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Face Music - Traditional Singing technique - Khakass people |
- Catalog (on stock) - Profil MySpace P & C December 1998 - last update 04-2010 |
Singing techniques: - Khai is one of the oldest forms of overtone singing and throat-singing from the Sayano-Altai tribe, using only the lowest and highest register. It's a traditional men's singing technique (singer and storyteller = khaigee) for native epic legends. The khaigee perform in khai singing, which is a part of the traditional cultural heritage, when they ride on a horse or walk on its side. The singing can be accompanied on the chatkhan or the khomys. The performance may last up to several days and nights. The Khakass repertory for vocal and instrumental performances comprises i.g. national melodies, sad and tragic melodies, tales, stories, true epics, traditional songs, modern songs, short poems that generally have eight lines, proverbs, wise phrases and idioms, poems, puzzles, fiction stories, anecdotes, true stories, prayers, thanksgivings, desires and requests. - Sygyt means 'to whistle' and it is the highest, brightest style of overtone singing, in which the highest register of the voice is used. (In nature every sound has overtones, even the whistling of the wind has its harmonics). - Karkiraa is the lowest sound a human voice can emanate. It must rise from the deepest part of the windpipe and resonate in the chest. - Koomoi is another kind of overtone singing with two notes – the highest and the lowest – produced at the same time. A master of koomoi is even able to produce three tones at the same time. Overtone singing can also be heard from Turkic-speaking tribes in disparate parts of central Asia. The Bashkir musicians from the Ural Mountains call their style of overtone singing uzlyau; the Khakass call it khai and the Tuvinians khoomei. Up to date, overtone singing is a common feature of Siberian peoples as well as the Kazakhs and Mongolian tribes. Overtone or throat singing is a special technique in which a single vocalist produces two distinct tones simultaneously. One tone is a low, sustained fundamental pitch (a kind of drone) and the second is a series of flutelike harmonics, which resonate high above this drone. Who masters this singing technique may even make the overtone sound louder then the fundamental pitch, so the drone is not audible anymore. A different technique often used by overtone singers combines a normal glottal pitch with the low frequency, pulselike vibration known as vocal fry. The Turkic tribes in the Altai use to sing their texts in such a low vocal fry register of about 25-20 Hz. |
