Throat Singing: More Than Just a Song

So this one day, a whole two years ago, back when I was in college one of my best friend’s brothers showed up. Actually it was his twin brother and I can’t remember his name for the life of me. It was something like Dave or Ben or something like that. Ask anyone who knows me, I’m terrible with names. It’s definitely one of my many flaws. Anyway, this brother of a friend shows up and as most college latte sipping elitists do, we started talking about art, which of course lead into a conversation about music. (as if music isn’t art…) Now, for some reason, we had a didgeridoo in the house. Someone must have studied in Australia or something. (Why do all my entries have references to Australia when this is a blog about Central Asia?!) If you’re unfamiliar with the didgeridoo, it’s that Australian Aboriginal instrument that makes the deep hypnotic sounds that in all honesty, are really quite beautiful. Not only is the sound it creates beautiful, but the didgeridoo, painted using traditional Australian Aboriginal designs, is also very beautiful. The music is art, the instrument is art. It’s all good.

Ben, I’m pretty sure his name was Ben, started talking about how the interesting sound we hear in the didgeridoo is caused by overtones which are amplified through the long hollow instrument. This I found absolutely fascinating largely due to the fact that not too long before this conversation, I had returned from Mongolia, which of course is one of the homelands of throat singing. Throat singing, or overtone singing, does more or less the same thing a didgeridoo does. Just instead of utilizing a long tube, it makes the unique sounds with the vocal cavity. If one takes a properly tuned guitar and plucks partially pressed down strings, listens carefully, one can hear overtones. In throat singing the G below central C is usually used as a starting place and then through the shaping of the vocal cavity the 6^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, and 12^th notes are created as overtones. In other words, if a person sings the G, he would also produce So, Do, Re, Mi, and Sol in solfege. Ben’s presentation and explanation was good. All of us at the table nodded our heads in agreement not really knowing what we were agreeing to. But you know. We were in college and drinking lattes.

The next day I left for class. I don’t recall what classes I was taking that semester. No, I was not drunk, or for that matter, suffering from a hangover, Houghton is a Wesleyan School. I love it when Christians have a sense of humor. Hopefully the things I learned have stuck with me, but that’s debatable too. Regardless, when I got back home after classes that day, Ben had something to show me. I quote: “Scott I went online to Wikipedia and taught myself how to throat sing.” I was like, “now way.” But I sit here today and write, “it’s true one actually can learn how to throat by visiting Wikipedia and applying oneself to learning the skill”. To make a long story short, it was very impressive and I walked away with a new respect for Ben, throat singing, and the open source networking of Wikipedia.

In my last blog posting I briefly mentioned the art of throat singing. If you have never heard of, or really just heard throat singing in action your life remains a little less fulfilled than it should be. Throat singing is also referred to as “overtone singing”, and in the Tuvan language is called “Khoomei”. Mongolians say it originated in Mongolia and Tuvans say it originated in Tuva. Regardless, it definitely originated in Central Asia. While there are other forms of throatsinging performed around the world by different indigenous people groups such as the Inuit in far North East Siberia and Northern Alaska, Central Asian Khoomei is unique in how it utilizes overtones to illustrate a more thorough and complete world view. Wow, that was a mouthful, what on earth do I mean?

Coming from a Judeo-Christian cultural heritage, my world view is very different from the people of Central Asia who come from an Animistic cultural heritage. Having spent time in Central Asia and hoping to spend a good more amount of time there, I have an obligation to learn and understand the Central Asian world view. Therefore, to understand Khoomei, we need to also understand what animism is.

One summer I was volunteering with an NGO in Ulaan Baator, Mongolia. Before traveling to Mongolia I had read that Mongolia was a Buddhist nation. So I got out the books and read up on Buddhism only to arrive there and realize that Mongolia is not a Buddhist nation at all, but Animistic. Unfortunately, I had a very limited understanding of Animism. I was puzzled by the things I saw going on around me. For example, every morning the woman who lived in the yurt next door to me would get up and throw milk in the direction of the four winds. One day while traveling on the bus I noticed that all the yurts, regardless of what side of the road they were on, were all facing south. It was almost kinda spooky, as if the people were aware of things that I wasn’t.

Specifically I was volunteering at a camp on the northern edge of UB. One day at the camp three boys didn’t want to take their naps. I decided I would tire them out so we went to hike a local mountain. In Mongolia on all of the hills there are little mounds called orduu (Mongolian), where travelers will leave small offerings and walk clockwise around them 3 times to assure good luck for their journey. When I arrived at the top of this hill, sure enough there was an orduu. However, what was on top of that orduu had the most lasting effect upon me of all my experiences that summer.

