general information about the

book

In Overtone Singing,
ethnomusicologist and singer Mark
van Tongeren provides a fascinating
insight into the timeless and
universal aspects of sound and
vibration. Grounded in a decade-long
study of Asian music, he draws upon
various fieldwork experiences, interviews with eastern and western musicians, in addition
to the work of numerous scholars. He presents a multidisciplinary vision on sound that
runs from World and contemporary music to the science of acoustics and perception, to
music philosophy and the spiritual dimensions of music. Written in a non-technical style,
this book and accompanying audio CD is an indispensable guide to musicians and music
lovers seeking a deeper understanding of the nature of sound.

summary
Overtone Singing contains four largely self-contained parts, respectively called
Physics, East, West and Metaphysics, and a fifth part called Quintessence.
Physics deals with the acoustic, physiological and
psychological aspects of sound, the harmonic series,
the (singing) voice, and their importance in overtone
singing. It is divided in two parts: singing harmonics
and listening to harmonics.

East discusses traditional practices of overtone

singing. First of all of throat singing in Tuva, South
Siberia, which is where most of the fieldwork for this
book was done. From here the music of various
neighbouring peoples and cultures is discussed, such
as Mongol throat singing and Tibetan chant. In all
cases singing attention is given to many other
aspects of these societies like, for example, animism
a stone man or
and Buddhism.
kozhee, reminding of
the first Turkic tribes
that settled in present-
day Tuva

The third part, West, sketches the

history of overtone singing in the
west, from the first steps made by
composers and improvisers to the
cross-cultural fusions of today. In the
western world overtone singing is a
relatively new phenomenon.
Aesthetics, questions of beauty in the
music itself, and musical invention are
emphasised here, rather than the
social or spiritual elements.
 Metaphysics – Body, Mind and Beyond
delves deeper into the philosophies
and belief systems underlying
harmonics, harmony and numerical
ratios. Meditation, therapy, effects on
body and mind, resonance and
correspondances between wave
lengths on various scales are some of
the key words here. These issues take
us back to the times of Plato and
Pythagoras, and end up with new
questions about the consciousness
inspired by Eastern philosophy.
The fifth and final part is called Quintessence – The Great Realm. It draws
some parallels and conclusions based on the ideas assembled in the first four
parts. It is also a more personal interpretation based on the research of the
author as a singer and musicologist.

Click here to read the book's foreword, which was written by musician,
composer, doctor in ethnomusicology, advisor and friend Trân Quang Hai, who
works at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, France

facts about the book

Title: Overtone Singing - Physics and
Metaphysics of Harmonics in East and
West

Format: XXVI + 284 page book plus 73

minute/33 tracks audio CD

Dimensions: 230 x 150 x 20 mm

Editions: paperback (ISBN 90-807163-2-4)

hardcover (ISBN 90-807163-1-6)

With 31 photos, 4 maps and 46 illustrations (musical examples, line drawings, graphs),
bibliography, discography, index, footnotes.

A discography lists dozens of relevant CDs (including label and catalogue number) of
modern and traditional overtone singing.
The CD included in the book offers the most complete survey of traditional techniques of
overtone singing from various regions of the world to date. Also featured are tracks with
technical demonstrations by the author and excerpts of his 2001 CD Paraphony.

Text design and lay-out: Sonja van Hamel

Typesetting: Roel Siebrands
Publisher: Fusica, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The book has a barcode.
Overtone Singing
Physics and Metaphysics of Harmonics in East and West

Foreword by Trân Quang Hai

Nowadays, overtones are familiar

to many people, from laymen to
scientific researchers and
composers. This familiarity is no
doubt the result of the recent
introduction in the west of a new
vocal technique called overtone
singing. This technique enables a
singer to produce two
simultaneous voices: a
continuous drone and a melody of
overtones above it.
Tran Quang Hai, his wife Bach Yen
and Mark van Tongeren
[photograph taken by the camera]
The interest about that peculiar vocal style in the Western world began
around the 1960s. Since this time there have been many specialised
studies from scholars, as well as musical explorations by composers and
singers. My fascination with overtone singing began in 1969. In that
year the first sound documents of Mongolian throat singing were
brought to Paris by anthropologist Roberte Hamayon. It pushed me
towards the overtones research on the acoustical point of view first, and
later towards the anatomy of the voice, questions about music therapy
and the musical aspects of its performance and composition. The
increasing interest of overtones in the West has further been notified in
contemporary music, in New Age music, in healing with the voice, and
others.

