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12ЭТНОМУЗЫКОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ
УДК 001.4+784 (571.52)
DOI: 10.24412/3034-1418-2024-1-51-63
ORCID: 0009-0000-9169-3145
Towards a Deeper Understanding of Xoomei Terminology
Mark van Tongeren
Independent Researcher, Taiwan
Abstract. Before the middle of the twentieth century, xoomei began its journey from Tuva into European Russia, gradually becoming known in limited circles of music aficionados. By the end of the twentieth century, xoomei had become known all over the world in many settings and musical styles far removed from its origins. During this process xoomei has been presented and represented using various terms. The first was the Russian term 'throat singing' (gorlovoe penie), as in Aksyonov's ground-breaking study of Tuvan music (1964). Terms that have been introduced later on include 'bourdon-overtone music', 'overtone singing', 'timbral (vocal) art', and others. This article examines the strengths and weaknesses of each popular term, emphasising criticisms in academic literature in recent years. The problems emerging from using one term or another is located in the tension between a desire for better representation of indige nous knowledge versus movements towards better global representation. After a consideration of the learning path of non-Tuvan students of xoomei techniques, a case is made for using a plurality of terms that are as specific as possible depending on a given context.
Keywords: xoomei, definitions, terminologies, throat singing, drone-overtone music, historical development, globalization.
For citation: van Tongeren, Mark (2024). Towards a deeper understanding of xoomei terminology, In Khoomei and Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Central Asia, no. 1(1), pp. 51-63.
К вопросу о терминологии хоомея
Марк ван Тонгерен
Независимый исследователь, Тайвань
Аннотация. Еще до середины ХХ века хоомей начал свой путь из Тувы в европейскую часть России, постепенно становясь известным в ограниченных кругах любителей музыки. К концу XX века хоомей стал известен во всем мире во многих контекстах и музыкальных стилях, далеких от его истоков. В ходе этого процесса данный вид искусства был представлен и определен с исполь-
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зованием различных терминов. Первым был русский термин «горловое пение», использованный в новаторском исследовании тувинской музыки А. Н. Аксеновым (1964). В дальнейшем были введены термины «бурдонно-обертоновая музыка», «обертонное пение», «тембровое (вокальное) искусство» и другие. В данной статье рассматриваются сильные и слабые стороны каждого популярного термина, подчеркивая критику в научной литературе за последние годы. Проблемы, возникающие в результате использования того или иного термина, заключаются в противоречии между стремлением к лучшему представлению знаний коренных народов и движением к лучшему глобальному представительству. После рассмотрения пути обучения студентов не тувинской национальности методам хоомея обосновывается необходимость применения множества терминов, которые являются как можно более конкретными в зависимости от данного контекста.
Ключевые слова: хоомей, определения, термины, горловое пение, гудящая музыка, историческое развитие, глобализация.
Для цитирования: ван Тонгерен, М. К вопросу о терминологии хоомея // Хоомей и культурное наследие народов Центральной Азии. 2024. № 1(1). С. 51-63. (in English)
Introduction
The art of Tuvan xoomei was noticed by linguists, travelers and explorers starting in the nineteenth century, and began to attract attention in Moscow in the first half the twentieth century. Around the middle of the twentieth century, it began to gain wider acceptance in Russia, then the rest of the world, through articles, record albums and concerts. In the decades since, academic and popular discussion among an ever widening group of people made use of different terms and concepts to represent xoomei, such as throat singing, overtone singing, drone-polyphony and timbral-vocal art. Particularly in academia, criticisms were put forward for each general term that has been used to designate xoomei, because of a misrepresentation of the indigenous understandings of this cluster of vocal techniques, or because of music-theoretical considerations. In this article I will present an overview of the different perspectives and propositions on these questions and assess what we can learn from the advantages and disadvantages of each term. To conclude I reflect on what this question means from an indigenous and globalised perspective.
