Weekend music thread #05 Tuvan throat singing

by liberal japonicus

If you couldn’t guess from the title of this week’s edition, these music threads are not always going to be music that is on my playlist, and I would be surprised if this week’s is on anyone else’s. After Russell’s fascinating dive into the clave, I thought that connections between music and culture would be interesting so here we are. So, what is Tuvan throat singing?

If you watched Dune, you heard one style of Tuvan throat singing in this scene

I was fortunate to have a more gentler introduction. I was in the Ohio State dorm for the Linguistic Institute in 93 and one of the other participants staying in the dorm would play this. I’m not sure who said it (I hope it was me) but we called it his Country and Eastern music. Since that time, it has become more known (It is one of the hobbies of Sheldon in Big Bang Theory)

Tuva is a place that Richard Feynmann tried to visit, but he passed away just before the visas came thru, but his friend Ralph Leighton wrote a book about the attempt entitled Tuva or Bust! which also led to the establishment of Friends of Tuva and this page on the site has a ton more links. But we can start off with a Ted talk that doesn’t have a lot of talking. Adding the beatboxer in the last number was genius.

There are 5 styles of Tuvan throat singing and this video gives examples of each.

One thing that I wondered about was if it was restricted to men, as almost all Tuvan throat singers in youtube videos are men. This video dispels that, it’s by Anna-Maria Hefele, and gives some history and connects it to Western overtone singing that developed independently.

This documentary, entitled Genghis Blues, starts with Fenymann’s story and then tells the story of a blind blues musician Paul Pena who taught himself Tuvan singing and then met some Tuvan singers who invited him to Tuvan throat singing championship held every three years. Skip ahead to 40:05 to see the Tuvan reaction to it.

This video is, Space Sound Voice, from 2010, is a bit new age-y, connecting it to spiritual enlightenment, but covers a lot of points.

If it does catch anyone’s fancy, feel free to share some videos that have less talking and more overtone singing!