Big Blog II: One Last Music Culture

 

There are not a lot of people who know where the Tuvan throat singing or khoomei comes from or where they are located. There is a small portion of Russia that is located at the border of Mongolia that is Tuva Republic. They are an autonomous republic which means they are under their own control of government. It is roughly the size of Florida. During 1944, the Soviet Union annexed them at the conclusion of World War II. During this time, the Soviet government made recordings of the Tuvan folk music also known as Pesni I instrumentalye melodii Tuvy. These were produced on vinyls. These albums were released by Melodiya in 1978. This opened the door for Tuvan music to be heard around within the Soviet Union. 

This interesting group of people then became known for their unique "throat singing." It is often just performed by one person. It is a form of polyphonic singing. When the Soviet Union disassembled in 1991, this allowed for many foreign professors to come in and learn the new found Tuvan style singing. Numerous amounts of people sought this type of style and it was a large hit during the 1990's. It is mentioned in by Pegg in the journal Discography of Tuvan Music that many artist such as: Frank Zappa, Ry Cooder, Bela Fleck, and the Kronos Quartet had some Tuva singers perform with them while on tour such as: Yat-Kha, Hun-Huur-Tu, and Albert Kuvezin. 

Yat-Kha singing Dyngyldai

Albert Kuvezin singing Charash Karaa

Throat singing is kind of like bass-singing, but the vocal folds vibrate at a high speed to get a more drone like sound. It can produce two or more notes at the same time. This is done by precise movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, velum, and larynx. Interesting fact, many throat singers can produce harmonies by only using their bodies. 

I personally liked what Pegg said in his article "No one who has ever heard Tuvan throat singing will forget it. This discography documents the sudden boom of Tuvan music on the world music circuit in the 1990s and early 2000s. For Tuvans, this is a source of great pride. However, the title of this work is somewhat misleading. It is a discography of Tuvan throat singing, not Tuvan music in general. Just as one should not expect every person you meet in the Appalachians to be an expert banjo picker, you would not hear throat singing every day in Kyzyl. Tuva also has a flourishing tradition of local pop music which mixes influences from Russian estrada, rock and Tuvan folk traditions." He continues to talk about how in today's time, their type of pop is now all over the internet. 

OTYKEN - Storm

There is not a lot of information on this small group due to the control and collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist of Republics (USSR). Nonetheless, it is a very interesting group of people that preserved their culture and the natural ways of throat singing. It is recorded history due to the interest the Soviet Union had during their control. Not much of that history has come to light as that union has collapsed and the data was not really recovered. There are lots of videos now of people throat singing that can be searched on youtube. The different styles among that nation are pretty cool too. It kind of reminds me of the people from the Andes. Most just live off the land and vibe to their own drum. 

Citations

Pegg, Carole. “Mongolian Conceptualizations of Overtone Singing (Xöömii).” British Journal of Ethnomusicology 1 (1992): 31–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3060726. 

Glenfield, Alexander. 2003. "The Pearl of Tuva: Authenticity and Tuvan Khorekteer (Throat Singing)." Canadian Journal for Traditional Music 30: 32-46,87. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/pearl-tuva-authenticity-tuvan-khorekteer-throat/docview/222769347/se-2. 

Gronow, Pekka. 2021. "Discography of Tuvan Music." ARSC Journal. 52 (1) (Spring): 160-161,163. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/discography-tuvan-music/docview/2532792889/se-2. 

Lindestad, Per-Åke, Maria Södersten, Björn Merker, and Svante Granqvist. 2001. "Voice Source Characteristics in Mongolian "Throat Singing" Studied with High-Speed Imaging Technique, Acoustic Spectra, and Inverse Filtering." Journal of Voice 15 (1) (03): 78-85. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/voice-source-characteristics-mongolian-throat/docview/1410887/se-2.