festival. The original Director of the UK Year of Literature was Maura Dooley, who had been at the South Bank Centre in London when Ben Haggarty ran the Third International Storytelling Festival there in 1989. Maura Dooley supported the proposal brought to her by Ben Haggarty and David Ambrose to hold an International festival and series of summer schools at St Donats Castle and to begin Beyond the Border in 1993 in order to build an audience and a core of Wales-based artists for the Year of Literature in 1995. However before the plan could be implemented Maura Dooley resigned from her post (the position was later taken by Sean Dorran). Despite this, St Donats Arts Centre was committed to the festival and Beyond the Border was launched in July 1993. The 1993, 1994 and 1995 festivals were accompanied by summer schools, which produced a number of storytellers including Megan Lloyd, Francis Maxey, Richard Berry and Michael Harvey.

singing game:- throat singer; singer: Mary Iqualluk
female / Canadian / Inuit

singing game:- throat singer; singer: Nellie Echalook
female / Canadian / Inuit

origin:-
Inuit


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Nellie Echalook and Mary Iqualluk

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Image of the performance showing Gayle Ross, Nellie Echalook and Mary Iqualluk

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Festival programme

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associated:- storyteller: Gayle Ross


associated:- translator: Etienne Bours


programming:- Festival Co-Director: Ben Haggarty
Festival Co-Director: David Ambrose


administration:- administrator: St Donats Arts Centre


singing game:- St Donats, Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan, Wales: St Donats Art Centre: Main Tent
06 Jul 1996
festival: Beyond the Border Festival
Inuit Throat Singers and Gayle Ross


gift from:- St Donats Arts Centre


©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
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