Throat singing, a traditional Central Asian art similar to what is sometimes called in the western world overtone singing, harmonic singing, or harmonic chant (terms created by David Hykes in 1975), and many other regional names, is a type of singing that manipulates the harmonic resonances (or formants) created as air travels through the human vocal folds and out the lips. David Hykes (1953 - ) is a musician, composer, author, experimental filmmaker and meditation teacher, and a principal pioneer in the modern harmonic, healing sounds and contemplative chant movements. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... In acoustics and telecommunication, the harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. ... In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to absorb more oscillatory energy when the frequency of the oscillations matches the systems natural frequency of vibration (its resonant frequency) than it does at other frequencies. ... A formant is a peak in an acoustic frequency spectrum which results from the resonant frequencies of any acoustical system. ...

The harmonic frequencies created by the human vocal apparatus are harnessed in throat singing to select overtones by tuning the resonance in the mouth. The result of tuning allows the singer to create more than one pitch at the same time, with the capability of creating six pitches at once. Generally the sounds created by throat singing are low droning hums and high pitched flutelike melodies. Some styles of throat singing may be likened to a Theremin. An overtone is a sinusoidal component of a waveform, of greater frequency than its fundamental frequency. ... Léon Theremin playing an early theremin The theremin or thereminvox (originally pronounced but often anglicized as [1]) is one of the earliest fully electronic musical instruments. ...

Demographics of throat singing

Tuva, Outer Mongolia - The history of throat singing, or khoomei as they call it, reaches too far back for anyone alive to accurately discern. Ethnomusicologists studying throat singing in these areas mark khoomei as an integral part in the ancient pastoral animism that is still practised today. Harmonics are universally present in all human voices and instrumental sounds. The Tuva Republic (Tuvan: Тыва Республика; Russian: ) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... Khoomei (Tuvan language: Хөөмей, Mongolian:Khöömii, Simplified Chinese:呼麦, Traditional Chinese:呼麥), also spelled Xoomii, Xöömei, Xöömej, Khöömei, or Höömey, is a type of throat singing used in folk music from Tuva and Mongolia. ... In religion, the term Animism has been used in a number of ways since Edward Tylor used it (in 1871) as a label to define the essence of religion as the belief in spirits (i. ...

The animistic world view of this region identifies the spirituality of objects in nature not just in their shape or location but in their sound as well. Thus, human mimicry of nature's sounds is seen as the root of throat singing. (A beautiful example is the Mongolian story of the waterfall above the Buyan Gol (Deer River), where mysterious harmonic sounds are said to have attracted the deer to bask in the waters, and where it is said harmonic sounds were first revealed to people.) Indeed, the cultures in this part of Asia have developed many instruments, drums, devices, and calls to mimic animals, wind, water, etc. While the cultures of this region share throat singing, their styles vary in breadth of development.

The people of Tuva have a wide range of throat singing vocalizations, and were the pioneers of the six pitch harmonic. There are several styles called kargyraa, sygyt, dumchuktar, etc. Kargyraa is a deep, undertone technique used in Tuvan throat singing. ... Sygyt is a technique used in Tuvan throat-singing (xoomii) that utilizes a mid-range fundamental and produces a high-pitched, rather piercing harmonic reminiscent of whistling. ...

While khoomei is used as a generic term to designate all throat singing techniques in this region, it is also more specifically a technique where the drone is in the middle-range of the voice, with harmonics between one and two octaves above. Other Tuvan/Mongolian techniques include kargyraa (low drone, and harmonics sounding one octave below, quite close to Tibetan technique) and sygyt (meaning whistling, the high-pitched drone highly attenuated, and high harmonics sounding very clear and bright). Khoomei (Tuvan language: Хөөмей, Mongolian:Khöömii, Simplified Chinese:呼麦, Traditional Chinese:呼麥), also spelled Xoomii, Xöömei, Xöömej, Khöömei, or Höömey, is a type of throat singing used in folk music from Tuva and Mongolia. ... Kargyraa is a deep, undertone technique used in Tuvan throat singing. ... Sygyt is a technique used in Tuvan throat-singing (xoomii) that utilizes a mid-range fundamental and produces a high-pitched, rather piercing harmonic reminiscent of whistling. ...

