Music of Greenland - Folk Music

Folk Music

The Inuit and the Danish peoples of Greenland have both maintained their distinct styles of folk music. Country-wide folk traditions included storytelling, which declined greatly after the introduction of the South Greenland Printing Press in 1857.

Traditional music which has best survived European contact can be found in the east and northeast of the island. It includes sacred drum dances played on an oval drum made of a wooden frame with a bear-bladder on top. Drum dances are the "only truly indigenous music" in Greenland, and are part of a roots revival in modern times. Shamans used drums as part of their religious affairs and sometimes organized singing duels between rivals in which the performer who got the most laughs from the audience won. Inuit drum dances were a declining tradition and in modern Greenland are being replaced by amateur theater groups like Silamiut, who used elements of indigenous music with masks, face painting and other techniques. Piseq are a form of personal song that comment on daily life; these are often handed down from generation to generation. Greenlandic Inuit folk songs are performed to tell stories, play games and tease or charm others.