Term 1: Xoomei
The starting point for this discussion is xoomei. Following several earlier scholars, A.N. Aksyonov (Aksyonov, 1964), was the first to take up a thorough study of Tuvan folk music and its unique vocal techniques. In an article published during his life, and in the much more extensive monograph published posthumously, he introduced xomei as the generic term, but somewhat curiously left it out in the four specific techniques he discussed in detail. He only mentioned that in one place xomei replaced borbannadyr. This seems to indicate that xoomei as a specific style or technique was not known among the communities where he gathered data and that, in the case it was known under that name, it was the same as present-day borbangnadyr.
What we have then, at the outset, is an umbrella term, xoomei, and specific techniques such as sygyt, borbangnadyr and kargyraa in Tuva. It should be noted that publications of the early second half of the twentieth century dealing with Mongolian music also used xoomii as the overarching term. In the Mongol context another key term is xarxiraa, which is shared among Turkic and Mongol languages but is often considered parallel (and not subordinate) to Mongol xoomii. In modern Tuvan conversation xoomei-sygyt-kargyraa are often strung together as if they are one expression. From now on I here use xoomei not as one of several techniques, but as a single, overarching term that could cover all other Tuvan techniques.
Term 2: Throat Singing With the first scholarly descriptions of xoomei, the term throat singing arrived to supposedly designate the same thing in the words of other languages. It did so first of all by means of the Russian language, which translated xoomei as gorlovoe penie, and this subsequently became throat singing, Kehlgesang, chant de gorge and other translations (for now, I will not consider French, German, etc. terms that have been used). A similar, alternative term was gortannoe penie (Ikhtisamov, 1984), which is more scientific and precise since it specifically designates the larynx, and not the whole of the throat: in English it translates as laryngeal singing. The general idea was that gorlovoe penie and gortannoe penie are proper translations of xoomei and aptly put the emphasis on the throat.
The main reason for its use lies in its claim to be the etymologically correct rendering of xoomei. Linguists, like Boris Tatarintsev (Tatarintsev, 1998) explain that the root ko or xo may refer, in Mongol languages, to various anatomical terms related to the human apparatus for speech and song: throat, pharynx, naso-pharynx, base of hard palate; in addition, these root syllables refer to the uvula or hard palate in Turkic languages (Ta-tarintsev, 1998: 64- 66). The unusually high tension on the vocal cords is another reason for referring to xoomei as 'throat singing.' It is obvious that something happening in the throat, in particular extreme forms of tension, make xoomei stand out from nearly if not all other known vocal techniques.
Term 3: Drone-Overtone Music A link is often drawn between throat singing and related musical techniques. The earliest modern description of a technique similar to xoomei was made by Manuel Garcia in 1847 and based on Bashkir ozlyau. He mentioned the similarity of the sounds of this vocal technique with those of the Jew's harp (Garcia, 1847: 13). This analogy has been drawn several times in European references to xoomei and xoomii in the 1960s and 1970s, usually based on associative, not anthropological evidence. A.N. Aksyonov (Aksyo-nov, 1964) did base himself on ethnomusicological evidence, when he noted that the Tu-vans mentioned the close musical-technical relationship between xoomei and xomus.
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They did so to emphasize the importance of the musical qualities of the vocal sounds, and to deny the association with shamanistic beliefs.
Valentina Suzukei took this point further with her 1993 book The Drone-Overtone Basis of Traditional Instrumental Musicianship of the Tuvans (Suzukei, 1993). Here she proposed this terminology as an aesthetic concept and a theoretical approach representing the mindset of Tuvan musicians engaged in making music with a bourdon (drone) and overtones. When compared to the term 'throat singing', 'drone-overtone music' drives attention away from physiology or anatomy, and shifts it to questions of musical organisation and sound morphology. It emphasizes xoomei's characteristic reliance on an incessant bourdon, accompanied by melodic variations above it: drone-overtone music, drone-polyphony, drone-multiphony, and so on. It broadens the scope to include instruments that employ drones and which are well represented in Turkic and Mongolian musical genres. To name a few closely related examples: flutes (Bashkir kurai, Mongolian tsuur), fiddles (Xakass yyx, Tuvan igil, Mongolian morin xuur), lutes (Tuvan doshpuluur, shanzy, Altai tovshuur, Mongolian topshuur), Jew's harps (Mongolian aman xuur, Tuvan and Yakut xomus). These are all testimony to a musical practice based on a drone with overtones, similar to Tuvan / Mongolian xoomei / xoomii, with widespread geographical dissemination.
