Break the wall with sounds. The world is much wider than you thought.

用聲音打破那道高牆 看見比你想像更廣大的世界
聲音的海洋 深入傳統，創造屬於自己的傳統，與布農族一起歌唱。

( E n g l i s h  b e l o w )

用聲音打破那道牆，世界比你想像的還要巨大

2026 全新升級 聲音的海洋 與布農族合唱工作坊

2026年
2月26日到3月2日
南投水里 老五民宿

Singing a song with the males in center and the females surrounding.

‘’在五天四夜的旅程中，我們深入探索「聲音的海洋」‘’

這是馬克對人類在時間和空間中創造的音樂聲音和言語的彙編的等價詞。我們尋找來自世界各地的未知傳統，聆聽過往的經典並嘗試創作我們自己的版本。您還將學習如何自己或與他人一起即興創作一首傳統歌曲（一首催眠曲？一首祈禱曲？一首歡樂的問候歌？）。

如果您已經喜歡唱歌，並且知道自己的聲音有著如此多的色彩。但是只有其中一些色彩在日常生活中表達出來，現在我們要擴展這種創造性和聲音的潛力，一起看見自己聲音的光譜。

加入我們，一同慶祝人類聲音的力量和潛藏在其中的創造力。毫無疑問，您的祖先知道民謠、宗教聖詩、儀式詠唱：讓它們以新的形式再次浮出水面。

在我們探索的起點和亮點上，南投信義鄉明德部落的布農族非常樂意在他們每週的歌唱會上歡迎我們。您將有機會與他們近距離合唱，並從中學習他們創作複音多聲部歌曲的方式，並嘗試與他們一起合唱。這是對這座我們摯愛島嶼的許多美好傳統之一的親身沉浸，是極少數人曾經擁有的獨特機會！

與世界級的泛音詠唱大師 馬克范湯可鄰共渡五天四夜，作為聲音的學習者，這是一個能與全球級的歌唱家全身心的學習的機會，感受彼此細胞的共鳴，沉浸式的教學能讓你快速提昇，並有機會在課餘時間建立與大師的良好交流，全方位的進化，在台灣本地就能做到

**************************************
【工作坊重點】

※ 布農族明德部落拜訪共同歌唱
※ 布農族歌謠學唱
※ 八部合音練唱
※ 世界傳統歌謠學唱
※ 地中海島嶼民謠學唱
※ 非洲傳統歌謠學唱
※ 即興聲音遊戲聲音圈
※ 音樂作品即興創作
※ 果醬音樂共鳴之夜
※ 傳統樂器體驗

【參與對象】
+喜歡傳統歌謠，想沉浸式體驗布農族文化的你
+沒有專業歌唱基礎但是充滿好奇心的人
+需要一個活力的聲音療癒假期
+想要探索自己聲音的更多可能性
+專業音樂表演者，想探索傳統歌謠文化

本工作坊營造包容和接納的氛圍
學員將在支持身心靈的環境下進行成長和探索
參與者對當下正在進行的活動的加入均保持自在的選擇。

【我們的團隊】

本工作坊由 Mark van Tongeren 帶領
Jackal Mei、轟轟，和 張惜音 為您呈現。

Mark van Tongeren

Mark 是一位聲音探索者，對藝術、科學和冥想傳統的協同作用有著濃厚的興趣。Mark 在戲劇、音樂和舞蹈製作方面擁有超過30年的經驗，並擁有萊頓大學創意與表演藝術學院的博士學位。在他的工作中，他結合各種聲音/音樂/表演，有時與冥想練習（冥想、呼吸法、瑜伽）重疊。

觀看這個來自線上模組的預告片，展示泛音詠唱的7種基本技巧： https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnsrXNUjFSQ&t=6s

要了解這個工作坊的內容，請聆聽 Mark 關於聆聽和演唱泛音的 TEDx 演講： https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUdMIeoXRU&t=6s

Jackal Mei

自2019年起成為泛音詠唱/口簧琴愛好者，Jackal 深度參與台灣泛音詠唱協會和台灣世界口簧琴文化協會。他是 IUooUI 和內在銀河漫遊的成員。Jackal 也是甜點烘焙和咖啡的熱情愛好者，2019年起參與馬克的工作坊統籌工作

轟轟
台灣世界口簧琴推動第一人，創辦2屆世界口簧琴音樂節，2025被選為世界口簧琴協會社群工作負責，目前是世界口簧琴音樂文化協會的理事長，自2020年起擔任馬克的聲音的海洋工作坊專職翻譯。

張惜音

一位直覺歌手和聲音療癒實踐者，現居德國。她自2021年接受聲音療法培訓，現在致力於療癒音樂和聲音旅程的工作。

【布農族明德部落介紹】

布農族被譽為「合唱民族」，其八部合音Pasibutbut被聯合國教科文組織認定為世界音樂瑰寶。明德部落的Lileh合唱團，是全國首個獲文化部指定的「國家級重要傳統藝術保存團體」。8-12位歌者牽手圍圈，以母音共振，創造出布農族人稱為Bisosilin的「美好音響」——傳說這是天神最喜愛的聲音。

布農族是非常會使用複音演唱的民族，而且相信歌就是要一起唱才好聽，我們將學習他們的生活歌謠到慶典歌謠，最後來到神聖歌謠的和諧旅程。

試聽連結：https://open.spotify.com/album/7sXnzIZA5MDGC5w7NMkGgP…

【課程地點／住宿&餐食】
南投縣水里鄉 老五民宿

老五民宿位於南投水里上安村，在海拔400多公尺處的構築唐風綠建築，植樹造園打造生機盎然的美好鄉居。環繞著美麗的園林，生態池，草地，值得悠閒在此踱步、尋幽探險。每間房間皆是天然木材建材，讓身心沐浴在木質調的芬芳中，這將是一場從內到外的潔淨之旅，2026年新春後回歸充滿活力的自己。

㊣工作坊期間提供當地當季無肉的早午晚餐
㊣每日午茶點心咖啡皆為蛋奶素可食用

課程費用報單連結：https://forms.gle/kPSA5B6r9fQ8XiUM7

【聯絡資訊 】

關於英文內容的任何問題，請詢問 Mark；中文問題請詢問 Jackal Mei。 關於報名請詢問 Hsi-Yin，關於住宿安排和餐飲細節請詢問 Jackal。

Jackal Mei（主辦人） 電話：0936-596-910 郵件：jackallala@gmail.com Line ID：jackallala

Mark van Tongeren（課程帶領者） mark@fusica.nl 電話：0910382749 LINE：091038274

Hsi-Yin Chang（行政助理） hsiyin724@gmail.com

CHECK OUT OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS

RESONANCE X (10), 2026

Weekly Voice Yoga classes in Taipei

All upcoming events

Facebook PAGE updates

One link to all other platforms/socials: solo.to

Sign up for Mark’s mailinglist

send an email to info@fusica.nl

Ocean of Voices

Break the wall with sounds. The world is much wider than you thought.