Altai - throat singing, which they call kai, used mostly in Epic poetry performance, to the accompaniment of topshur. Altai kai-chi perform in kargyraa, khöömei, sygyt styles, which are similar to Tuvan. They also have their own style, a very high harmonics, emerging from kargyraa. For the republic in Russia, see Altai Republic. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, which retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. ... Topshur is a northern turki (tuvans, altai, khakas) two-stringed musical instrument, a domra-kind. ... Kai-chi (altai) - narrator, the man who sings kai. ... Kargyraa is a deep, undertone technique used in Tuvan throat singing. ... Xöömej (Tuvan language: Хөөмей, Mongolian:choomi, Simplified Chinese:呼麦, Traditional Chinese:呼麥), also spelled Xoomii, Khoomei, Khöömei, or Höömey, is a type of throat singing used in folk music from Tuva and Mongolia. ... Sygyt is a technique used in Tuvan throat-singing (xoomii) that utilizes a mid-range fundamental and produces a high-pitched, rather piercing harmonic reminiscent of whistling. ...

Tibet - Tibetan Buddhist chanting is a sub-genre of throat singing. Most often the chants hold to the lower pitches capable in throat singing. Various ceremonies and prayers call for throat singing in Tibetan Buddhism, often with more than one monk chanting at a time. Studies measuring the frequencies of the throat singing and the brain waves of the monks have shown synchronicity in the brain, causing it to emit similar waves to those found in studies of silent meditation. Tibet (older spelling Thibet; Tibetan: བོད་, Bod, pronounced pö in Lhasa dialect; Chinese: 西藏, pinyin: Xīzàng or 藏区 Zàngqū [the two names are used with different connotations; see Names section below]) is a region in Central Asia and the home of the Tibetan people. ... Buddhist chant is chant used in or inspired by Buddhism, including many genres in many cultures: Repetition of the name of Amitabha in Pure Land Buddhism. ... Tibetan Buddhism — formerly (and incorrectly) also called Lamaism, after their religious gurus known as lamas — is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and the Himalayan region. ...

Uzbekistan, Karakalpakstan, Kazakhstan – The oration of these people's poetry sometimes enters the realm of throat singing. Karakalpakstan (Uzbek: Qoraqalpogiston Respublikasi or Қорақалпоғистон Республикаси; Karakalpak: Қарақалпақстан Республикасы or Qaraqalpaqstan Respublikası) is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. ...

Canada – The resurgence of a once-dying Inuit throat singing tradition is underway in Canada. The Nunatsiaq News, a newspaper of the Nunavik region of Arctic Quebec since 1973, reports on throat singing among the Inuit. ...

South Africa – Xhosa women of South Africa have a style of chanting that falls in the category of throat singing. The Xhosa people are a group of peoples of Bantu origins living in south-east South Africa. ...

Italy – sheep herders on the island of Sardinia use a style of polyphonic throat singing that dates back more than a thousand years. Tenores di Bitti, a contemporary Sardinian group. Sardinia (Sardigna, Sardinna or Sardinnia in the Sardinian language, Sardegna in Italian, Sardenya in Catalan), is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (Sicily is the largest), between Italy, Spain and Tunisia, south of Corsica. ... Tenores di Bitti “Mialinu Pira” • Omar Bandinu-Bassu • Marco Serra-Contra • Dino Ruiu-Oche e MEsu Oche • Bachisio Pira-Oche e Mesuoche (Italy) Directly from the heartland of Sardinia, the city of Bitti in the region of Barbagia, known for its polyphonic singing, which many experts find one of the...

