"Tonal" Singing?

Factual Questions
1

I can’t remember the name of the phenomenon, but my brother tells me of a type of singing (stemming from the Far East) which features singers capable of producing chords (ie, more than a single note) with their voices.

He told me that they can do it because they’ve trained their vocal chords to operate seperately.

Anyone have a clue, either what this type of singing is called, or where I can find more information?

2

Try this link

It is from Scientific American titled The Throat Singers of Tuva. This is the opening quote

Tinker

3

Genghis Blues is a documentary (Academy Award nominated) about a blind blues musician who taught himself Tuvan throat singing and then went to Tuva (outside of Mongolia) to participate and a competition. Not the best produced documentary but a fascinating story. It is available on video and DVD.

You can also find several collections of Tuvan throat singing (such as this one) at the major music stores/web sites.

It is hard to believe that human throats can produce such sounds.

4

obfusciatrist,

Thanks for reminding me of that film. I had forgotten the name and was hoping someone would bring it up. I haven’t seen it, but would like to.

Roger Ebert liked it quite well, giving it 3 1/2 stars out of 4. His review is here

Tinker

5

There are Tuvan Music files you can listen to.

This type of singing is also traditional in Sardinia. I’m sure I read that within the last 2 or 3 days but I can’t remember where.

6

Some Tibetian Buddhist monks also sing two notes at once, but their method is more one of singing a very low tone (at least several steps below a typical bass singer’s range) and using their mouth and sinuses to create harmonics (one site calls it overtone harmonics, which sounds right to me.) The singing is very slow, nonrhythmic (at least I didn’t hear a beat) and is accompanied by horns and gongs.

Occasionally, Tibetian monks tour the US. I haven’t seen them live, but on record, the effect is pretty interesting.

7

You might also look into David Hykes. I taught myself to Throat Sing in the shower.

…hmmmm…

…sounds like I may finally have that sig line.

=)

8

I forgot about Spectral Voices. It is also referred to as Khoomei or Overtone Singing.