26 February – 2 March, 2026

Shuili, Nantou, Taiwan

PROGRAM OUTLINE

In five days we dive deep into the Ocean of Sound, we uncover unknown traditions from around the globe, listen to examples and try out our own versions. You also learn how to create a traditional song (A lullaby? An invocation? A cheerful greeting song?) by yourself, or together, on the go. You already love to sing and already know your voice has so many shades. But only some of these shades find expression in everyday life, and now we expand this creative, sonic potential.

Join us for a celebration of the power of the human voice and of creative imagination lurking underneath the surface. Surely your ancestors knew folk songs, religious hymns, ceremonial chants: let them come back to the surface again, in a new guise. At the start and highlight of our exploration, the Bunun from XinYi are so kind to welcome us during their weekly singing session. You will have a chance to sing with them, up-close, and in this way you learn how they create their polyphonic songs and can try to join in with them. A first-hand immersion in one of the many living traditions of this beautiful island and a unique chance very few people have ever had!

DATES AND TIMES

Thursday 26 February

16-18 arrival time, check-in

18-19:30 dinner

19:30-21:00 introduction session Ocean of Voices.

Friday 27 February

9-12:30 Body and Sound exercise, global traditional song practice, improvising circle
12:30-14:30 lunchbreak

14:30-16:30 practice some traditional song and free-style singing

16:30-17:00 coffee and snack time.

17:00-18:00 practice some traditional song and free-style singing

18:00-19:30 dinner

20:00 Free interaction & break

Saturday 28 February

9-12:30 Body and sound exercise, traditional Taiwan Bunun tribe songs

12:30-14:30 lunch break

14:30-18:00 practice: exploring different vocal (maybe instrumental) traditions, and creating our own song in group and solo song.

16:30-17:00 coffee and snack time.

17:00-18:00 group sharing & solo sharing

18:00-19:30 dinner

20:00  Special Evening Jam: non-stop music making

Sunday 1 March

9 -12:30 session: go through Bunun and other practices, rounding up

12:30-14:30 lunch

14:30-16:30 exploring sound in the nature.

16:30-17:00 prepare for the road to Bunun

17:00-18:00 dinner

18:00-18:30 the road to Bunun

18:30-21:00 session with Bunun tribe

21:00 Return to our BNB and aftertalk

Monday 2 March

10-12:30 Presentation time to see what we harvested from this trip.

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-15:00 Farewell ＆ free interaction

We reserve the right to change the program times and themes.

PLACE

Old Five B&B

Shuili, Nantou

https://maps.app.goo.gl/FeUNj6WuwCAsEueSA

All meals are delicious, creative vegetarian cooking by our Local chef

FOR WHOM?

Anyone who is curious and confident enough to sing with others.

(Minimum: 10, maximum:14 people)

LANGUAGES

English + Chinese

HOW TO PREPARE?

Requirement: you will receive a download album by the Bunun (included) to prepare for the session with them. Sign up early and reserve some time to familiarize yourself with the repertoire!

OUR TEAM

This workshop is brought to you by Mark van Tongeren, Jackal Mei, Hong Hong, and Hsi-Yin Chang.

Mark van Tongeren 

Mark is a sound explorer with a deep interest in the synergy of arts, sciences and contemplative traditions. Mark has over 30 years of experience in theatre, music and dance productions and holds a PhD from Leiden University’s Academy of Creative of Performing Arts. In his work he combines all kinds of voice/music/performance, sometimes overlapping with contemplative practices (meditation, pranayama, yoga).

Watch this teaser from the online module showing the 7 basic techniques of overtone singing.

To get an idea of what this workshop is about, listen to Mark’s TEDx talk about listening and singing overtones.

Jackal Mei

An overtone singing / jaw harp enthusiast since 2019, Jackal is deeply involved with the Taiwan Overtone Singing Association and the Taiwan World Jaw Harp Culture Association. He is a member of IUooUI and Inner Galactic Wanderers. Jackal is also a passionate lover of dessert baking and coffee.

Hong Hong

Taiwan’s pioneering advocate for the jaw harp, founder of two editions of the World Jaw Harp Music Festival, and selected as the Community Work Coordinator for the International Jew’s Harp Society in 2025. Currently serving as President of the World Jaw Harp Music and Culture Association. Since 2020, has been the dedicated interpreter for Mark van Tongeren’s Ocean of voices workshops.

Hsi-Yin Chang

An intuitive singer and sound healing practitioner now living in Germany. She was trained in sound therapy since 2021 and is now dedicating her work to healing music and sound journeys.

CONTACT INFO

For any questions about the contents in English ask Mark, in Chinese, ask Jackal Mei.

For registration ask Hsi-Yin, for lodging and food details ask Jackal.

Jackal Mei (Organizer)

Phone: 0936-596-910

Mail: jackallala@gmail.com

Line ID: jackallala

Mark van Tongeren (Course facilitator)

mark@fusica.nl

Phone: 0910382749

LINE: 091038274

Hsi-Yin Chang (administration assistant)

hsiyin724@gmail.com

PAYMENT

Payment upon registration by bank or Paypal.

Bank code: 822.

Name of bank: China Trust

Beneficiary: Mark Christiaan van Tongeren

Account number: 163540306745

Make sure to send an email after your payment with the last few digits of your bank account.

CANCELLATION

We try to keep prices reasonable. We will return 90% of the fee if you cancel 60+ days prior to the workshop.

We will return 80% of the fee if you cancel 45 – 59 days prior to the workshop.

We will return 50% of the fee if you cancel 30 – 44 days prior to the workshop.

We will return 30% of the fee if you cancel 15 – 29 days prior to the workshop.

We will return 10% of the fee if you cancel 1 – 14 days prior to the workshop.

