Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing, polyphonic overtone singing, or diphonic singing, is a singing technique in which the vocalist produces two distinct musical pitch at the same time.
From a fundamental pitch made by a human voice, harmonic can be selectively amplified through manipulating the dimensions and the shape of the resonant cavities of the mouth and the pharynx.[Titze 2008][Titze 1994][Pariser & Zimmerman 2004]
Overtone singing should not be confused with throat singing, although many throat singing techniques include overtone singing. While overtone singing involves careful manipulation of the vocal tract, throat singing mostly involves the voice source.
Asia
Mongolia and Buryatia
It is thought that the art of overtone singing originated in southwestern
Mongolia (modern
Khovd Province and Govi Altai region). Overtone singing can be found throughout the country and Mongolia is often considered the world's most active area.
[Sklar, 2005] The most commonly practiced style, (Cyrillic: хөөмий), comes in these varieties:
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/ labial khöömii
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/ palatal khöömii
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/ nasal khöömii
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/ glottal, throat khöömii
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/ chest cavity, stomach khöömii
-
/ khöömii combined with long song
Mongolians also have many other singing styles, such as (literally, "growling") and .
Tuva
Tuvan overtone singing is practiced in the Republic of
Tuva (southern Siberia, Russia).
The Tuvan method of singing overtones is based on appreciation of complex sounds with multiple layers or textures. Tuvans have developed a wide range of rhythmic and melodic styles. Most are sung with (literally, "with chest voice"). Styles include:
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(which also uses a second sound source made by false vocal folds called "false-folds-diplophony")
Other sub-styles include:
-
(a unique type of vibrato, mainly applied to khöömei and kargyraa styles)
The melodies are traditionally created by using the 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th and sometimes the 16th , which form the major pentatonic scale, so the 7th and 11th harmonics are carefully skipped.
The most peculiar melody from the Tuvan tradition is "", mostly performed in kargyraa style.
Altai and Khakassia
Tuva's neighbouring Russian regions, the
Altai Republic to the west and
Khakassia to the northwest, have developed forms of throat singing called kai (,
qay) or khai (,
xay). In Altai, this is used mostly for
epic poetry, with the instrumental accompaniment of a
topshur. Altai narrators () perform in kargyraa, khöömei, and sygyt styles, which are similar to those in Tuva. They also have their own style with very high harmonics, related to kargyraa. Variations of kai are:
The first well-known kai-chi was Alexei Kalkin.
Chukchi Peninsula
The
Chukchi people of the Chukchi Peninsula in the extreme northeast of Russia also practice a form of throat singing.
Tibet
is a subgenre of throat singing, mainly practiced by monks of Tibet, including Khokhonor (
Qinghai) province in the
Tibetan Plateau area, Tibetan monks of
Nepal,
Bhutan,
India, and various locations in the
Himalayas region. Most often the chants hold to the lower pitches possible in throat singing. Various ceremonies and prayers call for throat singing in
Tibetan Buddhism, often with more than one monk chanting at a time. There are various Tibetan throat singing styles, such as Gyuke ( Wylie: ), which uses the lowest pitch of voice; Dzoke (མཛོ་སྐད་ ); and Gyer (གྱེར་ ).
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
The poet-musicians of Kazakhstan and the Uzbek region of
Karakalpakstan, known as , employ throat singing in their epic poetry recitations, accompanied by the
dombra.
singers believe that the ability to throat-sing is an innate gift of selected Kazakhs, and that it cannot be taught.
Besides zhirau, there is another form of throat singing, "Kömeimen än aituw (Көмеймен ән айту)", in Kazakhstan. This technique is similar to throat singing in Altai Republic. Kömeimen än aituw is being revived by the Kazakh ethno-folk musical bands HasSak and Turan ensemble, after Kazakhs believed that this form of throat singing might have died out because of Russian conquest.
Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan
Balochi Nur Sur is one of the ancient forms of overtone singing and is still popular in parts of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, especially the Sulaiman Mountains.
Kurdistan
Dengbêj, the Kurdish-Yazidi style of bardic chanting, often incorporates overtones as part of the chant, and in a way which is distinct from other forms of overtone singing. Nick Hobbs's 2020 article "Dengbêj—Kurdish long song and overtone singing" discusses the use of overtones in dengbêj in detail. Dengbêj is largely a traditional style of Turkish Kurdistan and practitioners are mostly Anatolian. Dengbêj singers often also sing Kurdish folk song but overtones can rarely be heard in Kurdish traditional music outside of dengbêj.
