Huun Huur Tu, a quartet from Tuva, presented an impressive display of throat-singing last night in the Lincoln Theatre.
Throat-singing was the first thing the Tuvans did. (Tuva is a largely rural Russian republic that borders Mongolia in the geographical center of Asia.) In unison, the four men let loose a low, guttural rumble and then chanted like Tibetan monks. After this first piece, they sang in a variety of ways, but the most striking of these combined a hum and whistle sound together - and that was produced by one singer. That was wild enough, but to hear all four do this was remarkable.
The musical term for it is harmonic overtones (or xoomei, which means throat-singing in the Tuvan tongue), and each member of Huun Huur Tu - Sayan Bapa, Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Alexei Saryglar and Radik Tyulyush - was capable of producing two or three pitches/notes as they sang.
They also had a remarkable range, with some of the singers shifting easily from tenor to bass within a song.
Sometimes, the singers sounded familiar to American ears; but other times, they were like the Siberian equivalent of singers such as Howlin' Wolf or Captain Beefheart, with a deep rasp that might be painful to imitate, but transcendent to hear.
Huun Huur Tu sang proudly in their native tongue about their land of Tuva, plaintively about love and often about horses, if I understood the English-speaking Bapa's low, monotone speaking voice.
In fact, several of the group's more joyous pieces reminded one of cowboy songs, especially whenever Saryglar made clopping sounds with his percussion, and the singers practically yodeled in high tenors. On one of the horse songs, a Tuvan fiddle made a whinnying sound, and one of the singers snorted like his steed.
On another song, the group made the sounds that might come from the taiga, with the wind whistling, a bird calling and thunder rolling (the latter courtesy of Saryglar's drum). With lute, guitar, Tuvan fiddles, a long tubular flute, percussion and mouth harps, Huun Huur Tu created a musical representation of their homeland that was nearly as unique as their throat-singing.
This critic had seen Huun Huur Tu in concert several years ago, but this new lineup seemed much more musical in nature. As an example, in addition to making their traditional music, the group collaborated with electronic musician Carmen Rizzo for an ambient-sounding 2009 album called Eternal.
For those who are intrigued by what they've read of Huun Huur Tu, check them out this October in Dayton.
A surprising number of people braved the bitter cold to see this concert, part of CityMusic Columbus' 27th season. Before the Tuvans came on stage, CityMusic founder and artistic director Steve Rosenberg quipped, "To make the concert more authentic, we ordered traditional Siberian weather."
02/04/11
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