If you find a substitute for your spot, we will only keep 10% of the administration fee.

Photos by Jackal Mei

【Course Fees & Contact Information】

The newly upgraded Ocean of voices workshop maintains its intimate quality with a 14-person limit, while upgrading both venue and accommodation. Located next to the Bunun Mingde Village, we’ve eliminated the exhausting commute, giving you more time to explore and play with sound. This is your best choice for a 2026 spring journey into sound.

Regular Price: NT$26,000

Before January 15, 2026: Early Bird Discount: NT$21,000

Returning Student Discount: NT$20,800

[Returning students are those who have completed at least 5 full days of workshops]

Fee Includes:

• Workshop tuition
• Lunch, snacks and coffee during the workshop
• Full event insurance

Fee Does Not Include:

• Transportation to Shuili
• Accommodation during the workshop [Please contact Jackal for room reservations]

Accommodation: 5 days/4 nights from Thursday evening Feb 26 until Sunday March 2 at 1:30pm

Room Options:

△ Double Room (2 guests)

▲ 2 single beds NT$8,000 (per person)

△ Triple Room (3 guests)

▲ 2 single beds + 1 double bed NT$8,000 (per person for single bed) / NT$10,800 (per person for double bed)

△ Quad Room (2 guests) ▲ 2 double beds NT$14,000 (per person)

Note: Lao Wu Guesthouse provides breakfast and dinner for guests. If participants choose to stay at other nearby guesthouses, breakfast and dinner arrangements must be made rearrangement .

REGISTRATION

Opening: 1st Jan

Early bird period 1: until 15th Jan

Early bird period 2: until 31th Jan

Closing date: 12th Feb.

DISCLAIMER

By signing up you automatically acknowledge your understanding that this retreat sometimes involves strenuous physical exercise, potentially disrupting body-work and emotionally charged sessions with a deep impact on your well-being. It is understood that you yourself best know of any risks (physical, emotional, psychological) and that there is no pressure or obligation to do each and every exercise. By joining this retreat you accept the consequences and state your intention to complete it till the end. You waive all rights to seek or receive compensation in case of injury, loss or damage that is not directly caused by us.

CHECK OUT OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS

RESONANCE X (10), 2026

Weekly Voice Yoga classes in Taipei

All upcoming events

Facebook PAGE updates

One link to all other platforms/socials: solo.to

Sign up for Mark’s mailinglist

send an email to info@fusica.nl

Voice Yoga

Other upcoming events:

https://www.fusica.nl/upcoming-workshops/

And on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/paraphony

The post 2026 和布農族一起歌唱 聲音的海洋工作坊 Ocean of Voices with the Bunun appeared first on Fusica.

The story began a long time ago and more or less by accident. In 1989 I was a student volunteer for the Voices Festival in The Netherlands and Belgium. First I was assigned to assist the King’s Singers on their tour, as a representative of the festival organisation. One of the top choirs in classical music at that moment. Then the festival changed my assignment. They learnt about my interest in world music and decided I was more suitable for a traditional music program. The largest of two groups I guided was Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, which was quickly becoming a public favorite, with ongoing concert tours around the world for years to come. The other ensemble was much less known: A Cumpagnia from the isle of Corsica. The ensemble was built around the artistic community of Pigna and had just launched an album of traditional Corsican songs on the Harmonia Mundi label.
It was a life-changing experience to witness these musicians rehearse and perform their music day by day, and to assist them with their needs. The best part was yet to come though. At the end of their succesful double-bill tour in the Netherlands and Belgium, they told me one of them would not fly back to Corsica: sensing that this young student was very eager to absorb as much as he could from musical traditions, they wondered: would I be interested to use the ticket and come to Corsica? It was an offer you can’t refuse. But I refused. I had musicology exams coming up and declined the kind offer with pain in my heart. However, the invitation was made, and I would come at a more convenient time.

First visit to Corsica
That moment came Summer next year. With a friend I hitchhiked to South France, got on the ferry and arrived on the stunningly beautiful island of Corsica. There I looked for Mr. Acquaviva in a supermarket he managed in a little town. He kindly invited us to join the rehearsal a few days later, and so I came to make my first visit to the little village of Pigna, the residency of the artistic community of ‘vagabonds’ established over a decade earlier by Toni and Nicole Casalonga. It was (still is) a typical, gorgeous mediterranean hillside village: compact, with small winding cobblestone roads (mostly too narrow for cars), and solid houses built from natural rocks, ages ago. The weekly rehearsal took place at the Casa Musicale, a restaurant and pension at the edge of the village, with a grand view over the Bay of Calvi. It is too long ago to remember all the details; I think they played more instruments than they did in the concert tour, but they surely sang a lot as well. What has really stayed with me, however, is Nando’s invitation to join their singing. I never sang with musicians, only privately, and occasionally. The thought of joining musicians who had just toured in Dutch and Belgium theaters was utterly surprising. Singing? Me? With you?? Nando reassured me, explaining I could simply tag along and try: no big deal! On that spot some of my reservations about my voice, perhaps an instinctive shyness, as if it is something better kept private, vanished. I sang along and thoroughly enjoyed being part of the roaring harmonies these men produced.

We came back later to the Casa Musicale to stay overnight in the pension. I particularly remember eating in the restaurant, on the terrace, and tasting locally grown tomatoes unlike any tomato I ever ate before, as well as a dish with local basil. Al the senses were stimulated enough to make me long to go back. But I had to wait a few decades before that came to pass. The memory of the musicians remained, and in particular of Nando’s unexpected invitation to come to Pigna and join the singing. The seeds were planted and were nourished by the albums of Corsican music I found. Far away from the island itself, I immersed myself time and again in their rich polyphonies and often sang along.

The open-throated voice in traditional polyphonic singing
The singers of A Cumpagnia are all masters of the various forms of Corsican polyphony, the art of weaving several melodic lines together in ever-changing ways. Many Corsican villages have their own distinct repertoire of singing, which are either religious (and based on Latin texts) or secular (and based on poetry in the Corsican language). When singing a paghjella, three male singers produce their own vocal line with a powerful, open-throated chest voice. All vowels are produced with a minimum of obstruction in the vocal tract, in contrast with (European) classical singing, for which the open sound is modified by posturing the back and root of the tongue in different ways, and lowering the jaw. The sound flow is not as direct as it could be, and makes the tone darker. It adds a certain amount of artifice – and quite a lot of it in the case of some singers and styles. Add to it the typical vibrato that is produced deeper down in the throat and you are already far, far away from the natural open-throated sound of traditional Corsican singing.

