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Throat singing, or khoomii from the Mongolian
word for throat, is a form of singing developed centuries
ago by nomads in a region called Tuva, an independent
republic between Mongolia and Siberia, though it is practiced
in the Altai region of western Mongolia. The practice is said
to have originated in a contest between rural herdsmen to
see how far could get voices to carry through valleys, which
has since developed into an annually held competition in Tuva.
The songs that are produced are inspired by the natural sounds
of the Mongolian landscape, and supposedly mimic noises such
as trickling streams and howling winds. The tradition is linked
to the Mongolian belief in animism, that natural object
have souls or are inhabited by spirits and by mimicking these
sounds, humans can harness the powers of these spirits.
The Science of the Throat
The sound of throat singing is incredibly unusual. It has
been described rather as vocal or noise creating breathing
games. It involve a single singer producing two or three notes
simultaneously, usually a low and sustained background note,
with a series of melodic notes overlaid, and which can be
stylised to duplicate the natural sound desired. The end result
is a slightly eerie and repetitive but strangely fascinating
tune. Mongolian throat singing has begun to achieve international
fame, and professional ensembles, such as the Huun-Huur-Tu,
have gained a kind of celebrity like status within their own
country, and around the world.
Like much else in Mongolia, throat singing is surrounded
by superstition. Practitioners believe that they must be in
uplifted mood, and that soul and spirit must be strong for
singing to be successful. There is also something of a taboo
against women participating in throat singing due to an enduring
belief that it causes infertility, though this superstition
is gradually diminishing.
Other Tribal Throat Singers
A few other central Asian countries have similar traditions;
some forms of Buddhist chanting have the structure of a series
of harmonic sung over a fundamental, single pitch. More interestingly,
the other practitioners of this bizarre musical method are
the Inuit, or Eskimos, or the Northern reaches of America,
a small group known as the Xosa of South Africa and
the Ainu of Northern Japan, until late last century.
The wide dispersal of these isolated groups is explained by
the wide spread immigration of these nomadic people hundreds
of thousands of years ago. Of these groups we know most about
the Inuit, where the singing is performed by the women rather
than the mean, and is believed to have originally been used
to entertain children.
Drawling Songs
Another traditional form of singing which is still practised
is urtyn-duu, generally referred to as long songs (some
songs are as long as 20,000 verses!) or drawling songs.
Probably influenced by ancient Chinese traditions, these songs
involve the relation of traditional rural love stories, which
would have been sung while galloping across the steppes on
horseback. Like throat singing, it involves complicated, and
drawn out vocal sounds unlike anything else. |