Term 4: Overtone Singing
In the English-speaking world, 'overtone singing' has become one of the most widely used designations for xoomei and other methods and styles to reinforce the overtones in the human voice. It was first used around 1970 and became widely known in the 1980s, when several European and American singers successfully presented these techniques to new audiences, usually without reference to its traditional forms. Just like 'bourdon-overtone music', its emphasis is on a musical element. Unlike 'bourdon-overtone music', it does not require the bass note to be a drone, and shifts all emphasis on the overtones. One benefit of this term, compared to bourdon-overtone music, is its easy use as a verb. Furthermore, what counts most for non-indigenous listeners (global audiences and non-specialised researchers), is that the perception of the overtones stands out when listening to xoomei. These two reasons make the term attractive as a convenient reference to xoomei and other techniques based on similar acoustic-phonetic principles of resonance.
The ascent of this term moved in parallel with the development of a non-traditional counterpart of Tuvan xoomei: the new, occidental forms overtone singing techniques that Western composers and performers began to develop. Even more so than 'throat singing', 'overtone singing' provided a ready concept to group different kinds of vocal tec h-nique that use vocal harmonics together under one umbrella, from Tuvan xoomei and Tibetan dzo-ke of Gyuto monks to European and American styles.
Term 5: Timbral Vocal Art
When drone-overtone music or overtone singing or throat singing are discussed, mention is often made of timbre or sound colour, which forms an integral part of explaining these techniques. For every one of the above terms, authors have made use of timbre to explain the principles of xoomei. I have also repeatedly made a case for there-appreciation of timbre in relation to xoomei and other kinds of overtone singing (For example van Tongeren, 2023, van Tongeren, forthcoming). Timbre is an ignored musical parameter in euro-centred art music (which for centuries favoured pitch, duration and dynamics). To compensate for this lack of attention, aspects of colour, timbre and the entire sound spectrum have received more emphasis in recent years. Like 'drone-overtone music', terms like 'timbral music' bind together a structural aspect of the sonic qualities of a large group of vocal and instrumental techniques. But rather than isolating two elements, the drone and its overtones, it emphasises how musicians work on, manipulate and listen to many details in the entire frequency spectrum of voices and instruments. In 2002, Cornelia Fales wrote an influential article to highlight timbre in several kinds of traditional music where overtones feature prominently, thus binding timbre and overtones together (Fales, 2002). Timbre-centred music, as opposed to pitch-centred music, has since become a powerful concept to unravel the complexities of Tuvan music (Levin & Suzukei, 2006: 45-72).
It is worthwhile to refer to Mongolia once more, where Johanii Curtet has made thorough study of xoomii. The title of his Ph.D. thesis is La Transmission du Hoomij, un Art du Timbre Vocal: Ethnomusicologie et Histoire du Chant Diphonique Mongol ('The Transmission of Xoomii, an Art of Vocal Timbre: Ethnomusicology and History of Mongolian Diphonic Chant'). He thus highlighted xoomii (spelled as hoomij in French) as an art of vocal timbre. He underscores the central role of ongo (colour) in a sonic and in a visual sense (Curtet, 2013: 72). Ongo is used in reference to the bass note of a vocal or instrumental sound, suur' ongo. But even though in some sense xoomii "evokes the different worlds that make up a whole", such as water, earth and skies, Curtet observes that these layers are never discussed in such terms. He writes: "The singers conceive of their hoomij as a special vocal timbre in itself, in which a fundamental sound modulates, but without extracting specific lines from it, the separation of which corresponds to a 'strange' hearing of diphonic chant" (ibid.) To speak of a richly coloured basic sound suffices traditio nal Mongolian singers, who have no need to specify or isolate other layers of sound. In other words, the singers do not mention or emphasise the melodies, because that seems to somehow 'extract' them from the entirety of the vocal sounds, from its inalienable connection with the ongo or bass note.