As a young student, growing up hearing plenty of classical music at home, as well as jazz and pop (with many techniques to add colouring), this natural voice struck me as different. I was mesmerized by the qualities of the voices. There was a rawness and … honesty, as if the inner quality of a man comes through unveiled. When the second and third voice joined the main singer, they supercharged it, their lines joining in full force, making themselves stand out just as clear as the main voice. Usually the Corsican three-part polyphony would proceed as follows: shortly after the main singer begins the opening phrase, the others step in to add a note of their choice. Together they produce a three-tone chord, but the main melody and the chords keep changing. The two other singers follow the lead singer, adding a bass note and another note in between the lead voice and the bass. Each song type has well-established procedures for the development of the main voice. This gives each voice some room to play with their part. The bass wil generally start mid-range and in the course of several phrases descend to the lowest tone. Every time I hear it, this gives me the feeling there is something centering about Corsican polyphony: during a song you experience a gravitational force that is guaranteed to put you firmly on the ground when the phrase or song ends. Another feature is that many songs are in a minor key, but end on a major key.

Nando’s Mimofonia

One of the things that impressed me during A Cumpagnia’s first visit was the use of a sign language to create vocal polyphony. Nando would sing with two other men, and use his hands and fingers to indicate the harmony that they would sing. In this way the trio could remain in a natural flow of singing, while Nando could communicate possibilities and direction for the harmony in real time without talking. He could indicate how fast or slow they would change the chord, moving down or up, holding back certain progressions, make a bigger leap than usuaul etc. I found it amazing that a single person could hear the chords he wished to hear in his head and had a way to tell the others to follow the progressions he was foreseeing.

Another reason why it struck me, was that as a newcomer, the three voices were so resonant, and my ears were so attuned to overtones, that the richness overwhelmed and intoxicated me. Later, when listening to album recordings of Corsican polyphony, I sometimes could not tell how many parts there were. I might believe I was hearing 5 singers when in fact there were only three. And even I saw there were just three singers, I had a hard time catching everything that was happening. In the live sitation, onstage or during practise in Pigna, there was someone for whom all these parts were so transparent, that he had the mental space to create his own line on the spot as well as the two others, and use hand gestures to direct them. Nando did that without visible effort: he had a certain softness in his facial expressions, and a fluency in the way his hands and arms moved. During one visit, I asked him to show me how he used it, and we made photographs of each hand sign. (Unfortunately, I cannot find any video where we see the mimofonia live in action).

20+ years later

Decades later, I had a chance to get to know Nando better during various visits to Corsica, and occasional long-distance phone calls. My wife organised aromatherapy tours in the Meditterranean, and I insisted we should all go to this island, because I had vivid memories not only of the music, but also of the powerful aromas. After I had taken our family of four around the island for a two-week exploration, she felt that this was something to share with her students, lovers of fragrance, flowers, essential oils and botanical and cultural explorations in general. And so I became a tourguide for Chinese-speaking visitors. The itinerary always included a visit to Pigna and a concert or workshop with Nando and other musicians.

When we first arrived as a family, we visited the splendid botanical garden Parc Sallecia before heading for Pigna. In the park’s shop, we bought an album by a singer with the same name as Nando: Battista Acquaviva. That evening we went to the opening of the Festivoce (a great festival that is still happening every year). I saw Nando and introduced myself, 20+ years after we last met. He was standing next to a beautiful, tall lady: the one from the album we had just bought! It was his daughter. And so began a re-acquaintance and deeper understanding of Corsican music.

When the first group of aromatherapists arrived in Pigna next year, Nando performed together with Battista (a privilege that did not last long since she soon became a sensation (12 million views and counting!) in the French version of the popular TV-show The Voice.) Nando shared his passion for Corsican music, and welcomed me at home together with his family each time I visited. It was usually a day, or maybe two, that I was in the region. We had lots to talk about: I was hungry to learn more about his musical life and that of Pigna and the island as a whole. And Nando was very interested in musicology. I learnt that mimofonia was Nando’s own way to understand and create the polyphonic forms of his native region. It was he who had invented this system, which was not in general use – though one other active singer and teacher, Nicole Casalonga, also uses it to this day. Alongside the gestures, Nando wished to codify and indicate the finer variations in tuning, for which Corsican singers posses such a skilled ear.

Last but not least, Nando was a poet, a fanastic storyteller, philosopher: he could talk in the most captivating way about music and connect it with plants, fragrances, history, literature. Above all, he would speak from an unparallelled poetic imagination, weaving words and ideas like no one else. Here is his description of polyphony, from the album A Cumpagnia – in Paghjella:

Besides Casa Musicale, I would sometimes visit Claude Bellagamba, who runs a bar/restaurant in Pigna. His voice rings like a bell and makes the most extraordinary flourishes: you can hear him on many tracks of the seminal album Corsica – Chants Polyphoniques. On one occasion, it was time for a next step in my attempts to understand Corsican polyphony, and give my understanding of mimofonia a try without the aid of other singers singing my part. One of my favorite songs is Ecco Bella, and that’s what we tried to sing together. Click below to hear our version: the lead voice is by Claude Bellagamba, I was trying my best with the bass, and Nando usually comes in later to provide the highest voice.

The pandemic put an end to our yearly travels and I have not returned to Corsica again, yet. I treasure the memories and the generous sharing of his skill and knowledge. He passed on his skills to many others, and especially to Battista, who gives her own unique colour and expression to old and new music from the Balagne and elsewhere. I still take to heart that precious first session in Pigna. I recall this episode in my own Ocean of Voices workshops about musical traditions, encouraging students to start trying out new things with their voices.

Thank you, Nando and family, and thank you, members of A Cumpagnia!

More Sources

The breakthrough album that also led to their tour to the Benelux was E Voce Di U Cumune, Marcel Pérès – Corsica : Chants Polyphoniques from 1987.

Reissued and also on the streaming platforms in its ugly new ‘budget series’ cover. Make sure to check it out, the musicians were all in their prime, around 30 years young.

The album A Cumpagnia In Paghjella is also a great starting point (https://www.casa-editions.com/boutique/p/in-paghjella-a-cumpagnia).

