Throat singing: Art and Culture
Throat-singing also called over tones singing is a guttural style of singing or chanting, is one of the world’s oldest forms of music, originated originated among the indigenous Turko-Mongol tribes of the Altai and Sayan mountains of southern Siberia and western Mongolia. For those who think and believe that the human voice can produce only one note at a time, are going to be surprised by throat-singing.
In throat-singing, a singer can produce two or more notes simultaneously through specialized vocalization technique taking advantage of the throat’s resonance characteristics. By the movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, velum, and larynx, throat-singers produce unique harmonies using only their bodies. Throat-singing is most identified with parts of Central Asia, but it is also practiced in northern Canada and South Africa where the technique takes on different styles and meanings.
Styles and classifications vary a lot. In western Mongolia styles are identified by the parts of the body that figure most prominently in the manipulation of pitch and timbre. The western Khalkhas also use a deep bass, nonmelodic throat-singing style, and certain specialists can combine a number of styles with lyrics. Tyvans, by contrast, often classify styles in relation to the landscape they have developed throat-singing most extensively.
Throat-singers usually accompany themselves on the distinctive Inner Asian fiddle, with its pegboard often carved in the shape of a horse’s head.
Batzorig Vaanchig is a Professional Mongolian Horse-head fiddle player and khoomei throat singer. In this video we can appreciate the Mongolian throat-singing in his voice, it is a blend of culture and nostalgia, according to his youtube lyrics he is singing to his ancestors and to his Mongolian people. His voice is the perfect mix of faith, triumph and patriotism. Vaanchig is proud of his roots and where we comes from, without a doubt he does an effective job singing this beautiful song. We can hear the overtones as he sings one being lower and other higher, this represents the ability and flexibility of his voice and gives us a notion of how trained throat singers are and how much time they have practice along their lifetime to develop this skill. He is using an Asian Fiddle to accompany himself. Nevertheless, we can also admire the beautiful mountains and sky around him making a bigger statement of how honored he is to belong there. This man is not cultured, he is the culture.
Since the late 20th century, innovative musicians have blended throat-singing with various international popular styles, thereby establishing a place for the genre within the commercial realm of world music. Bukhchuluun Ganburged, is a master student of the Music and Dance Conservatory of Ulaanbaatar. Bukhu performs the folk musics of Mongolia, while exploring the aural dimensions of sounds generated by traditional instruments and harmonic overtone vocal techniques (throat singing). His music brings a contemporary take on the tradition of Mongolian bards of the middle ages and those of ancient times.
His expression while singing “Mother and Father” is very sentimental. Even though, I do not understand his words. This is a clear example of how passion and sentiment can contribute to a piece. He evolves many feelings while singing, his song is calm, in a way relaxing. Ganburged knows how to take his time and get the people’s attention. His overtones are subtle but forward. This evoques a wistful feeling inside of us, creating a picture of someone who is separated from their loved ones and there is a distance in between. This was not an audition, this was a performance.
Tuva throat female singers have a very wide vocal register. The first woman in the video focused more on her higher overtones giving us a piece with a breathy sound and more of a nature feeling in her voice, it was a pleasant memory the one that appears while she sings. On the other hand, the next Tuva singer focused more on her lower overtones creating a deep eerie sound giving us an idea of how well trained each voice is and how even though they sing the same style both of them had each own take on it.
Mongolian singers have a different approach. The woman’s voice was a beautiful profound sound, she had her eyes closed meaning she felt every single word she sang, she was dressed in a very particular way, as an spectator it makes you imagined that maybe she is singing to her country or ancestors, making an effective approach to her throat singing.
The tradition of Inuit throat singing originated as a playful contest between women. Usually, two performers face each other, each holding the other’s arms and generating sounds that mimic nature: grunts, squeals, squawks, coos, and crows for the other to answer. In this audition, Chakotka was alone but it still mimic a lot of sounds at once by herself. She was dressing and singing according to her vocal studies. It makes you have her undivided attention and understand how hard and proud at the same time it must be to sing a duet by herself.
Last but not least the German overtone singing, very eerie and higher. Her overtones are quite unique it makes you imagine Germany’s culture. An overall good demonstration of throat singing.
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