Something similar is true for the Tuvan context. Suzukei made a plea for timbral listening, as opposed to pitch-centred listening, with several tales of her early fieldwork
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experiences. She recalls how Tuvan music specialists tried to draw her attention to the way they perceive and make sounds the Tuvan way by using visual metaphors. "The way I learned about timbral listening was indirect. The musicians I spent time with didn't use any special musical terms. Everything was explained through analogy and metaphor using examples drawn from nature and from other sounds, rather than from music itself." (Levin & Süzükei, 2006: 47)
'Timbre' brings us closer to the essence of Turco-Mongol music making from an indigenous perspective, and it does so by moving away from the terms we musicologists use most. For a full appreciation of the subtle 'shades' of meaning, we need to quite literally consider 'timbre' or 'sound colour' as a non-musical, visual metaphor. What emerges is a deeply poetic, multi-sensorial vision that is capable of evoking legends, myths and a universe filled with beings visible and invisible, audible and inaudible. It aspires us to consider music and sound as an inclusive and transcendental form of expression, and to do away with musicological concepts, overtones and frequencies.
6: Other Terms
The above-mentioned terms are the main references used to speak and write about xóómei in international discourses, from the academic to the popular. The list is not exhaustive, though, as many other terms have been used. I give two more examples, one from the literature on acoustics and phonetics (formants), one from ethnography (xórekteer).
Some scientists have pointed out that the mechanism behind selecting overtones in the vocal cavity is based on a very precise adjustment of bands of resonance, called formants, and suggested using 'formant singing' as a general term. One can think of formants quite literally as 'that which forms or shapes resonance in the mouth. Formants are a precise, analytical tool to understand where and how the spectrum of frequencies issued from the vocal cords is affected in the mouth cavity, so that we hear specific vowels. It has been shown that two or more formants or frequency bands can be merged together to create more powerful resonances in operatic singing. A similar strategy has been shown to underlie the production of audible overtones, such as happens in all techniques of xóómei and other ways of singing overtones. Though it has great explanatory value, the term 'formant singing' has not stuck.
In Tuva there are many lesser-known terms as well. In my M.A. thesis (van Tongeren, 1994) I was the first scholar to make additions to Aksyonov's 'classic' terminology of Tuvan throat singing from 1964, by adding xóómei as a basic technique (instead of a variant of borbangnadyr) and by creating a typology of newly developed techniques such as dumchuktaar and xórekteer (van Tongeren, 1994: 25-30). Some years later Boris Tatarintsev pointed out that it was awkward that xóómei came to be used in two ways, as a technique and as an overall term, all over Tuva (Tatarintsev, 1998: 60). Perhaps it was this circumstance - the lack of a unique,
general term - that motivated Zoya Kyrgysovna Kyrgys to advocate the term xorekteer (Kyrgys, 2002). She held this as the common source for the three main varieties of Tuvan throat singing: kargyraa, sygyt and xoomei. Her attempt did not receive much support, either popularly or academically, and one mostly hears the term 'xorekteer' to refer to a specific sub-technique of xoomei.
Having arrived at the discussion of terms that did not stand the test of time, it is necessary now to turn to criticisms that have been expressed about the non-Tuvan terms that are still in use to refer to xoomei.
Criticism to Term 2: Throat Singing When my studies in throat singing began around 1990, I was struck like many other Western researchers by the wide applicability of the term 'throat singing'. After all, which kind of singing would not be based around the throat? It seemed that 'throat singing' was stating something obvious and superfluous, because nothing much would be left if we excluded 'throat' from our definitions of any type of singing. It was the fact that xoomei would probably be closest to the Tuvan term xoomei that persuaded me and many others to favour this word or to use it in certain instances. There was still the problem of other specific musical techniques referred to as throat singing, such as Inuit kataj-jaq, but usually it was clear from the context what we were talking about.