Many more albums can be found on the label Casa Editions, run in Pigna.

If you want to read more:
The definitive work about Nando’s investigations into Corsican polyphony, including his mimofonia, is: Ignazio Macchiarella, ‘Il Restauratore di Polifonie’, in his book Ignazio Macchiarella (editor) – Tre Voce per Pensare il Mondo. Pratiche polifoniche confraternali in Corsica, Il Campo, 2011: pp. 142-.173.
A thorough English introduction to Corsican music is Caroline Bithel’s Transported by Song:
Corsican Voices from Oral Tradition to World Stage. Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2007.

Hear another example of an open-throated voice? Listen to each voice in this video I recorded of a Miserere from Castelsardo, Sardinia.

Sardinia and Corsica are also discussed in my book Overtone Singing, with a recording from Sardinia where a very clear overtone melody can be heard above the four singers (on the Anthology of Overtone Singing). Go to the page of The Overtone Singing Book.

Hear Nando and his daughter Battista perform together, at 17m 45s in this video:

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For decades I have known a technique of Western overtone singing that I heard perform only one time. Many singers use the technique on which it is based, which I call the L-technique, as their standard for singing overtones. But I suspect that this particular technique is unknown to most overtone singers. Since hearing the shimmering, glistening sound of this unique method, I practise it occasionally. Recently I notice it does not sound as clear as it used to, and so it is high time to share it with others, who then can also use it. I am now getting it back in shape again and will present this technique in a live performance as part of a longer piece, next month in my solo show In|nbalance in Potsdam. In this video I tell a bit more about it and show the technique.

I will give three workshops especially for Designing Voices in Potsdam about overtones and resonance stuffed with information and exercises about many overtone singing techniques, from various forms of Tibetan chant through Western techniques to Tuvan/Mongolian techniques.

So the technique has one clear characteristic that makes it stand out: it highlights two overtones while not sounding the overtone that is between them. This goes against the common wisdom of every practising overtone singer, which holds that you try to concentrate the sound energy in one clear, central overtone. With this little-known technique, it seems you sort of split this energy out again in two directions around one central overtone that you cannot hear. When normally you try to focus all energy on, say, overtone number 9, you now adjust your tongue so that the energy flows out to numbers 8 and 10, making both of them loud enough to be heard. A rather unusual procedure. Very characteristic is the combination of the seventh and the ninth overtones, leaving out number eight; and also nine combined with eleven (with number ten being inaudible). (For the microtonality / Just Intonation freaks and serious singers: more details about the overtone range at the bottom of this post)

For reasons I cannot fully fathom myself, I have never spoken to anybody about this technique: not with Michael Vetter, not with Borg Diem Groeneveld or with other overtone singers. Somehow it remained this special treasure all this time. It is possible others have heard it and know more: please drop me a line if you do. Since I do not know if Michael Vetter ever gave this technique a name, I need to come up with one. I usually think of it as the ‘parallel third technique’ but there can be a fourth in the low range and possibly seconds in the higher range. I find the parallel thirds the most striking element, however, so I prefer that name: the “parallel-third technique.”

Interesting detail: the storm created a special atmosphere in the church in Utrecht: this was also clearly palpable in the live broadcast itself. It was amplified by the storm we, listeners, heard at home, raging outside. This situation and the name Töne im Sturm is also very fitting for the theme of the In|nbalance program I am working on. Is it a coincidence that unusually strong winds are blowing around my place in Amsterdam for several days now, in September 2025, while I am working on this piece and this video? Every now and then the rain flies past my window almost horizontally. The wind produces ominous, low rumbles day and night; rustling sounds produced by thousands of leaves come and go in waves; and then there are the ‘ordinary’ sounds of wind, mid-range, between these high and low frequencies. Three stacked layers of sound. Just as in the parallel-third technique itself.

Michael Vetter with brezel (pretzel). Photo by Mark van Tongeren

The radio programme that featured Michael Vetter’s concert, baptised Töne im Sturm (‘Tones in the Storm’) by the singer, was De Wandelende Tak, which mostly featured traditional music from around the world, often original recordings by musicians, ethnomusicologists and other people with special knowledge of that tradition. I was a frequent guest myself in this program with recordings from Siberia, Mongolia, Kalmykia and other places. The overtone singing concert from Vetter was characteristic of the ambiguous status of overtone singing, because it is not traditional music, like the content of nearly all other episodes of De Wandelende Tak. The concert was organised by Diem Groeneveld, a long-time Dutch student of Michael Vetter and a fine overtone singer himself. Walter Slosse was the host who interviewed Groeneveld about Vetter before and after the concert, and it was broadcast by the VPRO.

This is my recording of the radio programme, made on a cassette and later transfered to the computer. There is a  silence towards the end for a short while, of which I am not sure at which stage it happened – probably during the A/D conversion.

After listening again, I conclude that Vetter’s technique was in an absolutely superb state at this point,

as can be heard  in all the ‘ordinary styles’of overtone singing. The parallel technique becomes clear particularly at around 12:45, and comes back several times later. 

Töne im Sturm.

Live radio broadcast for VPRO radio’s

De Wandelende Tak, mid-1990s.

Details about the range of overtones and their distances

For the overtone cogniscenti: the extremes on the recording of my own version are overtones ten and twelve, but I can go as high as twelve and fourteen, and as low as six and eight. Every time, the overtone in between them is not audible. Nearly all these combinations are variations of the interval of a third. The interesting thing is of course that every third is different, as the distance between the two tones grows smaller with every higher step on the harmonic scale. The H6 + H8 combination, my lowest combination, is a near-perfect fourth apart (497 cents, in case you were wondering), then next is the largest third H7 + H9 (a very large major third of 435 cents). The thirds progressively decrease their distance: the smallest and highest interval I could still sing clearly with this technique is a very small minor third of the overtones H12 + H14 (266 cents).

To hear this technique in its full splendour, come to Potsdam next month! And to learn more, I will give three workshops especially for Designing Voices in Potsdam about overtones and resonance stuffed with information and exercises about many overtone singing techniques, from various forms of Tibetan chant through Western techniques to Tuvan/Mongolian techniques. Check out all the details here.

For all workshop dates in Amsterdam/Potsdam/

Zürich/Vilnius/Ljubljana/Helsinki:

check my upcoming events page.

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Nous avons le plaisir de vous inviter à célébrer la naissance de l’œuvre multi-instrument “Le Rêve” lors de cette “Listening Party”.

