You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve been asked this question:
Them- “Have you seen the documentary ‘Genghis Blues’? It’s about this blind American blues singer who learns to throat sing on his own and manages to get to Tuva for a throat singing competition.”
Me- “Uh…yeah…I was in it.”
For those of you who might not have heard of this one- It was made in ’95 for the International Symposium of Throat Singing in the Republic of Tuva, Russia. Paul Pena, the blind, black blues singer from San Francisco was famous for the song he wrote, Jet Airliner, recorded by the Steve Miller band. He’d discovered Tuvan singing via shortwave radio around 1990 or so. So he imitated it, and got quite good at the deep sound of ‘kargyra’.
I’d first met Huun Huur Tu, the Tuvan ensemble, back in 1993 at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I jammed with them backstage and they invited me to the symposium then. Then the following year, while I was a tour member of Crash Test Dummies, I ran into them again in a TV studio in NYC. Again, I found myself jamming with them. It was in the cards that I was to go there, though it took several months of red tape. No computers, only aging Russian FAX machines.
Turned out I was the only female foreigner to perform (western overtone singing). They picked me to be one of the judges in the competition, along with several experts in various related occupations. It was a great honor, though I didn’t really feel so qualified to judge their own art form. They claimed that my style most resemble ‘sygyt’. The official competition involved around 100 teenage boys and a couple of girls. This took about 3 days to complete, so they interspersed the foreigners in the program (mostly for comic relief).
Paul was treated royally. The omni-presence of a somewhat eclectic film crew from California must have been quite amusing for them. As was the sound of American blues being interpreted through their ‘kargyra’. The film suggests that Paul won the kargyra category, but in actuality, it was more like an honorary prize. They nicknamed him ‘Earthquake’.
It was difficult to keep track of who was who in this fast paced contest. It was especially hectic when I had to leave my post and go up to perform, without any preparation. I leaped backstage, came up with a little acapella theme in about 10 minutes. Later on in Canada, I wrote the instrumental parts and recorded it on my first CD. It’s called ‘Tuva on Rye’.
The most rewarding part of the competition was seeing the grand prize winner ride off into the sunset on his new pony, dressed in his new national costume.
During the week, there were daily lectures by the likes of shamans, ethnomusicologists and scientific researchers. I enjoyed a presentation from a couple of young guys from Khakassia, with their ‘kai’ throat singing. It is like epics being channeled. The main singer just up and quit abruptly after a while, citing that spirit tapped him on the shoulder.
Oh, and getting back to that documentary- it was nominated for an Academy award. And if you watch it, you’ll see me near the end, on the stage wearing a white skirt, for about 8 seconds.
Here’s a photo gallery from the symposium.
Here’s an article written by ‘Living Treasure’ shaman Mongush Kenin-Lopsan for the Symposium. It’s about the origins of throat singing.
Here’s a video of Paul Pena performing during the documentary filming.
CommentThere are some overtone or throat singing styles existing in ancient cultures I’d like to point out here. And although you can find oodles of info on each of these, I seek only to introduce you to some you may never have been aware of. (So how would you know what to google if you’ve never heard of something?)
Like other indigenous musical forms, some of these have even become endangered. The younger people of these societies are simply more drawn to popular western music and see the old traditions as being backward. The elders are in some desperate campaign to save them. Let’s hope they are successful.
The Xhosa women of South Africa have their own unique style.
Website
Audio
Dani singing- Papua New Guinea
Audio
Throat singing women of Bogaz Havasi (Turkoman technique)
Video
This style reminds me of the electronically enhanced singing of pop stars like Cher, with the quick and precise switching between tones, almost like yodeling. But it’s done naturally by these women, of course. I’ve heard something similar by Lioudmilla Khandi, whose singing you can listen to here. Her voice enters at 0:55.
Bunun male choir in Taiwan- harmonically rich, gradually ascending in pitch, called Posibutbut. It seems to be connected to a ritual.
Video
Sardinian singing of male quartets
I had the pleasure of jamming with one of the most well known of these groups at the polyphonic singing festival in Albania in /08.
Tenores di Bitti official site
Bashkortostan throat singing
Audio
Hope you enjoy all these links. I’ll bring you more later!
CommentIn Tuva, almost no self-respecting throat singer does not also play the jaw harp, (also known as the jew’s harp or Khomus). Playing of the jaw harp is closely related to throat singing or overtone singing in that manipulation of the resonant cavities affects the harmonics (therefore the melody) achieved. There are many variations around the world, with most of them being made from some kind of metal. There are also bamboo versions. Check out the Dan Moi site for comprehensive information about the origins, playing methods, audio samples and more.
From Wikipedia:
“The tongue/reed is placed in the performer’s mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note. The frame is held firmly against the performer’s parted front teeth, using the jaw (thus “jaw harp”) and mouth as a resonator, greatly increasing the volume of the instrument. The teeth must be parted sufficiently for the reed to vibrate freely, and the fleshy parts of the mouth should not come into contact with the reed, to prevent damping of the vibrations. The note thus produced is constant in pitch, though by changing the shape of his or her mouth and the amount of air contained in it the performer can cause different overtones to sound and thus create melodies. The volume of the note can be varied by breathing in and out.”
