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Nancy and I have been looking forward to this for weeks: Huun-Huur-Tu (also known as The Throat Singers of Tuva) in Cambridge at Sanders Theater. We've read everything there is about Tuva in my Lonely Planet Guide to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. We've heard only snippets of this music on Sound and Spirit on public radio but we are mesmerized by it. We are driven, obsessed, perseverating... we have got to hear this music...
A Washington Post article we found while browsing the Friends of Tuva site, gives a good description of the throat singing styles and biographical info about the members of Huun-Huur-Tu, so I won't write about that here.
You can hear a sample of Albert Kuvezin's throat-singing: "Mejegel Valley". It's not Huun-Huur-Tu, but you'll get the general idea.
The name Huun-Huur-Tu denotes a particular play of light through grass that occurs on the steppes just before sunrise or after sunset. The program notes translate it as "sun propeller". The program notes use a lot of ethnomusicology jargon about how the Tuvans use mimesis to emplace themselves in the topoi. How does that translate into Tuvan? The basic idea is that they imitate natural sounds and this makes them feel connected to the natural world around them - the steppes, the Yenisei River, etc. At least I think that's what it means. Academic jargon drives me nuts. But I forgive Ted Levin any sin of jargon-glutted writing in gratitude for his bringing Huun-Huur-Tu to the attention of the world music circuit in the US. The musicians kept calling him "our friend Ted", so the academic jargon doesn't bother them I guess. At the concert, Ted Levin introduced the songs and provided translations of the lyrics: a useful service.
These guys are fabulous. Besides singing two notes at once, they also played the igil (some kind of vertical fiddle), doshpuluur, xomus (mouth harp), shaman's drum, and various other percussion instruments. One number involved the specialist in the "rolling" style singing along with a DAT of a running stream, much as nomadic shepherds must've done (umm, with actual stream not DAT). The singers overtones blended with the overtones from the water creating layers of sound. They also played another DAT of singing in the wind on the steppes demonstrating a technique that involves letting the wind blow over the mouth in various positions. Way cool.
Some of the songs mimic horse or camel caravans traveling across the steps. They have a loping rhythm accentuated by percussion on actual horse hooves (boiled and dried for this purpose). It reminded me a little of cowboy music.
I am now hooked on this music.
Music: I'm listening to Huun-Huur-Tu's latest album, If I'd Been Born an Eagle as I write this.
Reading: Independent People by Halldor Laxness alternating with Bird watching with American Women: A Selection of Nature Writings edited by Deborah Strom. Weather: unseasonably warm and windy.
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