“Le Rêve” est une création dirigée par Arnaud Lechat (貓阿諾), qui y joue de la flûte, Daf et Bendir, avec la participation de Mark van Tongeren (voix, guimbardes, shruti box) et Zhan Yachun (詹雅淳) à la danse. Arnaud et Mark ont enregistré une version purement musicale en avril 2024, sortie en novembre de la même année. L’enregistrement et le mastering ont été réalisés par Yannick Dauby (澎葉生), qui assurera pour l’occasion une expérience d’écoute de haute qualité grâce à son matériel professionnel. L’équipe de création de “Le Rêve” ainsi que la percussionniste Mona Kaveh Ahangari présenteront les origines de ce projet. En plus de l’album et de contenus audio-visuels, la soirée comprendra une performance improvisée ainsi qu’une version inédite d’un des morceaux.

夢境｝Listening Party : Le Rêve

信鴿法國書店很高興邀請各位讀者透過這場Listening Party，一起來慶祝《夢境 Le Rêve》這部多樂器作品的誕生。

《夢境 Le Rêve》由負責蕭與打擊樂的貓阿諾領銜創作，加上Mark van Tongeren的人聲、口簧、Shruti box演出以及詹雅淳的舞蹈表演。貓阿諾與 Mark 於2024年4月錄製了純音樂版，於同年11月發行。聲音錄製與母帶處理由澎葉生負責，本場Listening Party將由他以專業設備帶來高品質聆聽體驗。《夢境 Le Rêve》的創作團隊，以及打擊樂手 Mona Kaveh Ahangari，將為大家介紹計畫起源。除了專輯本身及相關影音作品外，現場也將呈現即興演出以及一首尚未發表的曲目版本。

Listening Party – Le Rêve
時間 Date / 地點 Lieu

2025.04.25 ven. 19:30 Librairie Le Pigeonnier 信鴿法國書店

報名 | Inscription | reservations compulsory

* 本活動已額滿 *
* Complet *
* sold out *

* 本活動將以法中雙語語進行，英語輔助。 Cette rencontre se déroulera en bilingue français-chinois. This event is bilingual French/Mandarin.

The physical album is now available in stores across Taiwan and will be available around the world on all the major streaming services by the time of the Listening Party.

on APPLE MUSIC

on SPOTIFY

Or watch the compilation video of the performances that Yachun

showed during the evening.

With/avec

Arnaud Lechat est un musicien et compositeur français installé à Taiwan. Il travaille pour de nombreuses pièces de danse, d’improvisation moderne, de cirque, de littérature et de poésie, ainsi que pour le dessin et le cinéma. Arnaud est co-réalisateur du film documentaire “Doumadiao” sur l’opéra taïwanais et l’auteur de nombreux documentaires pour Radio Taiwan Internationale sur les musiques de Taiwan dans son émission “Désorientales”. Il a récemment publié trois albums : “Delivrænce 9”, “Transhuman / Subhuman” et “Sur les ailes de l’heure bleue”. Un quatrième album, “Le Rêve”, réalisé en duo avec Mark van Tongeren, vient également de sortir.

貓阿諾 Arnaud Lechat
法國音樂家貓阿諾 Arnaud Lechat 是一位居住在台灣的法國音樂家和作曲家。在長達 25 年的創作生涯中，他參與了許多現代舞、即興音樂、馬戲、文學與詩歌、雜技、繪畫和電影的作品。貓阿諾是探討台灣歌仔戲的紀錄片《Doumadiao》的共同導演，同時也是台灣廣播電台節目《Désorientales》的多部台灣音樂紀錄片的製作人。他曾發行：《Delivrænce 9》、《Transhuman / Subhuman》以及《Sur les ailes de l’heure bleue》等三張專輯，並與 Mark van Tongeren 合作，在2024年推出了第四張專輯《Le Rêve》。

Zhan Yachun
Born in Taichung, Taiwan. She is a freelance performer, dance art creator and performance art teacher. She likes to explore her own possibilities through experimentation and improvisation in dance art. By chance, she began to collaborate with different musicians as a dancer in improvisation concerts in these few years. Current works include 2018 « Ridiculous », « Neverland », 2020 « The », 2021 « An Imagination About the Soul » video version, 2022 « Fairy Tale Life Accident », « Untitled »,2023 in D-Lab which is a platform of create to published «Caterpillar» ,2024 «Lady W & Lady M».

Zhan Yachun, née à Taichung, Taïwan, est une artiste indépendante et enseignante en arts de la performance. Elle explore les possibilités de la danse à travers l’expérimentation et l’improvisation. Ces dernières années, elle a commencé à collaborer avec des musiciens en tant que danseuse lors de concerts d’improvisation. Elle continue également de créer des œuvres de danse. Parmi ses récents travaux figurent Ridiculous (2018), Neverland et The (2020), An Imagination About the Soul (version vidéo, 2021), Fairy Tale Life Accident et Untitled (2022), ainsi que Caterpillar en 2023 sur la plateforme D-Lab. En 2024, elle a créé Lady W & Lady M.

詹雅淳 Zhan Yachun

來自於台中的詹雅淳是一位自由表演者、舞蹈藝術創作者及表演藝術教師。她喜歡透過實驗和即興創作來探索自己在舞蹈藝術中的可能性。近幾年來，她偶然開始作為舞者與不同音樂家合作參與即興演出。並持續創作舞蹈肢體作品。近期作品包括 2018 年的《Ridiculous》，《Neverland》，2020 年的《The》，2021 年的《An Imagination About the Soul》影片版，2022 年的《Fairy Tale Life Accident》，《Untitled》，2023 年在 D-Lab 平台上創作並發表的《Caterpillar》，以及 2024 年的《Lady W & Lady M》。

Yannick Dauby (France / Taiwan)

Sound artist and field recordist. Sound designer/mixer for cinéma.
Audio documentary, experimental music and micro-movies enthusiast.
Inspired by ethnographic practices, stories about forests & mountains and marine ecology. Collaborates with communities in rural Taiwan and Indigenous territories.

