The Mysterious Melodies of Tuvan Throat SingingBy Harun Siddiqui
By: Harun Siddiqui
Nestled deep within the foothills of Tuva, an unmistakable note—is it just one?—rings out. The open landscape of the Tuvan Republic, just above Mongolia’s northern border, allows the sound to carry on for many leagues. The layered melody echoes the sounds of the natural surroundings—animals, mountains, streams, and the harsh winds of the steppe. The skilled singer feels the note deep within his chest, strengthened by centuries of tradition and an intense personal connection with nature.
Tuvan throat singing, or khöömei, as it is known by its performers, is an ancient tradition developed by the nomadic herdsmen of Central Asia people who lived in yurts, rode horses, raised yaks, sheep and camels, and had a close spiritual relationship with nature. Singers use their voices to mimic and interact with the sounds of the natural world—whistling birds, bubbling streams, blowing wind, or the deep growl of a camel. Distinct from other styles of music, khöömei is marked by the production of one or more high-pitched overtones overlying a deep and resonant fundamental frequency. The low fundamental is kept constant, while the harmonics of the note are modulated in order to create an alluring melody.
The Tuvan style of making music is based on the appreciation of complex sounds with multiple layers and textures. To the Tuvan vocalist, a perfectly pure tone is not as compelling as one that contains nuance and timbre, or one that contains hums, buzzes, or extra pitches that coexist with the main note being sung. This is reflected in the design of Tuvan instruments such as the igil and the xomus (jaw harp) which are created and played to produce such multi-textured sounds as well.
Throat singing is further organized into various subcategories, each one with its own unique timbre. The first is khöömei, sometimes used as an umbrella term for all styles that can also refer to a middle-range style with an airy whistle floating above the fundamental pitch, like wind swirling among rocks. Next is sygyt, a high-pitched style with a sharp whistling sound floating above the fundamental, evoking the gentle breezes of summer or the songs of birds. Then, completely unlike the aforementioned, is kargyraa, a low-pitched style with a growling undertone below the fundamental pitch, as well as higher overtones. This one resembles the howling of winter winds or the cries of a mother camel after losing her calf. Besides these main three, more specific sub styles exist such as borbangnadyr, a variant of sygyt that adds a trilling or rolling effect with rapidly changing harmonics, suggesting a bubbling stream or the rapids of a river. Finally, it must be acknowledged that ezenggileer, a variant of khöömei, contains a pulsing rhythm which evokes horseback riding, a trotting horse, or a whip tapping silver stirrups.
In recent years, Tuvan throat singing has surged in popularity in the West, in part due to the advent of globalization of the 21st century. Notably, the late physicist Richard Feynman developed an obsession with visiting Tuva during his final cancerous years. Though he failed in his attempt because of the then-Soviet government’s bureaucratic hindrances, he was incredibly important in bringing the art of Tuvan throat singing to the attention of Americans and Europeans.
It is important to note that Tuvans are not the only people with a culture of throat singing. Rather, both the Inuit of northern Canada and the Xhosa of southern Africa developed their own styles of throat singing separately from the Tuvans. Both of these societies differ from Tuva in that throat singing is practiced primarily or exclusively by women. Female throat singing was previously discouraged in Tuva because of the unfounded belief that the act could cause infertility; this taboo has recently started to break down and there are now several prominent female throat singers. The fact that this ancient tradition is capable of adapting to the times suggests that throat singing is an inextricable part of Tuvan culture and will live on long in the future.
