Overtone singing

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Overtone singing is a singing technique that filters out individual overtones from the sound spectrum of the voice in such a way that they are perceived as separate tones and the auditory impression of polyphony is created. One speaks of overtone singing when the overtones have an independent musical function, to be distinguished from singing techniques that merely enrich the timbre of the voice with overtones.

Styles

Western overtone singing

The art of singing was in occidental culture, especially in the New Age - scene popular in the 1980s. In the 1960s, composers such as La Monte Young and Karlheinz Stockhausen introduced overtone singing into avant-garde music. Overtone singing is also part of the barbershop vocals. There overtones are generated with three different techniques.

So western overtone music is quite young. While some artists developed their techniques mainly from vocal experiments and vocal techniques into a new art form, many younger overtone singers are also inspired by Asian throat singing techniques. Nevertheless, an overtone singer can usually be easily distinguished from an Asian throat singer.

Overtone singers use the "normal" soft voice as the basic tone . This enables a smooth transition from vowels and language to overtone singing. For many overtone musicians, the resulting new timbres are the basis of their artistic expression. Others develop a high virtuosity in a polyphonic way of singing by singing two independent melodies at the same time with fundamental and overtone. There are singing circles that improvise with overtones in groups (chanting, sounding, overtone choir ). The overtone singing belongs to the free music scene and is constantly developing. In the meantime, the unusual sound effects have also been discovered for film music and are even finding interest in serious music .

Throat singing

Charlotte Qamaniq singing larynx

In Tuwa , Mongolia and other Central Asian countries around the Altai Mountains , overtone singing is cultivated in various forms of throat singing. Other names are throat singing, Khoomei (Khöömei, Khöömii) Tuvan : Хөөмей , throat ' , Mongolian Хөөмий , Khakas : Chay . Similar overtone singing is as familiar umngqokolo by the Xhosa women in South Africa and by the Dani in Papua New Guinea , but this reminds throat singing rather on the western overtone singing, which Joiken Sami or even at Alpine yodeling .

Throat singing differs from western overtone singing both musically through its ethnic tradition and technically through special ways of generating the keynote. In throat singing, parts of the larynx are narrowed (xorectic). A narrowing of the pocket folds (false vocal folds) or an aryepiglottic sphincter (formation of a narrowing of the aryepiglottic folds with the epiglottis ) is discussed , each of which creates a resonance space in the larynx that amplifies the overtone compared to the fundamental.

A special art of throat singers both in Central Asia and in the throat singers of the Xhosa, the use is of Untertongesangs you techniques on Tuvan Kargyraa calls (undertone). Usually the first undertone of the fundamental voice, the first subharmonic, is used as the fundamental. This greatly expands the overtone spectrum of the singer.

The term throat singing is often used synonymously for Central Asian overtone singing. This occasionally leads to confusion, because the term is also used for singing styles that do not belong to overtone singing. For example, there are types of undertone singing known as throat singing. The low-frequency chants of the Tibetan lamas and the Sami in Lapland ( joik ) should be mentioned in this context, in which the overtones are not specifically used as a musical structure. The throat chants of the Canadian Inuit and the Sardinian " cantu a tenores " are also not overtone singing in the narrower sense. However, the classification is often difficult because an untrained Western ear may not recognize the intentions of foreign musical cultures. For example, some authors would like to know the dominance of the 10th  harmonic in Tibetan chants called overtone singing.

Artist (selection)

Overtone singing

Christian Bollmann , Anna-Maria Hefele , Roberto Laneri , Bernhard Mikuskovics , Paul Pena , Stimmhorn , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Michael Vetter , Rainer vonviel , Christian Zehnder .

Khoomei throat singing

Arjopa , Egschiglen , Huun-Huur-Tu , Sainkho Namtchylak , Yat-Kha , Hanggai , Enkhjargal Dandarvaanchig

Brief instructions and sound samples

  1. Audio file / audio sample Overtone singing ? / i
  2. Audio file / audio sample Undertone / larynx singing ? / i
  3. Audio file / audio sample Larynx singing with overtones ? / i

There are different overtone techniques:

  1. A simple way to achieve the first overtones is to intonate the word "Hang" in a medium, pleasant pitch. The nasal (i.e. the sound that is designated by ng in scripture ) must be kept. By now shaping the lips one after the other into UO-Å-A-Ä-EI, fine and very high tones are created. (Å = "o" in "open")
  2. A simple type of undertone singing is approached by a basic sound similar to 1., only that here the larynx is left very loose and the mouth and throat area is slowly opened.
  3. The combination of both sounds can be achieved by nasalizing sound 2. For singing with immediate support , a plosive sound like "D" with attached nasal is suitable, thus roughly "Dnnnnn ...".

It is very helpful to choose a room for practicing that has a very good natural resonance. If you then sing tones that correspond to your own resonance of the room, then overtones can be represented much more easily. You can recognize these resonances by the fact that a tone sounds much louder than other pitches at a certain pitch, even though you sing all tones equally loudly.

literature

  • Arjopa: Choomii - Mongolian overtone singing . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-86150-320-4 ([combination of media] instructions for self-learning).
  • Sven Grawunder: On the Physiology of Voice Production in South-Siberian Throat Singing . 1st edition. Frank & Timme, 2009, ISBN 3-86596-172-X .
  • Peter Imort: Overtone singing. Notion of the infinite? In: Contributions to Popular Music Research , Volume 09/10, 1990, pp. 86–96 ( full text )
  • Theodore Craig Levin, Valentina Suzukei: Where rivers and mountains sing: sound, music, and nomadism in Tuva and beyond . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2006, ISBN 0-253-34715-7 .
  • Wolfgang Saus: Singing overtones. With CD . 4th (2011) edition. Traumzeit Verlag, Battweiler 2004, ISBN 3-933825-36-9 .
  • M. van Tongeren: Overtone Singing Physics and Metaphysics of Harmonics in East and West . Eburon, 2004, ISBN 90-5972-132-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Saus: Overtone singing. Traumzeit-Verlag, Battweiler 2004, ISBN 3-933825-36-9 , p. 58.