Enregistrement de terrain et création sonore. Post-production audio pour l’image. Amateur de documentaires sonores, de musique expérimentale et de micro-cinéma. Inspiré par la pratique de l’ethnographie, les histoires de montagnes et de forêts et l’écologie marine. Collabore avec des communautés rurales et aborigènes à Taiwan.

www.kalerne.net

澎葉生 Yannick Dauby

現場錄音與聲音創作、作品音訊後製。 澎葉生熱愛聲音紀錄片、實驗音樂與微電影。他靈感來自民族誌的實踐、山林故事與海洋生態，並與台灣的農村與原住民社群合作。

Recording in progress

Mona Kaveh Ahangari

Mona Kaveh Ahangari, née à Téhéran en 1982, a débuté sa carrière musicale en 2005 et est devenue une joueuse de daf de niveau avancé en 2013. Elle a joué avec des ensembles renommés en Iran et à l’international avant de fonder le Barin Ensemble en 2016. En s’installant à Taïwan en 2018, elle est devenue la seule enseignante de daf du pays, organisant des concerts et des ateliers pour promouvoir la musique et la culture iraniennes. En 2020, elle a fondé le Mastaneh Music Band et le Daf Ensemble, les seuls groupes taïwanais dédiés à la musique iranienne, mettant en avant des musiciens taïwanais interprétant des rythmes iraniens. À travers sa musique et ses performances, elle continue de favoriser les échanges culturels.

Mona Kaveh Ahangari 於 1982 年出生於德黑蘭，2005 年開始音樂生涯，並於 2013 年成為高階達夫鼓（Daf）演奏家。她曾與伊朗及國際知名樂團合作演出，並於 2016 年創立 Barin Ensemble。2018 年，她移居台灣，成為全台唯一的達夫鼓教師，並透過演出及工作坊推廣伊朗音樂與文化。2020 年，她創立 Mastaneh Music Band 及 Daf Ensemble，這是台灣唯一專注於伊朗音樂的樂團，並獨特地由台灣音樂家演奏伊朗節奏。她的音樂創作與演出，持續促進文化交流。

Mark van Tongeren

Mark van Tongeren 是一位民族音樂學家和音樂家，擁有萊頓大學創意與表演藝術學院的藝術研究博士學位。他有超過 30 年的戲劇、音樂和舞蹈製作經驗，並曾在西伯利亞、台灣和藏族僑民社區進行田野調查。他以在泛音歌唱和圖瓦 khöömei 音樂領域的工作而聞名，並通過他的書籍《Overtone Singing》（Terra Nova Press 2022）以及他的專輯《Anthology of Overtone Singing》展示了這些研究成果。他是國際音樂與舞蹈傳統理事會原住民音樂與舞蹈學術小組的副主席，並曾或目前與 Silo Theatre、Oorbeek、Parafonia、IUooUI 等團體以及許多其他藝術家合作。

Mark van Tongeren est un ethnomusicologue et musicien titulaire d’un doctorat en recherche artistique de l’Académie des Arts Créatifs et Performants de l’Université de Leiden. Il possède plus de 30 ans d’expérience dans les productions théâtrales, musicales et de danse, et a effectué des travaux de terrain en Sibérie, à Taiwan et au sein de la diaspora tibétaine. Il est surtout connu pour son travail dans le domaine du chant harmonique et du khöömei touvain, à travers son livre Overtone Singing (Terra Nova Press 2022) et son album Anthology of Overtone Singing. Il est vice-président du groupe d’étude pour la musique et la danse indigènes du Conseil international pour les traditions de la musique et de la danse, et a été ou est encore actif au sein des groupes Silo Theatre, Oorbeek, Parafonia, IUooUI et avec de nombreux autres artistes.

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Please note: If you buy / bought Le Rêve through Bandcamp, you use the Bandcamp download function to get your files. Outside Bandcamp (for example when you bought the physical CD), you can use the QR code to go to the Proton-cloud to get your files. If you encounter any problems, let us know and we’ll help you out.

The 1910 painting by Henri Rousseau which inspired Arnaud to write his new work

Recording in progress (photo: Sunny Chen)

 

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The post Out Now: Le Rêve Album appeared first on Fusica.

Now, how to search online if your preferred term for the most accessible, most adorable, most transportable instrument happens to be *‘trump’*? By informing yourself about all the other names in existence. ‘Trump’ is but one of more than 1100 names for the same instrument. Phons Bakx, the renowned Dutch Jew’s harp player and researcher, recently shared the latest version of his list with me. Carefully collected during decades of research, with the same rigour that anthropologist Bakx applied earlier to investigations into other obscure instruments, like the bullroarer and a certain non-Tibetan type of singing bowl played on the countryside of Brittany (France).

So check out the 1100+ names for *Jew’s harps*, go to this page

http://www.antropodium.nl/Duizend%20Namen%20Mhp%20voorw%20ENG.htm

and click on this line 

(Click here) ► for the Nomenclature of Jew’s harp Names

Be patient if the list does not show up immediately! If there is a warning, ignore it and click ‘continue’. You might also try this one directly:

https://www.antropodium.nl/Duizend%20Namen%20Mhp%20NOMENCLATUUR.htm

Of course, many names for these ‘marranzano pancakes’ (a term actually in use in the States) are quite common and well-known. In Siberia and far beyond, many people know the *khomus*, here in Taiwan more and more people are becoming familiar with the *lubuw* and in Germanic-speaking countries we have the *Maultrommel*, *mondharp* and *mouth harp*. In South Africa, the Xhosa people’s *isitolotolo* is little-known but gee whiz, what a beautiful name it is!

With ever better translating tools (AI!), we may expect more and more reports around the world about President Khomus, President Isitolotolo, President Lubuw and so on in the next four years – you can read the 1150 other variations for yourself but I continue to use some names here, like *this*, so you know what I am talking about.