Europe
Sardinia
On the island of
Sardinia (
Italy), especially in the subregion of
Barbagia, one of the two styles of polyphonic singing is marked by the use of throat singing. This kind of choir is called "singing
Tenores". The other style, known as
cuncordu, does not use throat singing. Cantu a Tenore is practiced by groups of four male singers, each of whom has a distinct role; the
'oche or
boche (pronounced or , "voice") is the solo voice, while the
mesu 'oche or
mesu boche ("half voice"),
contra ("against"), and
bassu ("bass")—listed in descending pitch order—form a
Choir (another meaning of
tenore).
Boche and
mesu boche sing in a regular voice, while
contra and
bassu sing with the false vocal folds, just like the Tuvan Khoomei and Kargyraa techniques. In 2005,
Unesco classed the
cantu a tenore as an intangible world heritage.
[Bandinu 2006.] The best-known groups who perform a Tenore are from Bitti, Orosei, Oniferi, and Neoneli. Each town has usually more than one group, and its name is based on a specific place or monument and its hometown, for example Tenore Su Remediu (place) de Orosei (town).
Northern Europe
The
Sami people of the northern parts of
Sweden,
Norway,
Finland, and the
Kola Peninsula in
Russia have a singing genre called
yoik. While overtone techniques are not a defining feature of yoik, its singers sometimes use them.
Bashkortostan
The
Bashkirs of
Bashkortostan, Russia, have a style of overtone singing called
özläü (sometimes spelled
uzlyau;
Bashkir language Өзләү), which has nearly died out. Bashkorts also sing uzlyau while playing the kurai flute, a national instrument. This technique of vocalizing into a flute can also be found in folk music as far west as the
Balkans and
Hungary.
Andalusia
In Flamenco's
Cante Jondo singers often include overtonal color at the end of phrases. This may have originated as a way of facilitating sustain and then become an appreciated ornamentation in its own right.
Carmen Linares and
Duquende, among others, often incorporate overtones.
Africa
South Africa
Some
Thembu people Xhosa people women of
South Africa have a low, rhythmic style of throat-singing, similar to the Tuvan Kargyraa style, called umngqokolo. It is often accompanied by call-and-response vocals and complicated polyrhythms.
Non-traditional styles
Canada, United States, and Europe
The 1920s
Texas singer of cowboy songs
Arthur Miles independently created a style of overtone singing, similar to sygyt, as a supplement to the
yodeling of
Country music. Blind Willie Johnson, also of Texas, is not a true overtone singer according to National Geographic, but his ability to shift from guttural grunting noises to a soft lullaby is suggestive of the tonal
of overtone singing.
Starting in the 1960s, some Western musicians collaborated with traditional throat singers and/or ventured into throat singing themselves. Some made original musical contributions. As harmonics are universal to all physical sounds, the notion of authenticity is best understood in terms of musical quality. Musicians of note in this genre include Collegium Vocale Köln (which began using this technique in 1968), Michael Vetter, , David Hykes,[Bellamy and MacLean 2005, 515.] Jill Purce, Jim Cole, Ry Cooder, Paul Pena (mixing traditional Tuvan style with American blues), Steve Sklar, and Kiva (specializing in jazz/world beat genres and composing for overtone choirs). Others include composer Baird Hersey and his group Prana with Krishna Das (overtone singing and Hindu mantra) and Canadian songwriter Nathan Rogers, who has become an adept throat singer and teaches throat singing in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Paul Pena was featured in the documentary Genghis Blues, which tells the story of his pilgrimage to Tuva to compete in its annual throat-singing competition. The film won the documentary award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar in 2000.
Tuvan singer Sainkho Namtchylak has collaborated with free jazz musicians such as Evan Parker and Ned Rothenberg. Lester Bowie and Ornette Coleman have worked with the Tenores di Bitti and Eleanor Hovda has written a piece using the Xhosa people style of singing. Disc jockey and performers of electronic music like The KLF have also merged their music with throat singing, overtone singing, or the theory of harmonics behind it.
Trần Quang Hải, a researcher on overtone singing since 1969 in Paris, France, has published many articles, videos on overtone singing from 1971. His 1989 film The Song of Harmonics, directed by Hugo Zemp, won prizes in Estonia, France, and Canada.
