In Altay, Khakassia, and western Mongolia, the guttural tones of throat-singing once again served as a medium for epic-narrative performance. By the early 21st century, throat-singing was once again used to lull babies to sleep, lure wild and semidomesticated animals, help gain the favour of the spirit of the place, and summon shamanic spirits and Buddhist gods. Traditional uses were revived after the dissolution of the communist governments in Russia and Mongolia in the early 1990s. Consequently, the tradition was taught in schools, performed in theatres, and cultivated through competitions. Initially forbidden by the communist regimes of the first half of the 20th century on account of its ritual and ethnic associations and because it was considered a “backward” practice, throat-singing became re-established as a national art form during the 1980s in both Mongolia and Russia. None of these practices, however, involves the manipulation of harmonics that characterizes the Altai-Sayan traditions.
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A form of throat-singing is also used by Tibetan Buddhist monks of the Dge-lugs-pa sect during ritual performances and by the Inuit ( Eskimos) of northern Canada during vocal games. There are also isolated traditions elsewhere-for instance, among the Bashkirs of the republic of Bashkortostan in southwestern Russia and among Xhosa women and girls in south-central South Africa. Indigenous peoples in Altay, Khakassia, and Tyva call throat-singing kai, khai, and khöömei, respectively. In the western Mongolian Altai, throat-singing is called höömii (also khöömii or xöömii) and is practiced traditionally by the western Khalkha, Bait, and Altay Uriangkhai peoples. The region embraces many nomadic and seminomadic peoples who share the musical practice of using harmonically rich vocal timbres, such as those employed in throat-singing, to communicate with both the natural and supernatural worlds. These communities are part of the broader cultural area of Inner Asia, which lies at the intersection of the rolling steppes and snowcapped mountains between Central Asia and East Asia and encompasses portions of three geopolitical systems: Mongolia, Russia (the republics of Khakassia, Tyva, Altay, and Buryatia), and China (the autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia and Tibet). Throat-singing originated among the indigenous Turko-Mongol tribes of the Altai and Sayan mountains of southern Siberia and western Mongolia. Origin, distribution, and contexts of performance As with operatic singing, the technique requires years of training to master. Throat-singing necessitates activating different combinations of muscles to manipulate the resonating chambers of the vocal tract under sustained pressurized airflow from the stomach and chest. Originally called overtone-singing in Western scholarly literature, the identification by acoustical researchers of the presence of harmonics below the vocal drone in the deep, guttural styles as well as overtones in the more melodic styles led to adoption of the term throat-singing (a translation of the Mongolian term höömei). In some styles, harmonic melodies are sounded above a fundamental vocal drone.
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Throat-singing, also called overtone-singing, a range of singing styles in which a single vocalist sounds more than one pitch simultaneously by reinforcing certain harmonics ( overtones and undertones) of the fundamental pitch.
POLYPHONIC OVERTONE SINGING HOW TO
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