Phonology

    Tuva is a small Republic on the Siberian border of North-Western Mongolia. Most Westerners have never heard of it. But in that tiny country, the most incredible vocal technique has flourished and is now becoming more accessible to Western ears.

    The tradition is often called Khoomei, which roughly translates as "throat singing". The sound is unearthly, and to naïve ears it might not be recognized as song, or perhaps not even as human. It's so different from the western idea of singing that it might be mistaken as a groan combined with a whistle.  

    In the animistic religion of the region each waterfall's, each cliff's spirituality is associated with its sound, or the sound which a human being can elicit from it. Khoomei is sometimes referred to as harmonizing with a waterfall.

    What actually happens when someone sings in this unique style is that they are able to produce two (or more) notes at once. If you listen carefully to the voices of jazz singers Louis Armstrong or Cab Calloway, perhaps even occasionally Icelandic prima donna Bjork, you might hear a growl accompanying the melody. That's as close as you come to the incredible vocal harmonizing of Tuvan throat singing.

    The technique is produced in a number of ways, but each manipulates vocal overtones to create a second (or even third) sound. The basic technique consists of the singer singing a root note (usually a bass note), holding it, tightening the throat, and moving the tongue, jaw and palate around in order to manipulate harmonics (or overtones). Try it. If you can hear some higher pitched sounds moving about as you move your tongue and jaw about you've got the basics.

    What the Tuvan experts do, however, is manipulate this in such a way that the bass note is softened and the overtones (the higher pitched tones) come to the fore. They sound very much like a whistle or flute in the recordings I've heard. It would appear that men find it easier to do due to the fact that their root notes are deeper and richer in natural harmonics, but on investigation into the technique, we have a female expert here in the UK.

    Jill Purce, a pioneer of the style says  "I pioneered overtone chanting in the West after working with Stockhausen in 1971-2. David Hykes ,Tran Quang Hai and I were the first to do it and I was the first to teach it. Overtone chanting makes audible the natural harmonic spectrum of the voice in its pure rainbow colours, so that unearthly, angelic and bell-like tones are heard floating above the deep voices of the chanters".

    Purce states that singers with classical training are the most afraid of the technique as it is so different from anything they have been taught before. However, she adds "It is fundamental to the nature of voice, and so all singers should learn about it. Speech and Language Therapists should also know about it as it is essential for the understanding of speech."  The technique presses down on the larynx, something that trained singers are not used to, but Purce affirms that it has enormously improved her classical singing voice because it is based on a profound understanding of resonance. "It is also an excellent warm up for all singing styles or vocal work".

    In Tuva the tradition was not one that was taught formally, boys picked it up as they went along, learning it from their fathers. Women, until very recently were forbidden to take part as it was thought to cause infertility or bring about miscarriage by tightening the throat.

    Inuit women, however, have a similarly named technique, which instead of singing seems to be more of a rhythm and breath game, performed by two women facing each other, mouths almost touching. The winner of the game is the first one to laugh or lose their breath or rhythm.

    Although this is throat singing in that the throat is tightened there's no real melody to the resulting overtones. The sound is more like a series of rich rhythmic grunts and can be heard on Bjørk's ambum Medúlla. There are also reports of the Xhosa of South Africa having a similar tradition, and of Sardinian sheep herders using overtones although extant examples are more difficult to come by.

    A somewhat incongruous example of overtone singing comes from Texas in the 1920s. A cowboy singer, Arthur Miles (of whom very little is known) recorded a few songs which display fine examples of overtone singing. The usual variation in the cowboy music of this time was that of yodelling, but what Miles did was completely different, with a drone root note and high flutelike melody over his simple acoustic guitar backing. It would certainly be interesting to find out what the listeners of his era thought of his unique style.

    Despite the relative obscurity of throat singing it would appear that it is beginning to become better known through associations and collaborations with western music. If you own the KLF's Chill Out album (an ambient electronic classic) you'll hear it about half way through along with some goat bells and cries. Celtic Connections stars from two years back, Angelite (a Bulgarian female choir) have recorded with Tuvan artistes Huun Huur Tu and American folk singer Nina Nastasia toured the UK with them earlier this year. This year's Scottish music festival, Triptych, had a live improvisation by Yat Kha, a modern group from Tuva, who fuse traditional singing and instrumentation with rock music.

    Hearing these singers on record is a strange enough experience but actually watching a human being making this unearthly sound a matter of metres away is something you are likely to find yourself wanting to repeat. The focus of Yat Kha's sound is a rhythmic bass drone, hypnotic and driven by the instrumentation. When the vocalisation begins it's like being split apart by sound. The root note sung by Albert Kuvezin is unbelievably deep and rich, and when the overtones begin they are so clear and bright in tone it's almost impossible to believe they are being produced by the same person.

    Even vocal experts are puzzled as to the exact mechanics of the techniques despite an investigation by Scientific American. Classical singers and voice teachers have limited awareness of how to do it although they are aware of the existence of overtones in creating the tone or timbre of the voice. What makes throat singing unique is the way the singer manipulates the overtones to create a harmonisation with his own voice. Perhaps the next step is to take one of Jill Purce's workshops, held throughout the year in the UK, Europe and North America. Or maybe a journey to the heart of Asia, to Tuva, in the middle of nowhere.