The inevitable grouping together of similar sounding vocal techniques elicited renewed criticism recently. Valentina Suzukei wrote in 2021, "Everything that sounds even slightly like khoomei has become designated by the same name - "throat-singing." One often finds many different practices grouped together - Tuvan khoomei, Altai kai, Khakas (sic.) khai, Bashkir uzlyau, and Mongol khoomii as well as the throat-singing of northern peoples (Inuit), the reading of sutras in low registers by Tibetan monks, and other examples of overtone singing, which have an unusual sound that differs from European music." (Suzukei, 2021: 213)
A more fundamental point from the Tuvan perspective is the designation of 'singing' for a technique that to many Tuvans (and certainly other people as well) is not so much vocal, but more instrumental in character. Suzukei again: "For Tuvan musicians, songs and khoomei are completely distinct aspects of musical culture, much like instruments and instrumental music. ... a Tuvan would never say "khoomeiyrlaar" (sing khoomei) or "sygytyrlaar" (sing sygyt). ... Therefore, the inaccurate designation of this art as throat-singing also introduces a lot of confusion in understanding the meaning of khoomei, leading both researchers and performers away from an accurate perception of the immanent properties of this art form."
It now seems that after 'throat singing' served well to introduce Tuvan xoomei to the world, a better term is needed, since it conveys Tuvan thinking only to a limited extent.
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Criticism to Term 3: Drone-Overtone Music
The term 'drone-overtone music' also faces some problems. Just like 'throat singing', it applies to a wide range of musical forms in Turco-Mongol musical landscapes, and it could easily be applied to other forms far beyond the borders of Siberia and Mongolia.
Strictly speaking, not all the music grouped together under 'drone-overtone music' in Tuva is based on drones. Not even every instance of xoomei is based entirely on drones. Some shifting of fundamentals is possible, or quite common, and in rare cases, a sub-type of xoomei and kargyraa is very melodic in its fundamentals, such as Vladimir Oydupaa's transformation of traditional kargyraa to modern song styles. Of course, such forms can be excluded from the scope of Tuvan drone-overtone music. Another issue is that drone-overtone music could suggest merely two layers of sound that matter, the sustained note at the bottom and one melodic line above it. In xoomei and kargyraa other layers in the sound spectrum often emerge, and these details are very often overlooked by less experienced listeners and less informed readers.
Criticism to Term 4: Overtone Singing
With the term 'overtone singing', we are again stuck with the problem I just highlighted: less-informed listeners and readers will be tempted to believe that there is just an overtone melody, even when there are multiple layers of sound. All emphasis goes to the overtones, the drone seems non-existent and not important. And once again, overtone singing unites many different practices from different regions and epochs (traditional and modern), without discriminating between them. Though it is more specific than the term 'throat singing', it is an umbrella term emerging from Europe-centred musical thinking, with a long history of looking for universal patterns.
The term 'overtone singing' serves a purpose in academia and the popular imagin a-tion, but from the beginning on, it led to raised eyebrows among Tuvans and Mongols. To them, calling xoomei/xoomii 'overtone singing', just like techniques that do not use the typical forced throat, was and is strange. The grouping together leads the superficial listener (or practitioner) to ignore the unique features of xoomei, or to consider them as equal or interchangeable with occidental techniques of overtone singing. On the other hand, users of these Western terminologies are often quite aware that different musical styles are grouped together and will make out what is similar or different. Many of them hear and understand that the softer, rounder tones of European overtone singing come from a very different background than Tuvan xoomei.
Criticism to Term 5: Timbral Vocal Art
Some problems arise when we put too much emphasis on xoomei as a timbral art as well. Timbre is ubiquitous, just as the larynx is ubiquitous in singing. We are discussing a very specific art form (xoomei) that clearly stands apart from more than 99% of other forms of vocal expression. There are many varieties of traditional singing where timbre
stands out in some way or another. 'Throat singing' may be too broad, but 'timbral vocal art' is still broader in scope. Even musical laymen develop an intuitive sense for hearing timbre differences, for example in popular music (including pop and rock), and many ordinary people play with the timbre of their voice. It is quite easy to take the example of xoomei and start to play with guttural timbres. Some people may truly and successfully manipulate the timbre of their voice, and they may start to hear the overtones in their own voice, without being successful in manipulating them. Their experiments are more like sound effects, but some of them believe they are doing something similar to Tuvan throat singers. Manipulating timbres is a good starting point to learn xoomei, but it is a long way to manipulating specific overtones the way Siberian and Mongolian throat singers do, making very specific melodies.
