Tuvan Throat Singers
Throat singing is a unique method of singing, or vocal art in which a singer can simultaneously sing, creating two, sometimes three or four notes. This miraculous method of singing is exercised by a number of Asian tribes, and a rich tradition survives in Tuva. Located deep in Siberia surrounded by grasslands, forests and mountains, the presence of humans is rare, in fact the whole population numbers only 150,000. The people who occupy this land, seem to be one with nature, and have a deep heritage tied to the land. The Tuvan throat singers come from a nomadic herding culture in which men would spend hours even days alone on horseback with only their animals and nature to call on for company. It was through this loneliness and place in nature that throat singing was developed. It is a form of stylized storytelling where the music represents sounds of nature: running streams or birds for example. The act of throat singing is highly personal to the Tuvans, as they believe it connects them closer to the spirit of nature. Throat singing is typically practiced by men because of a taboo placed against female throat singing, based on a belief that it caused infertility. In more recent times some younger women are beginning to
While researching I came across a few more styles of throat singing one that I also found sound samples for, I will include a brief description of each. The first is Chilandyk, named from the Tuvan word for cricket, which is a mixture of both Kargyraa and Sygyt. Typically one begins with the Kargyraa voice, that was the low croaking sound, then uses the Sygyt style of singing to add a melody. In this method the higher tone seems to remain the most dominant throughout the song. The final style I found was Dumchuktaar, which means to sing through the nose, either with the mouth shut or the sound have a nasal like quality to it, common is some forms of Mountain Kargyraa. However, nasal singing is more common among western overtone (throat) singers. The first method listed is Khoomei, which I had mentioned earlier as the name the Tuvans call throat singing. It is also though a particular style of throat singing. Khoomei is a softer sounding method. The higher notes (harmonics) are clear but quite soft and diffused, they are above a fundamental (lower) pitch. In this style two or more notes are clearly audible. It is also often said that Khoomei is one of the easiest and most basic methods of throat singing there is to learn. Khoomei style singing is also the example presented to us in class as the example of throat singing given earlier in the year. Borbangnadyr and Ezengileer I have learned both involve quite complex manipulations of the lips tongue and throat, thus "producing vibrato, tremelo, and trills". Borbangnadyr is not quite a style but more a combination of effects applied to any one style. The name translated means "rolling" and the style can reflect just that, the sound sample I heard included the singer imitating the sound of a babbling brook through the process of Borbangnadyr. Most commonly it is used to describe a warbling applied to Sygyt. Ezengileer comes from a word that means "stirrup" and rhyt
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1309
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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