In 1995 Mark van Tongeren and I met in Amsterdam before we began

our trip to Tuva, where both of us participated in the 2nd World Festival
of Throat Voice in Kyzyl. At that time he had just finised his dissertation
at the University of Amsterdam. It was the first extensive study of
Tuvan music by someone outside the Russian Federation, carried out
just after Tuva had become accessible for foreign visitors. It dealt with
the history and modern practise of Tuvan khoomei or guttural overtone
singing. As a singer, a collector of field recordings and a musicologist,
the excellent research of Mark Van Tongeren brought new dimensions
and developments of Tuvan throat singing to light. Then he impressed
me with his throat singing at the festival in Kyzyl of which I was chosen
as President of the Jury.

In 2001, Mark Van Tongeren released his CD on overtones with his

original performances. At the same year, he sent me the manuscript of
his book on overtone singing. In this well-documented book you can
find, for the very first time, everything concerning overtone singing in
the West, from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s contemporary music to Jill
Purce’ healing voice; from electro-acoustic to World and other Fusioned
musics; from renowned western performers such as Michael Vetter and
David Hykes to great masters of overtone singing from Tuva, Mongolia
and other parts of the world; from the Pythagorean harmonic system to
Om chanting and New Age mantras.

Overtone singing does justice to this multitude of cultural traditions and

to the countless personalities that have contributed to the development
of this way of singing. It has interesting and useful things to teach to
everyone who is intrigued by the mysteries of sound and music. I am
happy to recommend it to all lovers of overtone - and throat singing in
the world.

Trân Quang Hai

Ethnomusicologist / Composer
National Center for Scientific Research, Paris, France

contents of the book

Foreword by Tran Quang Hai: VI

Contents of the CD XII
Introduction XIV
Acknowledgements XVI

Prelude: Meeting with a Tuvan Shepherd XXI

PART ONE: PHYSICS

CHAPTER I -SINGING HARMONICS 3

The sonic warehouse 3 Vowels, timbre and harmonics 4 Speaking in chords 6 The
harmonic series 8 The voice 11 Mouth shape and resonance 14 The mouth as a f1lter 16
Elementary techniques 18 Throat singing 23 High definition television: deep modes of
chanting 26 Swollen veins 29 The female voice 30 Musical architecture 31

CHAPTER 2- LISTENING TO HARMONICS 35

Harmonics at the opera (Part One) 37 Paraphony 38 The cycle of creation and perception
40 Unusual acoustic phenomena 42 Space and sound 45

PART TWO: EAST

CHAPTER 3- TUVAN THROAT SINGING 51

Three children and a bull 54 Throat singing in everyday life 56 Two Outstanding
musicians-composers 58 Styles and techniques 63
A teacher and expert 66 Education: now and then 69 At the periphery of music 72 The
world of spirits and sound 73 A whole gamut of wheezes 77 Throat singing in ritual
contexts 79 In previous centuries 82 Live at the Bolshoi 85 Khunashtaar-ool: khoomei
redefined 87 Cultural authorities and musical hierarchies 88 From Vladivostok to Havana
90 Tuvan city blues 96 The Tuva Ensemble 100 Tuva in turmoil 103 A musicallineage
continued 105 Huun-Huur- Tu: Back to the roots 107 Killing him softly: women and
khoomei 110 Tradition in motion 112 A concert by full moon 113

CHAPTER 4 -OVERTONE SINGING IN OTHER TRADITIONAL MUSIC 119

Mongolia 119 Epic singing 126 The Altai republic and the revival of epics 129 Echoes from
the past 130 Going to Kyzyl 132 Song for the river Katun 134 Khakassia: the spirits
return 136 Receiving a gift from the spirits 139 Kalmykia: epics and ideology 140
Bashkortostan: an independent case 143 Tibet: sound and symbol 145 An eye-witness
account 147 Sutras, mudras and mantras 148 A tool for the mind: the harmonic as
symbol 152 A different reality 153 Sardinia: the virtual voice 154 South Africa: the
human voice as a type of musical bow 157 Idiosyncrasies 159