This is why, in certain discourses, I believe we should use a very specific, unequivocal term like overtone singing or drone-overtone music. We should signify that xoomei is a well-developed form of art that includes specific melodic sequences, and that it is not a sound effect due to manipulating vocal timbres. At other times, we should signify that xoomei cannot be equated with European-style overtone singing, or other forms of chordal or harmonic chanting with overtone melodies: it is recognisably different from them and specific to North Asia. Its timbral-guttural qualities, combined with its own unique musical semantics, will tell informed listeners whether they are dealing with throat singing of Tuvan, Xakass, Altay or Mongol origin.
Tensions Between Indigenous and Global Needs
We seem to be moving closer to a better understanding of indigenous conceptualisations of xoomei, while at the same time getting nowhere, since every term shows serious flaws. 'Throat singing' may have etymological advantage, but is unspecific and groups xoomei together with unwanted counterparts from other cultures. Besides, Tu-vans 'do' or 'play' xoomei, sygyt and kargyraa, rather than 'singing' them, and hear nonhuman sounds in it as well. 'Overtone singing' brings back 'singing' once more and risks grouping with music far removed from indigenous musical concepts, even though 'overtone' is more specific and characteristic than 'throat.' 'Music-making with a bourdon-overtone constellation' rightly evokes the role of the bourdon in working with overtones, but moves towards the more academic, analytical description of 'the acoustic facts;' it also leaves us without an easy-to-use verb. To avoid 'musical terms' altogether and use analogies and metaphors of sound colour gets us close to the terms that indigenous culture bearers use. But it can only partly satisfy the needs of international communities interested in indigenous music. Sooner or later musical terms other than xoomei will be used, implying things that are not (or not always) present in the indigenous mindset, whether Mongol or Tuvan.
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The terms associated with xoomei are testimony to the technique's dramatic ascent to the world stage. For decades, xoomei has had a considerable impact in the world of music at large and has become a hotly-debated issue, and xoomeizhi are sought-after musical specialists. Their travels first reached beyond the confines of the republic, then of Russia's borders. The repercussions when the music and the musicians returned to Tuva, followed by academics, fans and xoomei tourists, were manifold. There were social, linguistic, financial, political, cultural and other consequences. The gradual adaptations in the five terms I sketched above show changes of thinking, of relating, of managing, of conceptualising. I see two dominant forces clustered around xoomei culture: the one looking inside to Tuvan-ness, to the authenticity and uniqueness of Tuvan xoomei; the other looking outside for connections and representation of xoomei with global, musical currents. Both forces are inevitable in a globalised world. The search continues for a balance between the intersecting needs of, on the one hand, indigenous culture-bearers seeking to keep their language and culture intact and growing and, on the other, a world that moves and changes with relentless speed in chaotic ways.