Normally one will find offerings of money, horse heads, vodka… I was used to seeing those things, all of which were equally puzzling to me at that time. This time however, I found photocopied money. At first I thought it was somewhat humorous that someone would go through all the effort to photocopy money carry it up a mountain and put it here, but then I started to think. Perhaps I over analyze everything, but I was really puzzled as to why anyone would leave photocopied money on an altar. I started to combine everything I had learned so far about Animism and came to the conclusion that this person had left photocopied money on the Altar to trick the spirits into believing that he or she had actually given a costly offering. Hopefully the spirit wouldn’t know it’s only photocopied.

Animism in its most pure form is an acknowledgment and active manipulation of the spiritual realm. (That’s my definition) Basically, we’re looking at a world view that not only recognizes that spirits exist, but that they exist in many forms (river spirit, rock spirit, spirit of the blue sky…) that some are benevolent and some ill intended. Still, regardless of their disposition, if one offers the right offering or prays the right prayers he or she will be able to manipulate the spirits to be able to accomplish his or her own goals; whether that be an A on university exams or the successful birth of a new colt. (There is a whole different side of animism that utilizes magic, voodoo, the evil eye… these inanimate forms are not as common in Central Asia.)

Khoomei reflects the acknowledgment of this world view. The overtones produced are said to represent different ecological environments and therefore also represent the different spirits that occupy the according realms. A good example of the utilization of khoomei in Animism is in The Weeping Camel.

There is no consistent system for classifying Khoomei, but the most common styles include Khoomei (Хѳѳмей), Sygyt (Сыгит), Kargyraa (Каргыраа), Kanzat (Канзат), Chylandyk (Чыландык), Dumchuktaar (Думчуктаар), and Ezengileer (Эзеңгилээр). Where, Khoomei is used as a general term for throat singing, it can also refer to a more specific form utilizing the midrange of one’s voice representing wind swirling around rocks. Sygyt uses a midrange base, but harmonizes high pitch sounds representing summer breezes and the songs of birds. Kargyraa utilizes a very deep base tone and can produce 4 to 6 tones simultaneously. It represents the mountains. Kanzat represents the howling wind or the cries of a camel after losing her calf. Chylandyk is a combination of Sygyt and Kargyraa used to represent the chirping of crickets. Dumchuktaar is nasal throatsinging where one actually creates the sound through the nasal cavity as opposed to the vocal. Ezengileer (my personal favorite) mimics the sound of a horse galloping across the Central Asian steppe (1).

Bands such as Huun-Huur and movie/documentaries such as Genghis Blues have made throat singing famous in North America and throughout the world. Throat singing is a beautiful form of artwork and personally I love it. Still, I think it’s vitally important that all who listen understand the multiple levels (verbal, spiritual, historical, and natural) on which khoomei is speaking.

Many of the Mongolian songs that are sung are actually epics through which history is passed down intergenerationally and committed to memory. These epics can be hundreds of verses long and take hours to recite. (Then again, there’s not a whole lot to do on a cold winter’s night stuck in little yurts on the Mongolian steppe.)

I grew up in New York State and I remember in my childhood hearing and singing songs about the Erie Canal as well as the fisherman’s life in Nova Scotia (my Grandpa was from Halifax). These songs carry more meaning to me than just the syntactic meaning of the words. They draw me to a geographical location and have a sense of familiarity with which I can associate. While I cannot say that they also hold a spiritual meaning, as does Khoomei, I would hope that anyone who is listening to my folk music would listen with a desire to learn.

Furthermore, when one is willing to learn and respect other cultures and belief systems it does not mean that he or she needs to assimilate or syncretize his or her beliefs with the ones being learned about. In my own beliefs I acknowledge the spiritual realm. I am a follower of Jesus and the Bible is full of events where Jesus, the apostles, and others are constantly interacting with spirits. Furthermore, I do not have to fear things that do not match up with my beliefs or express beliefs in different ways. The essence of tolerance is an acknowledgment of the fact that there actually are differences between peoples. A Biblical world view promotes the idea God is in the process of redeeming all things, both humanity and creation.

As boundaries are broken and the world becomes more and more pluralistic it is exciting to see all the different forms of art that have emerged throughout the past few millennium. The task at hand in the 21st century is to recognize the beauty and help it get due recognition.