Throat Singing and the Elk Thing

Greetings from the Land of RandoRadio. This installment of my ramblings is to clear up (or further muddy things up) regarding two recurring themes on my show. I warn you up front that you may just learn something here, and I am not responsible for the consequences.

Throat singing (or overtone singing) takes advantage of the entire human voice mechanism to create a note with the voicebox and then create overtones (harmonically related notes) in other parts of the voice path. It can sound like self-harmony or singing and whistling simultaneously.

I first came across this phenomenon while listening to Tibetan religious music. Later I came across an American blues singer named Paul Pena whose story put the hook in me. He heard throat singing on his shortwave radio in the mid-1980's and became totally captivated with it. Despite his blindness he persevered to not only learn about the musical form but to teach it to himself.

After more than a decade of learning and searching he wound up connecting with a group of people who took up his cause and took it a great leap forward. They made it possible for him to go to a land called Tuva, in southern Siberia on the Mongolian border. They documented this in a movie called "Genghis Blues".

As a sidebar, he worked to learn to speak their language in a very bizarre fashion. Since there were no direct Braille translations from Tuvan to English, he had to learn Tuvan to Russian (Tuva used to be in the USSR) and then Russian to English. He managed to communicate well enough with the people to enter (and subsequently win) a regional throat singing championship. He was befriended by Kongar-ol Ondar, a popular throat singer and (later) a statesman in their government.

I recommend the "Genghis Blues" movie and soundtrack (both available on Amazon.Com) and a CD called "TUVA- Tuvinian Singers and Musicians" on the WDR- World Network Label, #55.838. For reading pick up the late Richard Heynman's book "Tuva Or Bust".

The other thing I wanted to give voice to is the Elk Calling fixation I've had since March of this year. One day while trolling through the New York Times (the newspaper that wants to drive me crazy) I came across an article describing an annual gathering of people in Reno, Nevada. Their ongoing mission is to foster and grow the skills of Elk-Calling. People of all ages participated in this event and there was a competition to determine the best caller.

When I looked at the online version of the paper it had a link to the site that had the audio of this year's event. When I listened to it I was immediately hooked. I'm old enough to remember when the "song of the Humpback Whale) was all the rage especially when Earth Day came around. Clearly, this is the "Humpback whale" of the twenty-first century. Anything that can clue people in to the fact that critters preceeded us in this land works for me. And the elk calling seems to go with any kind of background music during music breaks.

If you google "elk calling" you will find a link to the International Herald Tribune link that has the story and the audio clips. You too can get hooked on this sound. Or not.

Enough damage has been done for now. Please be sure to visit our RandoRadio website by clicking here.

I appreciate your time in reading and listening. All of us at RandoRadio work toward bringing a wide variety of music to you with our own contrasting styles and personalities. Please help by spreading the word and helping us if you can. It's the listener-sponsored thing, you see. I'll have some other venting to do next time around.

Peace be with you,
Glenn Carella