PART THREE: WEST

CHAPTER 5 -A HlSTORY OF OVERTONE SINGING IN THE WEST 165

The Tortoise, his dreams and journeys 166 Tuning up to the cosmos: Stockhausen's
Stimmung 167 Trial and error: A Vietnamese in Paris 170 The 1970s: extending vocal
technique l72 Michael Vetter: Zen and sound 176 David Hykes: solar winds & rainbow
voices 179 The snowball effect 184 Globalisation and cross-fertilisation 186 Noah:
Harmonics at the opera (Part Two) 188 Out of Tuva 191 Rollin Rachele: Harmonic
divergence 193 Toby Twining: requiem for a millennium 194 Return to the source:
plainchant 197 The stepchild of European music 198

PART FOUR: METAPHYSICS

CHAPTER 6 -BODY, MIND AND BEYOND 203

An unusual experience 204 Meditation 206 Christian chants and buddhist mantras 209
Harmonics in healing and therapy 211 Make your bones sing 216 The law of octaves 218
The greek legacy 220 Silent harmonics 224 music makes the world go round 225 the
dance of the molecules 226 the Pythagorean attitude 227 sound as pivot 228

PART FIVE: QUINTESSENCE

CHAPTER 7- THE GREAT REALM 235

EAST VERSUS WEST

The universal harmonic 237 The non-universal harmonic 238 The spiritual dimension 239
PHYSICS VERSUS METAPHYSICS
Some thoughts about nature 243 Music and ideas about nature 245 Renewing the
ancient marriage between music and physics 246
THE QUINTESSENCE OF SCIENCE, SOUND AND SELF
Paradigm change 248 A paradox for the senses 250 The fifth element 252 The Great
Realm 253

Coda 256

Notes 258
Bibliography 262
Index 268
More information 271

contents of the Overtone Singing CD

1 Tuva Kara-ool Tumat (with balalaika) -khoomei, sygyt, kargyraa,
borbannadir (3:48)
2 Mongolia Altai Hangai - Tavan kasag (Five Kazakhs) -song with khoomii
(2:22)
3 Altai Tanyspai Shinzhin -Fragment of epic sung with kai technique
(4:10)
4 Khakasia Slava Kuchenov -Fragment of epic sung with khai (2:48)
5 Bashkortostan Robert Zagritdinov -uzlyau guttural technique (1:19)
6 South Africa Nowaylethi Mbizweni and Nofirst Lungisa- duet with 'ordinary'
umngqokol (1:40)
7 Tuva Kaigal-ool Khovalyg -Kargyraa (1:28)
8 Mongolia Ganzorig Nergui -khoomii (3:28)
9 Tuva Andrei Opei (with chanzy) -Bazhy Betik (khoomei, sygyt) (3:52)
10 Tuva Andryan Opei -Khoomei kak basla men (sygyt) (1:21)
11 Tuva Andrei Chuldum-ool- Artii Saayir (sygyt) (3:02)
12 Tuva Mergen Mongush -chilangyt (1:19)
13 Tuva Aldyn-ool Sevek -ezenggileer (1:01)
14 Tuva Aldyn-ool Sevek -khat kargyraa (0:56)
15 Mark van Tongeren Five elementary techniques ( 1:09 )
16 Mark van Tongeren The vowel triad (1:08)
17 Mark van Tongeren Fundamental drone (0:16 )
18 Mark van Tongeren Parallel motion (0:14 )
19 Mark van Tongeren Harmonic drone (0:23)
20 Mark van Tongeren Contrary motion (0:16 )
21 Tuva Artysh Mongush - chilandyk (0:35)
22 Tuva Sildis, Mikhail and Chash-ool - khoomei and sygyt (2:37)
23 Kalmukia Tsagan Zam - fragment of Janggar (3:16)
24 Tuva Mongün-ool Dambashtai - kargyraa (1:43)
25 Altai Arzhan Kezerekov -Imitation of the Shoor, with sygyrtyp (3:28)
26 Altai Raisa Modorova -Blessing song (algysh) with kai technique
(3:09)
27 South Africa Nowayilethi Mbizweni -iRobhane sung with umngqokolo
ngomqangi technique (1:00)
28 Tuva / the Biosintes and Mark van Tongeren -improvisation at the bank of
Netherlands the Yenisei (5:09)
29 Mark van Tongeren excerpt Paraphony (2:39)
30 Mark van Tongeren excerpt City Chess (2:46)
31 Tuva Opal Shuluu -Playing the khomus (Jew's harp) (1:51)
32 Tuva Kaigal-ool Khovalyg – playing the igil fiddle - Uzun khoyug
(3:24)
33 Electricity wires in Aryg Bazhy (2:28)

prelude: meeting with a Tuvan shepherd.