David Hykes founded Harmonic Chant in New York in 1975, the year he also founded his group The Harmonic Choir, considered one of the world's preeminent overtone ensembles.
Wolfgang Saus, of Germany,
A cappella singer Avi Kaplan has done overtone singing during his group Pentatonix's performances. He merged throat singing with a cappella dubstep.
The Overtone Choir Spektrum, of Prague, is unique among overtone choirs, particularly because it connects traditional choir singing with overtone techniques. It is the only one of its kind in the Czech Republic, and one of only a few in the world.
MuOM Ecstatic Voices is another unique and peculiar overtone singing choir. It combines in its own compositions, Western overtone singing, and Tuvan/Mongolian throat singing techniques (such as kargyraa, khoomei, sygyt, ezengiler, and bonbarnadyr). Created in Barcelona in 2008, with eight singers on average, it specializes in the creation of overtone polyphony (each singer emits an overtone) and the polyphony of the fundamentals, creating two distinguishable sound planes.
Sherden Overtone Choir was founded in 2016 in Sardinia by Ilaria Orefice and Giovanni Bortoluzzi. The choir combines Tuvan throat-singing styles with Sardinian throat-singing.
Contemporary multi-instrumentalist performer The Suitcase Junket employs a self-taught overtone singing or throat-singing technique.
Several contemporary classical composers have incorporated overtone singing into their works. Karlheinz Stockhausen was one of the first, with Stimmung in 1968. , a French national of Vietnamese origin, wrote "Về Nguồn" with the Vietnamese composer Nguyễn Văn Tường in 1975. "Past Life Melodies" for SATB chorus by Australian composer Sarah Hopkins also calls for this technique.
In 2014 German singer Anna-Maria Hefele went viral on YouTube with her "polyphonic overtone" singing. The Huffington Post wrote of her "amazing ability", calling her singing "utterly bizarre".
Istanbul-based British singer Nikolai Galen incorporates overtones into his experimental work. They can be heard on his solo album Emanuel Vigeland, the Black Paintings album Screams and Silence and the Hoca Nasreddin album A Headful of Birds.
See also
Notes
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Bandinu, Omar (2006). " Il canto a tenore: dai nuraghi all'Unesco", Siti 2, no.3 (July–September): 16–21.
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Bellamy, Isabel, and Donald MacLean (2005). Radiant Healing: The Many Paths to Personal Harmony and Planetary Wholeness. Buddina, Queensland (Australia): Joshua Books.
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Haouli, Janete El (2006). Demetrio Stratos: en busca de la voz-música. México, D. F.: Radio Educación – Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.
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Hefele, Eklund & McAllister (2019). "Polyphonic Overtone Singing: An Acoustic and Physiological (MRI) Analysis and a First-person Description of a Unique Mode of Singing". In: Mattias Heldner (ed.): Proceedings from Fonetik 2019, 10–12 June 2019, Stockholm, Sweden. PERILUS XXVII, , (print version), (electronic version), , pp. 91–96.
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Levin, Theodore C., and Michael E. Edgerton (1999). " The Throat Singers of Tuva". Scientific American 281, no. 3 (September): 80–87.
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Levin, Theodore, and Valentina Süzükei (2006). Where Rivers and Mountains Sing. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. .
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Pariser, David, and Enid Zimmerman (2004). "Learning in the Visual Arts: Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Individuals," in Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education, Elliot W. Eisner and Michael D. Day (editors). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 388. .
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Saus, Wolfgang (2004). Oberton Singen. Schönau im Odenwald: Traumzeit-Verlag. (German).
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Sklar, Steve (2005). "Types of throat singing"
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Titze, Ingo R. (1994). Principles of Voice Production. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Reprinted Iowa City: National Center for Voice and Speech, 2000. (NCVS.org) .
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Titze, Ingo R. (2008). "The Human Instrument". Scientific American 298, no. 1 (July):94–101. PM 18225701
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Tongeren, Mark C. van (2002). Overtone Singing: Physics and Metaphysics of Harmonics in East and West. Amsterdam: Fusica. (pbk), (cloth).
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Tran Quang Hai (2018) "50 Years of Research in Vietnamese Traditional Music and Overtone Singing". 462p, Tu Sach Khai Tri, California, USA,
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