Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning Tuvan throat-singing in NYC (and San Diego)

Hello all. I'm back home in Philly after a wonderful trip
to southern California, and have just spent the day catching
up on all the Tuning Digests I received while away.

It was great to once again see Jonathan Glasier, John
Chalmers, Denny Genovese, Bill Wesley (and a couple of
amazing new instruments he's built), Jeff Stayton, Brink
[= John McBryde], and Kraig Grady. And the highlight
of this trip: my first meeting with Erv Wilson.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to see everyone I wanted to.
Apologies to Jon Szanto, Dave Hill, Harvey Starr, and my
friends who teach at UCSD (John Fonville, Rand Steiger,
Aleck Karis, Harvey Sollberger, George Lewis), which was
closed for winter break.

The good news is: I'll be moving back to San Diego within
the next month or so (thanks principally to the magnanimity
of Jonathan Glasier), so there will be plenty of opportunities
for future get-togethers.

There's a lot of interesting stuff from the past week+ of
Tuning Digests to which I'd like to contribute. This one
jumped out at me first:

> [John Link, TD 480.3]
> ONDAR AND THE EAGLES OF TUVA WITH
> TOM RUTISHAUSER AND JOE PEREIRA
> AT THE KNITTING FACTORY SUNDAY JANUARY 16 8PM
> MAIN STAGE Call for tickets: $10 and at the door $12
> Knitting Factory 74 Leonard St ( btwn Broadway and Church)
> New York, NY 10013 tel: 212.219.3006
> Ondar and the Eagles of Tuva practice the centuries-old
> Tuvan art of throat-singing, in which a soloist can sing
> several notes simultaneously. They also play traditional
> Tuvan instruments-the bowed igil and the doshpuluur. The
> Tuvans combine their sounds with their long time associate
> Tom Rutishauser on electric cello. Joe Pereira brings his
> array of percussion instruments from the New York Philharmonic.
> The show will center around the Tuvan music with a blend of
> free jazz and surprises. Ondar is People's Throat-Singer of
> Tuva and is the star in the internationaly acclaimed film
> "Genghis Blues"; Igor K�shkendey is the reigning world
> champion of throat-singing (UNESCO Festival of Throat-singing,
> 1998), and Yevgeny Saryglar is Ondar's star student at Ondar's
> School of Music in Kyzyl,capital of Tuva.

As luck would have it, I was calling Jonathan to invite he
and his wife out to dinner my last night in San Diego (Saturday,
the 8th), when he told me that they had plans to go see
_Genghis Blues_ and that Ondar would be performing live
after the movie. This was at the Ken theater, scene of
some of the most interesting cultural events in San Diego.

The movie is a documentary which chronicles the journey
of blind San Francisco blues singer and throat-singing
enthusiast Paul Pena to Tuva, to meet Ondar and participate
in the throat-singing competition in Kyzyl.

(Paul Pena is now suffering from pancreatic cancer, and
I encourage all who read this to search his name on the
internet and find out where they can send a financial
contribution to help him out.)

After the movie, Ondar and a handful of his students and
other Tuvan cohorts sang and performed live in the theater.

Jonathan pointed out that he heard a very recognizable
8/7 being used consistently for the 'major 2nd', while
I noted how frequently the reinforced harmonics in the
vocals hit a 'major 6th', which I thought sounded like
27/16, but which (as Jonathan noted) had to be 13/8 because
the fundamental, which the singers also sing in order to
produce the harmonics in the first place, would have to
be an 'octave' lower than the already very low note being
sung. We also both noticed that the 11th harmonic is
almost never used in this singing. The melodies use a
very restricted set of pitches: 1/1 9/8 5/4 3/2 13/8.

But despite the quality of singing from both Ondar and
his students, what I found most interesting was the playing
of the _igil_ by a young Tuvan whose name I don't recall.

This is a bowed string instrument with a range and size
approximately between a viola and a cello, but with a very
soft veiled sound. It has 3 strings, the lower two providing
a drone on 1/1 and 3/2, and the highest being stopped by
the fingers to produce the melody notes. It sounded to me
most like a sort of muted bagpipe.

In this man's playing, I *did* hear the 11/8 used frequently,
in addition to the other pitches typically used in the
throat-singing. But the 'major 3rd' was consistently played
much flatter than a 5/4, sounding to me most like 11/9.

It was a great show, which I caught more-or-less by accident,
and highly recommend New York area Listers to attend the
concert.

-monz

Joseph L. Monzo Philadelphia monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
--------------------------------------------------

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🔗johnlink@xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

>From: Joe Monzo <monz@juno.com>
>
>It was a great show, which I caught more-or-less by accident,
>and highly recommend New York area Listers to attend the
>concert.

Thanks for the report. I'm planning to attend this Sunday and will report
afterwards.

John Link

****************************************************************************

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🔗David Beardsley <xouoxno@xxxx.xxxx>

🔗johnlink@xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

>From: David Beardsley <xouoxno@home.com>
>
>Joe Monzo wrote:
>
>> As luck would have it, I was calling Jonathan to invite he
>> and his wife out to dinner my last night in San Diego (Saturday,
>> the 8th), when he told me that they had plans to go see
>> _Genghis Blues_ and that Ondar would be performing live
>> after the movie. This was at the Ken theater, scene of
>> some of the most interesting cultural events in San Diego.
>>
>> The movie is a documentary which chronicles the journey
>> of blind San Francisco blues singer and throat-singing
>> enthusiast Paul Pena to Tuva, to meet Ondar and participate
>> in the throat-singing competition in Kyzyl.
>
>Great heart touching movie. I saw it when it
>played NYC last winter.

I've seen it on video. I'll find out where to buy it and then post the info.

John Link

****************************************************************************

Check out WWW.DUESBERG.COM for information that could make the difference
between life and death for you or someone you know.

****************************************************************************

Tuvan throat-singing in NYC (and San Diego)

🔗Joe Monzo <monz@xxxx.xxxx>

🔗johnlink@xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

🔗David Beardsley <xouoxno@xxxx.xxxx>

🔗johnlink@xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)