A Musical Trip: Tuvan Music
I recently came across some Tuvan music in one of my classes and decided to do some more exploring which I found really intriguing! Tuvans are an indigenous peoples with the largest populations living in Russia in the Republic of Tuva, with smaller populations of Tuvans residing in Mongolia and China as well. One of the things that drew me to Tuvan music was their traditional throat singing, Khoomei. There are multiple styles, below is a demonstration of some! Demonstration of Khoomei Styles, Khoomei Beat, 2021, Tuva One of the super neat elements of Khoomei is the timbre/tone color . I noticed how there was a low drone, that feels gritty and has a rumble to it that carried through much of the songs. Along with those notes, there was another note layered on top of it, like the sound was split into two! These notes are called overtones, notes at a higher frequency that are sort of notes within the note, and the overtones created a melody. Tuvan music primarily imitates nature, with Tuva...