America & the West – The 1920s Texan singer of cowboy songs, Arthur Miles, independently created a style of throat singing as a substitute for the normal yodeling of country western music. Starting in the 1970s, some musicians in the West either have collaborated with or ventured into the realm of throat singing, or both, some making original musical contributions and helping this art rediscover its transcultural universality. As harmonics are universal to all voices, the notion of authenticity is best understood in terms of musical quality. Musicians of note in this genre include Karlheinz Stockhausen, Ry Cooder, Paul Pena, David Hykes (who created the term "harmonic singing" in 1975), and Steve Sklar. Lester Bowie and Ornette Coleman both worked with the Tenores di Bitti, and Eleanor Hovda has written a piece using the Xhosa style of singing. DJs and performers of electronic music have also merged their music either with throat singing itself or with the theory of harmonics behind it. ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... ... Yodeling (or yodelling) is a form of singing that involves rapidly switching from the chest voice to the head voice making a high-low-high-low sound. ... Country music, also called country and western music or country-western, is an amalgam of popular musical forms developed in the Southern United States, with roots in traditional folk music, Celtic Music, Blues, Gospel music, and Old-time music. ... The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ... Karlheinz Stockhausen (born August 22, 1928) is a contemporary composer. ... Ry Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is a guitarist especially well known for his slide guitar work. ... Paul Pena on the cover of his album New Train Paul Pena (born January 26, 1950 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, died October 1, 2005, in San Francisco) is a multi-genre singer, pianist, and guitarist, performing Mississippi Delta blues, jazz, flamenco, folk, rock and roll and Tuvan throat-singing. ... David Hykes (1953 - ) is a musician, composer, author, experimental filmmaker and meditation teacher, and a principal pioneer in the modern harmonic, healing sounds and contemplative chant movements. ... Steve Sklar is one of the leading performers and teachers of khoomei, or Tuvan Throat-Singing, in the west. ... Lester Bowie (11 October 1941–8 November 1999) was a jazz trumpet player and composer. ... Ornette Coleman Ornette Coleman (born March 19, 1930) was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s, and one of the most notable figures in jazz history. ... Tenores di Bitti “Mialinu Pira” • Omar Bandinu-Bassu • Marco Serra-Contra • Dino Ruiu-Oche e MEsu Oche • Bachisio Pira-Oche e Mesuoche (Italy) Directly from the heartland of Sardinia, the city of Bitti in the region of Barbagia, known for its polyphonic singing, which many experts find one of the... Eleanor Hovda is a composer from the United States of America. ... The Xhosa people are a group of peoples of Bantu origins living in south-east South Africa. ... For other meanings of DJ, see DJ (disambiguation). ... Electronic music is a loose term for music created using electronic equipment. ...

Current throat singing artists

• Ay-Kherel from Tuva
• Huun-Huur-Tu from Tuva
• Hosoo from Mongolia
• Kongar-ol Ondar from Tuva
• Yat-Kha from Tuva
• Sainkho Namtchylak from Tuva
• Tanya Tagaq Gillis from Nunavut
• Tyva Kzya from Tuva
• Antoly Kuular from Tuva
• Kaigal-ool khovalyg from Tuva

Huun-Huur-Tu is a Tuvan throat singing group from Tuva, the region between Russia and Mongolia. ... Kongar-ol Ondar is a master Tuvan throatsinger and a member of the Tuvan Parliament. ... Yat-Kha is a rock band from Tuva, led by vocalist/guitarist Albert Kuvezin. ... Sainkho Namtchylak, Originally from Tuva, a small autonomous Russian republic just north of Mongolia. ... Tanya Tagaq Gillis is an Inuit throat singer from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. ...

