Composer creates new sounds for Nanook of the North

The sights and sounds of the North will fill Toronto’s elegant Elgin Hall theatre tonight, as hundreds of movie stars and film fans attending Toronto’s International Film Festival watch the renowned documentary Nanook of the North to a unique soundtrack of flutes, drums and throatsinging.

Nanook of the North, which documents one year in the life of a skilled Inuk hunter, was filmed in northern Quebec by Robert Flaherty and opened in New York City in 1922 to rave reviews. The International Documentary Association still rates Nanook of the North as number six on its list of “Top 20 Documentaries of All Time.”

Over the years, the silent film has had many soundtracks accompanying its one-hour-and-15-minute running length.

But none quite like this one: the screening tonight features an original score by Quebec composer Gabriel Thibaudeau. His composition combines the sounds and singing from four flute players from the Quatuor enchanté, two opera singers, a drummer, and two throat-singers from Nunavik — Akinisie Sivuaraapik and Caroline Novalinga.

Although Thibaudeau accompanied screenings of Nanook of the North in 2001 and 2003 at Montreal’s indigenous festival, Présence Autochtone, his music was improvised, and involved only piano playing and two throat-singers.

Tonight’s Nanook of the North, also the world première of Thibaudeau’s new musical accompaniment, features a much tighter piece of music, set out in seven separate sections or movements.

Thibaudeau, 46, composer and pianist at the Cinémathèque Québécoise, ranks as one of the great specialists in silent film accompaniment in Canada. He composes music for a variety of groups ranging from chamber ensembles to symphony orchestras. He is often requested to perform internationally as a pianist, orchestra conductor and composer.

Thibaudeau said his Nanook of the North music is timed to the film’s images and tries to echo what is being shown on screen.

“What I wanted to do was go right to the heart of the North. When it’s -25, you don’t hear lower registers. You hear the cracking of snow, the wind and breathing, people talking. So then, there’s only the flute and voices, and the cracking comes from the percussion,” Thibaudeau said in an interview from Montreal.

Thibaudeau’s music also attempts to catch and reflect elements of traditional Inuit culture.

“I wanted it to be in the spirit of people who were nomadic — what they had, they carried along with themselves. That’s why I have arranged this music, so that it can be presented everywhere in the world,” Thibaudeau said. “Each flutist carries his or her flute, and the throat-singers have their voices, and the percussion uses a single drum. It’s simple, and, at the same time, I’ve tried to make a link between Inuit and people in the South.”

Thibaudeau said tonight’s performance will go way beyond any other one to date because that’s what Nanook of the North deserves.

“Nanook is a film I like a lot — I like it so much that, through my music, I want to express all the humanity that breathes out from this film and everything that attaches us, as people, to each other, no matter what our culture,” Thibaudeau said.

Thibaudeau found composing for the film to be “a wonderful challenge.” To prepare, he studied throat-singing in depth. He compares its musical structure to the movement of two people tossing a ball back and forth to each other.

“With the flutes, I tried to do the same thing, because there are four flutes, sometimes they answer back four at a time, sometimes, two by two, and sometimes one sends out a note to another flute.”

Following Thibaudeau’s music is also a challenge for the throat-singers. Thibaudeau asked them to choose certain songs, with a certain beat, and then sing them for a specified length of time.

“We’re using time, but we don’t know how to read music, so we’ve written notes where we have to start singing. We’ve studied this a lot,” Sivuaraapik said.

Sivuaraapik, who has worked with Thibaudeau previously on Nanook, and her throatsinging partner, Caroline Novalinga, say they’re ready for the Toronto première.

“We’re both very excited and nervous, but nervous is always a good feeling,” Sivuaraapik said. “It’s very, very exciting because Gabriel is a very professional music writer.”

Thibaudeau already is planning to bring his musical version of Nanook of the North to next summer’s film festival in Sodankylä in northern Finland, but he and the throat-singers are eager to tour with the film in northern Canada as well.

“I want to travel all over the world with Nanook,” Thibaudeau said.