It is exactly the experience (and experiment) of encountering those outside the traditional context, that boundaries become very clear. Drawing towards a conclusion, I add some reflections that are partly based on my own experiences of learning and teaching xoomei, and partly informed by examples from the wider ethnographic field of xoomei in a global context. If we project a sliding scale of outsiders trying to learn xoomei we can see a development from the very first attempts at singing xoomei to a mature xoomei voice. At the bottom of the scale of non-traditional musicians who try to do xoomei, we have the example of youngsters showing off their 'skill' to Kaygal-ool Khovalyg and Sayan Bapa, touring in the USA with Huun-Huur-Tu. The awkward encounter is recounted by Ted Levin, who witnessed the exchange, and noted how these two inexperienced youngster making guttural sounds believed their voices could heal people (Levin & Suzukei, 2006: 6-7; see also van Tongeren, 2023: 343-348). This is where I think too much emphasis on xoomei as a timbral art could lead to false (self) impressions. A guttural, resonant voice alone is not enough. Singers who believe their European-style vocal overtones are the same as xoomei clearly get it wrong too. There are musicians who succeed to move away from the European sound ideal, and move towards the extraordinary pressure needed for xoomei. Once they do get near an ideal Tuvan xoomei sound, they will need to learn the many intricacies of tension on the abdomen, on the chest, and on the laryngeal and pharyngeal muscles and adjacent cavities. A wrongly-placed tension on the body can make the difference between a proper xoomeizhi and a wanna-be throat singer. There are singers who practice for years but who keep on applying the wrong method, placement or amount of pressure. Some know they are wrong, others are ignorant of all the minute differences in sound. To be able to work under great tension and to
relax at the same time, is one of the marvels of Tuvan xoomeizhi. Receiving instruction from such singers is necessary to fully understand this and become an accomplished throat singer (even though the great effort may still turn out to be in vain). On the next level, we find some singers who get the overall sound quality of xoomei (or sygyt or kar-gyraa), but struggle to make a difference between the overtones. These tones are not chosen randomly and require a definite musical ear, which is more or less innate for every Tuvan who gets this far. The last and final step, then, is to have both: an adequate vocal timbre, and a good sense of the syntax of Tuvan - or Xakass, Altay or Mongol - melody.
Nowadays there are more and more good students of xoomei and kargyraa. They may reach the point of proper guttural support (throat singing); they may balance the drone and overtones, or achieve a decent overall timbre-centred vocal quality. Or they may sing the right overtone melodies without meeting any of the other requirements just mentioned. I often notice that serious singers lack in the last aspect, which is one reason why I adhere to the term 'overtone singing.' Quite a few singers get stranded by emulating Tuvan or Mongolian xoomei and ending up producing timbral sound effects that lack melodic distinction. A true xoomeizhi not only excels in manipulating his timbral possibilities, but also in melodic finesse.
Conclusion
In the last analysis, the question is not what is the one right term that we all agree upon, but rather how different terms afford fruitful interaction between different knowledge systems. The question of indigenous knowledge versus academic discourse is the subject of the book The Way of the Ancestors in the series 'First Knowledges', where we read about indigenous music of the Australian Yolnu people (Langton and Corn, 2023: 98): "Overall, all language sung in ceremonial songs is not considered to be human in origin but, rather, ancestral. Manikay lyrics largely comprise strings of sacred names and archaisms for all things observed, named and recorded by the original ancestors that are found nowhere else in the Yolnu languages. They are intentionally cryptic and circuitous in nature to allow for ever-deeper layers of meaning to be gleaned from them as people mature through their lives."
As a 'song without words', xoomei cannot be "intentionally cryptic and circuitous in nature" in the way Yolnu ceremonial songs are. But in its acoustic patterns, its perceptual richness and its musical symbolism, it certainly allows "for ever-deeper layers of meaning to be gleaned from them as people mature through their lives."
Concluding, we can say that it is in their specific way in which Tuvan musicians treat all relevant aspects (the throat, the timbre, the drone, the overtones, the non-musical elements, both visible and invisible) that we recognise the mastery of Tuvan xoomei. Not a single, non-Tuvan term can cover the full meaning of xoomei; Tuvan xoomei itself
ЭТН0МУЗЫК0Л0ГИЧЕСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ
[a ei га ei га ei га ei га ei га ei га ei га Eifa ei га ei га ei га si га ei га ei га ei га ei га ei га ei га ei
already encompasses many different aspects of sound, timbre, musical style, and finally of individual expression, through the substyles of sygyt, kargyraa and so on; the same holds true for its closely-related forms in adjacent areas, from kai to uzlyau to isxeree xöömii. Using a multiplicity of terms, with frequent reference to specific, indigenous names for techniques such as Tuvan xöömei, seems the best way to get across a better understanding of their meaning and richness.