When I was in Tuva in ’95, I met a card carrying ‘virtuoso’ of the jaw harp. His card reads: Robert Zagretdinov, Prize winner of the International contest ‘”Virtuoso- Kubyzist of the world”, Ufa, Bashkortostan. I bought one from this guy. The one I really wanted wasn’t for sale. It had a sort of adjustable trigger on the bottom which altered the basic pitch. It looked like some sort of pistol. Without such an extra attachment or similar modification, all jaw harps have a single drone underlying pitch.
One of the most accomplished players I’ve met is ethnomusicologist Tran Quang Hai, based in Paris. I also met him in Tuva, where he delivered a lecture about the scientific research he’d done on throat and overtone singing. And he’s a mean spoon player.
Another innovative player I’ve worked with is Vladiswar Nadishana, a Siberian based in Berlin. Among a multitude of other instruments he plays (including many overtone flutes and fujiwara), he manages to arrange a bunch of jaw harps together to play in quick succession. Here’s the page where you can see his jew’s harps for sale.
A Canadian woman, Deidre Ann Morgan, is a scholar of the jaw harp, having done her field work in Bali. There is a little village there with the sole distinction of being world headquarters of the geng gong. I was also there in ’89 and bought one of these. It’s a closely related instrument in mouth technique, but is made from bamboo and you yank on a string rhythmically to create the sound. (Deidre also attended one of my workshops at the Prague Overtone Festival). Her M.A. thesis, entitled “Organs and bodies: The Jew’s harp and the anthropology of musical instruments” can be downloaded here.
Deidre’s blog is a passionate collection of up to date global jaw harp events.
Here’s info on one more festival in Leipzig, Germany.
CommentThere are many female overtone singers out there now. Some of them are making great contributions to the art form.
Let’s start with the forerunners in central Asia, namely the Republic of Tuva.
Apparently, although it was ‘forbidden’ for women to throat sing throughout the ages, they did it in private, lulling their babies to sleep, or simply imitating what they heard the men doing all around them. The myth was that it would cause infertility or invoke curses.
Some of the girls that did it, believing there was nothing wrong with it, grew up to be well established as throat singing experts, touring the world. Luckily, common consensus these days has changed in this regard.
Sainkho Namtchylak is one of these, moving it into the avant garde arena.
Another example is the all female group Tuva Kyzy (daughters of Tuva).
Article #1: About modern throat singing and females, written by Oorzhak Khunashtaar-ool
Article #2: Perspectives on female throat singing
In the world of modern western overtone singing, there are now a few females making names for themselves. These women are proficient at the polyphonic style (pitches moving in counterpoint fashion).
Natascha Nikeprelevic has been a disciple and partner with the pioneer Michael Vetter, and is considered one of the best in her field. She also masterfully combines it with performance art.
Claudiha Gayatri Matussek (site in German)
Anna Maria Hefele is a young German woman who is quite accomplished at this style. Her and I are currently working on some collaborative pieces.
To listen to some more, here’s a recently released compilation of female overtone singers called Femineus.
Even though females, generally, are a bit more limited in the range of overtones they can comfortably isolate, those that stretch their ranges downwards have a lot more territory to work with. I, for example, used to be the soprano in a female trio, and after a few years, found myself in the position of being officially a tenor. I think the practice of overtone singing assisted me in lowering my range. I’m even singing some of the bass parts on occasion, albeit it’s not my best quality tone down there!
CommentWhen I launched HarmonicOvertones.com with my online overtone singing course, I never dreamed that my very first student would be such an adventurous spirit. Dreadlocked Juri Caniero is already a skilled throat singer in the Tuvan style. He even learned some of these techniques from an ethnomusicologist friend of mine, Mark van Tongeren in the Netherlands. After our initial Skype session, he moved to Mexico City.
He was interested in learning polyphonic singing. Not only singing two pitches simultaneously, but moving them around in counterpoint. This is something that is not really done in traditional Tuvan folk music. It normally is that a drone, or single pitch would be maintained for the bottom pitch. And it usually comes at the end of lyrical phrases.
We decided that we could combine these two techniques and create something brand new. Or at least ‘juxtapose’ them. We intend to co-create some music in this manner.
What came as a delightful surprise was how he is planning to present this to the world (initially, anyway). Presently he is living a nomadic life in a horse- drawn caravan touring around all the villages in Mexico. An old-fashioned traveling circus. This really stirs the imagination. I can already see it on the big screen, a la ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’.
For superb online training in Asian ‘khoomei’ throat singing, check the most revered Western teacher from the US, Steve Sklar. He is highly endorsed by the Tuvan masters.
Arjuna (US) also has a training program called ‘Harmonic Fuzion‘, which combines these traditions into a cohesive formula.
There have been pieces created which do combine western overtones and Asian style throat singing. For example, listen to Jerusalem Dream.
In this piece, you hear western overtone singing by Wolfgang Saus, and Mongolian throat singer Dangaa Khosbayar (Hosoo) about two thirds of the way through. Briefly, this throat singing breaks away from the norm by changing the fundamental at the beginning.
Comment