Appearances in Western music

Tuvan throat singer Kongar-ol Ondar appears on the Bela Fleck and the Flecktones album Outbound, and also on their Live at the Quick DVD and CD. Throat singers have also performed on a recording by Frank Zappa as well as in Ry Cooder's soundtrack to the film Geronimo: An American Legend (1993). The lead singer of American punk rock band Mindless Self Indulgence has allegedly trained himself to throat sing. Tuvans (or Tuvinians) is a group of Turkic people, make up about two thirds of the population of Tuva. ... Kongar-ol Ondar is a master Tuvan throatsinger and a member of the Tuvan Parliament. ... Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is a primarily instrumental group that draws equally on bluegrass, fusion and jazz band, sometimes dubbed blue_bop. ... Outbound was the eighth album released by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, released in 2000. ... Live at the Quick was the ninth album released by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and their second non-studio album. ... Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, guitarist, singer and satirist. ... Ry Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is a guitarist especially well known for his slide guitar work. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Throat singing of uncertain origin (although possibly Tuvan) appears on the The_KLF album Chill_Out_(KLF_album) as well as the Shpongle single 'Divine Moments of Truth'. Jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin also uses the throat singing method in some of his songs, as can be seen in, for example, the track "Drive". KLFs Pyramid Blaster The KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front), more recently known as the K Foundation, also known as The Timelords, furthermore known as The JAMs, was one of the seminal bands around the time of the Acid House movement in Britain in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ... Chill Out is the title of a seminal 1990 ambient house album by British electronic group The KLF. The album is part ambient music for post-rave chill outs, part concept album - a mythical road trip (or perhaps train journey) up the U.S. Gulf Coast from Texas into Louisiana. ... Shpongle Are You Shpongled? Tales of the Inexpressible Shpongle Remixed Shpongle is considered to be one of the most important and influential psychedelic downtempo music projects of recent years. ... Bobby McFerrin (born New York City, March 11, 1950) is a jazz-influenced a cappella vocal performer and conductor. ...

Björk has collaborated extensively with the Canadian throatsinger Tanya Tagaq Gillis on her albums Medúlla and Drawing Restraint 9, the soundtrack to the film of the same name. She has also toured with the Icelandic popstar. Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir IPA: , (born November 21, 1965 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is an Icelandic singer/songwriter and composer with a great expressive range and an interest in many kinds of music including popular, trip-hop, alternative rock, jazz, electronica, folk, and classical music. ... Tanya Tagaq Gillis is an Inuit throat singer from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. ... Medúlla is an album by Icelandic singer/songwriter/musician Björk, which was released on 30 August 2004 (see 2004 in music). ... Matthew Barney and Björk in Drawing Restraint 9 Drawing Restraint 9 is an art film by American artist Matthew Barney, dealing with the relationship between creativity and self-imposed resistance. ...

See also

• The Sami people of Scandinavia, who sing joiks
• Jew's harp
• Inuit throat singing
• David Hykes
• David Lee Roth
• Genghis Blues, a documentary about an American musician Paul Pena's trip to Tuva to compete in a throat singing contest.

Sami flag The Sami people (also Sámi, Saami, Lapps and Laplanders) are an indigenous people of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, covering a total area in the Nordic countries corresponding to the size of Sweden. ... Jews harp, from an American Civil War camp near Winchester, Virginia Jews harp, Slovakia, Central Europe The Jews harp is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world. ... The Nunatsiaq News, a newspaper of the Nunavik region of Arctic Quebec since 1973, reports on throat singing among the Inuit. ... David Hykes (1953 - ) is a musician, composer, author, experimental filmmaker and meditation teacher, and a principal pioneer in the modern harmonic, healing sounds and contemplative chant movements. ... David Lee Roth, also known as Diamond Dave, (born October 10, 1954 in Bloomington, Indiana) is an American rock vocalist, best known for his work with Van Halen. ... Genghis Blues (1999) is a documentary film about the people of Tuva and features singer/guitarist Paul Pena and Tuvan throatsinger Kongar-ol Ondar. ... Paul Pena on the cover of his album New Train Paul Pena (born January 26, 1950 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, died October 1, 2005, in San Francisco) is a multi-genre singer, pianist, and guitarist, performing Mississippi Delta blues, jazz, flamenco, folk, rock and roll and Tuvan throat-singing. ...

External links

Listening

• UbuWeb Ethnopoetics: Tuvan Throat Singing
• UbuWeb Ethnopoetics: Canada Inuit Games and Songs
• http://www.stuff.co.uk/media/polar-relay/inuit.html
• Official site of David Hykes, creator of the term "harmonic singing"

Acoustics

• Harmonic singing vs. normal singing
• Acoustics of harmonic singing
• Scientific American: The Throat Singers of Tuva

Lessons and tutorials

• http://www.khoomei.com/ khoomei.com, Steve Sklar's Throat-singing site, with the world's only online throatsinging (khoomei) lessons
• EarthChant Tutorials and workshops in Boston, Massachusetts
• Friends of Tuva's How To's and Why's

• Brian Grover's Crash Course in Khoomei Downloadable Audio Tutorial