Aboriginals and the History of Music in Canada

Before the European settlers came to what is presently known as Canada, the region was occupied by a large number of Aboriginal tribes, which include the West Coast and Haida, the centrally located Iroquois, Blackfoot and the Huron, the Inuit and the Dene tribes to the North, and the Innu and Mi’kmaq in the East. Each of the aboriginal communities had their own special musical traditions. Chanting composing which is widely famous and mostly used as a variety of the musical instruments. The materials are used at hand to make their instruments for thousands of years before Europeans arrived to the new world. They made the gourds and animals horns into rattles, several bands were elaborately carved and beautifully painted. The woodland places, they mad horns of birchbark and drumsticks of banged antlers and wood. The drums were generally made of bangs wood and animal hides, the musical instruments provide the background for the songs and led to the aboriginal dances. For several years after the European came to Canada, the first Nations and Inuit tribes were discouraged from practicing their traditional ceremonies. During 1606 to 1607 Marc Lescarbot collected the earliest existing transcriptions of a songs from the Americas, three composers of Henri Membertou, the sakmow (Grand Chief) of the Mi’kmaq first Nations people situated near Port Royal presented day Nova Scotia.

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