Summer in Siberia is not cold at all. On the contrary, in June and July it can be hot, and
even oppressive. The exhausting heat makes you long for the rivers. Rivers that do not
stop carrying tons of ice cold water from the mountains. In 1993 I spent my first summer
in Tuva, the republic at the southern border of central Siberia. Days after my arrival I
had an opportunity to drive straight to the border of Mongolia with a group of Americans,
who might go down in history as the first and last bicycle tourists to cross the (now-
closed) Russian-Mongolian border wíth their bikes. During some eight hours of steady
driving a magnificent landscape of green meadows, hills and forests passed before my
eyes. Besides the white spots of nomad tents scattered on the steppes and an occasional
settlement, police - or tank station, there was little that betrayed the presence of man.
Upon return in Tuva's capital Kyzyl I got to know all about modern Tuva. I impatiently
waited a long month to go back to the countryside and meet the nomads themselves.
Soon thereafter several expeditions followed.
Now is my third trip and we are inspecting an ancient Tuvan közhee or 'stone man:' a
majestic figure that stands on a seemingly random spot in the wide open steppe of West
Tuva. With his small nose, his steady eyes and his odd hairdo he had been staring in the
same direction for centuries. Once there were many of these mysterious men, who can
still be found throughout Central Asia. Most of the stone men in Tuva have been taken to
museums, which were founded during the Soviet era. It was hoped that, along with the
stone men, the ancient spiritual beliefs of the Tuvan herdsmen would end up in the
museum as a thing of the past. But according to some Tuvans, these once-brave fighters
haven't lost their powers. They say that one of the man-sized statues disappeared from
the museum the night after it had been transported there. And that it had returned to its
original dwelling in the grasslands...
We move on to some rocks at which the közhee has been looking all these past ages. We
meet with a local herdsman who knows where to find more relics of past ages. We walk
on sundried-earth past some log cabins and a scrap-heap, and climb up and down the
side of a rock. We reach a narrow plateau, some fifteen feet above the earth, from where
we can overlook the grassland. The clouds that flow by cast moving shades in the
landscape and create innumerable hues of dark and light colours. The Tuvan draws our
attention to a flat, reddish-brown surface amidst the irregular patterns of the rock's wall.
Veiled as the wall is by its own shadow, I cannot see anything worthwhile at first. But
then I notice a few characters and some vague, hardly discernible drawings of animals.
The written characters all look different. Some are vertically written, like the Tibetan and
Mongolian script, others even look like Sanskrit to me.
The man who lives close to these rock inscriptions cannot tell much about it: he doesn't
know what is depicted and written down, not even whether the characters are Tibetan,
Mongolian or something else. Apparently they date from an epoch of which the local
people have no memory and I have no clue when it could be either. My questions pile up
as the man starts to tell about a grave of an old lama nearby. The lama had been buried
with some precious properties, but only few old men know the exact place. Fearing the
overzealous labour of archaeologists, ethnographers, art-historians and their likes, they
are silent about the exact location of the grave.
While my guide is talking my attention is suddenly distracted by a hardly discernible
sensation. An extremely soft, but persevering, high tone penetrates my ears. As I
concentrate and ask my guide to be silent for a moment, my conviction grows that I
found something typically Tuvan, something certainly mysterious, yet much more
familiar to me than what I had just seen. I hear the typical sounds of Tuvan herdsmen.
They resemble whistling, yet I know that the man I hear from afar is not whistling. The
melody is so high and the tones so pure, that it cannot be sung as precisely and subtly
by a normal man's voice, not even by a woman's voice. But the colour of the sound and
the distance between the tones of the melody tell me that it is a voice I hear, and not a
flute. As I look around to spot the man whose sounds caress my ears, I conclude that he
is not singing as singers usually do. He is singing two notes at the same time, and what I
hear are only the higher tones, the flageolets of his voice. He is so far away that the
steppe doesn't transmit the lower drone sound - all we hear is an ethereal melody of
flute-like sounds. These are the miraculous sounds I came for, and one of the best-kept
secrets of these Central Asian nomads.