References:
Aksyonov, A. N. (1964). Tuvinskaya Narodnaya Muzyka [Tuvan folk music], Muzyka, Moscow, 256 p. (in Russian) [Partial translation in Asian Music, Vol. IV/2, 1973]
Curtet, Johanni (2013). La transmission du höömij, un art du timbre vocal: Ethnomusicologie et histoire du chant diphonique mongol: PhD dissertation. University of Rennes 2, 614 p. (in French)
Fales, Cornelia (2002). The paradox of timbre, In Ethnomusicology, No 46/1, pp. 56-95. (in English) Garcia, Manuel (1847). Traité complet de l'Art du chant, Première Partie, E. Troupenas et Cie, Paris, 88 p. (in French)
Ikhtisamov, Kh. (1984). Zametki o dvukhgolosnom gortannom penii tyurkskikh i mongol'skikh narodov, In Muzyka narodov Azij i Afrikii [Music of the peoples of Asia and Africa], Band 4, Publishing house "Sovetskij Kompozitor", Moscow, pp. 179-193. (in Russian)
Kyrgys, Z. K. (2002). Tuvinskoegorlovoepenie: Etnomuzykovedcheskoe issledovanie[Tuvan throat singing: an ethnomusicologicalstudy], Publishing house "Nauka", Novosibirsk, 236 p. (in Russian)
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van Tongeren, Mark (forthcoming). 'Parafonie', In A Sound Word Almanac, Ed. by Herzogenrath, Bernd, Bloomsbury Academic, New York. (in English)
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Литература:
Аксёнов А. Н. Тувинская народная музыка. М.: Музыка, 1964. 256 с.
Ихтисамов Х. С. Заметки о двухголосном гортанном пении тюркских и монгольских народов / / Музыка народов Азии и Африки. Вып. 4. М.: Сов. Композитор, 1984. С.179-193.
Кыргыс З. К. Тувинское горловое пение: этномузыковедческое исследование. Новосибирск: Наука, 2002. 236 с.
Сузукей В. Ю. Бурдонно-обертоновая основа традиционного инструментального музицирования тувинцев / ТНИИЯЛИ. Кызыл, 1993. 92 с.
Татаринцев Б. И. Тувинское горловое пение. Проблемы происхождения. Problems of the origin of Tuvan throat-singing / МНЦ «Хоомей». Кызыл, 1998. 79 с.
Curtet, Johanni. La transmission du hoomij, un art du timbre vocal: Ethnomusicologie et histoire du chant diphonique mongol: PhD dissertation. University of Rennes 2, 2013. 614 p.
Fales, Cornelia. The paradox of timbre / / Ethnomusicology. 2002. No 46/1. P.56-95.
Garcia, Manuel. Traité complet de l'Art du chant. Première Partie. 1847. Paris: E. Troupenas et Cie. 88 p.
Langton, Marcia and Corn, Aaron. The Way of the Ancestors. Melbourne: Thames and Hudson, 2023. 240 p.
Levin, Theodore & Suzukei, V. Where Rivers and Mountains Sing. Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. 281 p.
Süzükei, Valentina. Khöömei-Ambassador to the World: An Afterword / transl. by Sean Quirk / / Asian Music. 2021. Vol. 52. No2. P.209-215.
van Tongeren, Mark. 'Parafonie' // A Sound Word Almanac / Ed. by Herzogenrath, Bernd. New York: Bloomsbury Academic (forthcoming).
van Tongeren, Mark. Overtone Singing. Harmonic Dimensions of the Human Voice. Newark: Terra Nova Press, 2023. 352 p.
van Tongeren, Mark. Xöömej in Tuva: New Developments, New Dimensions: Unpublished MA Thesis. University of Amsterdam, 1994. 128 p.
Об авторе
Марк ван Тонгерен - Ph.D. по художественным исследованиям Академии творческих и исполнительских искусств, независимый исследователь, Тайвань. Эл. адрес: mark@fusica.nl
About the author
Mark van Tongeren - Ph.D. in Artistic Research from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Independent Researcher, Taiwan. E-mail: mark@fusica.nl
© ван Тонгерен М., 2024
