http://youtu.be/DY1pcEtHI_w
Video linked to:
Title of video: "Tuvan Throat Singing"
Title of piece: Not listed
Performer: Name not listed
Culture: Tuva
In the article "Music That Represents Culture: Selecting Music with Integrity," Carlos R. Abril discusses the process of finding world music materials that are truly representative of the cultures from which they arise. One important point mentioned is that one must take into account whether a musical example--be it notation, audio, video, etc.--presents typical aspects of a given culture. With little information provided in this video's description, it can be difficult to say whether said video shows typical aspects of Tuvan throat singing and Tuvan culture. I think that the example is at least somewhat typical of a throat singing performance for a few reasons: 1) The musical characteristics--simple rhythmic accompaniment on chordophone, pentatonic mode, vocal timbre, etc.--seem to mesh with those seen in other videos of Tuvan and Mongolian throat singing performances on YouTube, as does 2) the dress of the performer in the context of musician-performing-for-large-audience. This video also takes place outside, which is where this music would have been sung anyway; the sounds involved are meant to imitate those found in nature, such as bird sounds (high overtone whistling) and more. I am unsure as to whether the audience-performer dynamic is typical of pure, everyday performance because the performer seems dressed somewhat formally and the setup of the audience (in great numbers; all facing one way toward the performer like in a concert hall) is also, I think, comparatively formal.
The Tuvan Throat Singing is very unique! There are different kinds of throat singers from all over the world. It's very interesting. How would you incorporate throat singing into a music lesson? Who would you teach this to? Perhaps a college world history class. I believe I first learned about throat singers then. Would you introduce this culture of music to earlier learning?
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to learn how to throat sing for many reasons. 1. I saw a throat singer once create overtones with her voice and made her own harmonies, which blew my mind. 2. As a beat boxer, throat singing is a very important tool to creating a bass sound within the other sounds going on. It adds a pitched variable to the mix. This is very cool, and if you ever introduce throat singing into a classroom, tell me how it goes!
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