After squinting the steppes that lie beneath us, we finally locate the singing herdsman,
sitting on the shoulders, almost on the neck of a horse, with his feet leisurely dangling at
one side of its front legs. He is surrounded by dozens of sheep, grazing quietly in the
steppe. A dog seems to do all the work for its boss. Its frequent barking keeps the herd
together and drowns out the shepherd's high tones from time to time.
We listen attentively for a while to the throat singer, whom we'll call by the most popular
of Tuvan names: Mergen. Mergen is perhaps a mile away in the direction of the Stone
Man. He hasn't got much work to do, and besides some electricity poles we look at a
scene which might as well have taken place a hundred, or perhaps more than a thousand
years ago. Just like his forefathers this herdsman is passing his time with singing.
Singing to his sheep and his horse, to the steppes and the hills and to a small brook.
Maybe he even sings to the electricity wires and poles that range over his country. At
close distance one can sometimes hear their buzzing sounds, which faintly resemble the
sinus-like oscillations of the otherworldly song of the shepherd's.
After some time the thin, fragile sound switches to something that must be a deep and
gruff roar in the ears of his horse. As he turns his face toward the sheep, different
colours of sound, like clouds, are coming in our direction. As he turns away the
soundsnatches die out: they are like the wind itself. Through the constant flow of this
massive sound I hear a faint melody, starting on a low pitch and rising slowly, reaching a
final top note and then moving down again. After perhaps two deep breaths another
melody comes and goes along with a string of stretched vowels. There is a timeless,
eternal quality in the sounds. They could be echoes of bygone ages, but equally well
provide the sonic background in a documentary on the latest accomplishments in space
travel.
Mergen's comfortable position on the horse's shoulders is said to be an invention of the
Tuvans of the East (or Todzhans), dating from a time when mankind started to tame and
domesticate animals. Sitting like this the shepherd can sing for hours on end, taking a
break and moving to a fresh pasture every once in a while. With the dignified eyes of his
frozen, stone forefather resting upon him, he knows that he need not hurry to graze his
sheep.
But as I don't have as much time as he does, I decide to call him, in order to have a little
chat. Because we are so far away for him, it takes awhile before Mergen finds our tiny
figures, standing in the middle of the rocks. But then he turns his horse around, and
moves it slowly towards a ford in the creek that is flowing between him and us. After
some ten minutes he reaches the bottom of the rock we are standing on. The interpreter
exchanges some questions and answers with the shepherd, and tells him who I am.
Mergen does not speak Russian -like I do- and I speak only a few Tuvan words, so I wait
patiently for the initial courtesy to finish. It appears that the herdsman lives not far from
the Stone Man. I can see he is a bit uncomfortable with the unexpected guests. Tuvans
that live in the countryside are shy with foreigners, who were rarely allowed to enter
Tuva until two years before this summer. The interpreter tells the shepherd where I
come from and that the purpose of my visit is to study Tuvan music.
Then I ask the unavoidable question: could he sing for us one more time, so we can
better hear and see what he is doing? Mergen seems reluctant but agrees with some
hesitation. He takes his time to breathe and rasp his throat. Then finally he starts to sing,
still sitting on his trusty steed. As he inhales, his breast becomes bigger, and with the
first sounds his face reddens a little. He creates a forceful pressure on his throat which
makes some of the veins around his eyes and neck swell. Again we hear the high,
piercing notes. But this time they seem to be rougher than when we heard them from a
distance.
He rasps again, and tries to sing some more, but to no avail. With the eyes of the
strangers fixed on him from the rock, singing appears to be a lot more difficult. Save his
herd of sheep Mergen may have never in his entire life had a public, however small,
before him. Maybe he has only sung for himself during his long, lonely hours with his
cattle. He gives it another try, this time with the low roaring sounds. But even though it
was difficult to hear from so far away, it was obvious that he produced the harmonic
whistles much more naturally when he still thought he was alone on the steppe. And so
we ask no further and let Mergen return to his flock, where the ethereal sounds of his
voice can merge with the wind and please the endless steppes of Tuva.

Fragment from Overtone Singing © 2002 - 2003 Mark van Tongeren