Meanwhile excitement is building up here in Taiwan, this time for non-political reasons. Final preparations are made now for the truly grand World Jaw Harp Music Festival. One that was envisioned many years ago, but which due to corona become a rather small-scale event in 2022 (see my photos here). But now it has grown to impressive proportions, with musicians attending from all over the place, plus of course a huge representation of local and regional talents. The performer’s list kept on growing in recent months: it seems a second Asian hub for *doromb* is in the making here! The first Asian hub for *guimbarda* being, what else, Siberia. In particular Yakutia, the republic which carries the *timir khomus* as its emblem, because the Yakuts (or Sakha’s) are the world’s most fanatic makers and players of *pangapoans*.

https://www.jawharpfestivaltw.com/

But who knows about other *gewgaws* in Siberia? What kind of *genggong* music do other indigenous people in Siberia have, such as the Negidaltsi, the Ket, the Chukchi – you probably never even heard the names of these people before (check out the map below to read all their names). So let me share some obscure recordings from the early days of my own *kunka* infatuation. I listened again and again to a double-album (2-LP) I bought in Moscow in 1992, an anthology of indigenous music from Siberia and Russia’s Far East. It was compiled by composer and music collector Igor Bogdanov (whom I met in Moscow in the year 2000, to learn more about an extraordinary triple album of Tuvan traditional music he had produced in the 1980s). There are a total of seven pieces with *vargan* players. This album, and my fieldwork in Tuva in 1993, is where I got my early *morchang* education: not from Yakutia, which is absent on this album (because it is dedicated to the “small-numbered” peoples of Siberia and the Far East). Besides the series of Siberian field recordings from Henri Lecomte on Buda Records (1992-now), each dedicated to one ethnic group, not much was ever published on disc for many of these peoples, as far as I know. And this two-elpee collection stands out as a fantastic introduction to the singing, the instruments and the shamanic séances which can be heard on this gigantic landmass covered in permafrost. (There are quite a few other very obscure instruments, too).

We start with an upbeat style played on the *tumran* from the Khanti-Mansi people (the *names* I write here are the actual names in use by these Siberian peoples). The reverb you hear on all recordings was added in the studio: this was a standard procedure in folk music recordings for Melodiya Records. It adds a certain touch that over time became associated with traditional music recordings from the Soviet Union, and which, I have to admit, has its own charm. 

Next is another upbeat piece from the Selkup, with two instruments indicated, each with a different name: *kypa* and *pyngyr*. Might these be two harps?

We continue with the lovely combination of the *pymyl*, together with the zooming disc mergeykoya from the Ket group. Listen to the lovely layered melodies from the *pymyl*, an octave apart: there is more going on than you might think.

Next are two pieces from Evenki, Eveni and Negidaltsy, the album notes do not tell which one is which.

The first one of these reminds one strongly of the Yakut style of playing and making *kumyzs*. The – presumably Evenki-  instrument is called *kordavun* and is even tuned up a half tone towards the end.

The second of these one is the much lower, darker sounding *kunkakhi* of, I think, the Negidaltsi, with plenty of breathing sounds.

We move on to the Nivkh of the Far East, whose instrument is called *kangan* (pronounced as kan-gan) and with a very low pitch.

The last one is yet something very different, the very dynamic *vanny* from the Chuvash or Chukchi. My guess: the Chukchi, who are living next to the Bering straight. I have once seen a group performing in the Netherlands, with some fine *čangko’uz* playing.

Of course by now you wish to know: where to find these peoples? Here is a map printed in the nice 2-CD compilation The Spirits are Listening. Music of Indigenous Siberian Peoples by Henri Lecomte, whom I mentioned above.

Finally, let me be clear about President Isitolotolo: his election is not a joke, but it is not the end of the world either if you are in the other camp. The Dutch historian Johan Huizinga had this to say about American politics, in his groundbreaking 1938 study Homo Ludens:

More obvious than in British parliamentarianism is the Game element in American political mores. Long before the two-party system in the United States came closest to assuming the character of two teams, whose political difference was hardly distinguishable to the outsider, the electoral propaganda there completely took the form of great national games. The presidential election of 1840 created there the style for all later ones. Candidate then was the popular General Harrison. A program his supporters did not have, but a coincidence gave them a symbol, the log cabin, the rugged log cabin of the pioneer, and with that sign they won. Nomination of a candidate by largest volume of votes, i.e., by loudest shouts, was inaugurated by the election of 1860, which brought Lincoln to his post. The emotional character of American politics already lies in the origins of the national character, which never denied its origins in the primitive relations of a pioneer world. Blind party loyalty, secret organization, mass enthusiasm, combined with a childish desire for external symbols, give to the element of play in American politics something naive and spontaneous, that the younger mass movements in the Old World lack.

That was looking back into the 19th century, and up to Huizinga’s time, 1938. On the previous page Huizinga writes:

Modern culture is hardly ‘played’ anymore, and there where she seems to play, the play is foul. Meanwhile the distinction between play and non-play in the phenomena of civilisation becomes gradually harder to make, as one approaches one’s own time.

Nearly 90 years later things have changed, but reading the words of an original historian and cultural analyst can help us see that our current epoch is not the only one dealing with extreme situations.

My advice: use your *trump* / *lubuw* / *khomus* etc. wisely, as the Italians do: as a *scacciapen­sieri* – a *thought dispeller* or *gedachtenverdrijver*!!

The post President Lubuw, President Trump + obscure Siberian mouth harp recordings appeared first on Fusica.

Upon arrival I had noticed a fascinating adobe-colored tower on the grasslands surrounding the museum. I had had a quick look and listen but was most eager to explore it more indepth and invited my singers to join me after the concert. It turned out to be a splendid work of art, of architecture, or something in between. A sonorous temple graced with the most intricate light patterns I have ever seen on adobe-like structures (earthy hues have been my favorite at least since the beginning of this millennium). These shifting light rays are the result of several horizontal slits placed in irregular intervals along the body of the tower. We stood in awe, listened in awe, walked around in awe. Notwithstanding the presence of a few other visitors, we began quite naturally to emit our first tones. The resulting resonance was as soft and layered as the plastered walls, which had uneven, undulating surfaces that still showed the signs of paintbrushes. Our voices bounced off the walls in a pleasant, smooth way, not as crystal-like and pure as glass-covered structures, but with a coarser grain of sound.

Walking around, you would hear your own sound, or someone else’s suddenly shifting from one direction to a totally different direction. Or even enveloping you from all sides. It is a familiar but surreal phenomenon in many round, resonant spaces with the wall or ceiling curving inward. In certain spots someone who is standing opposite you talking or singing, sounds as if she is behind you.

I knew already during the first glimpse: this is the kind of place I have been looking for in Taiwan for more than ten years. As time passed I knew I had to temper my expectations. There were occasional resonant places, like the one I had stept into earlier this year, but those were usually not very suitable for performing, or not very pleasant to be in, or too expensive or too inaccessible. This new tower was in fact many times better than what I had ever expected. It was not just a sonic treasure, which I somehow usually imagined to be a white or grey space, or otherwise colourless. This was the most intimate, warm, lush light I had seen in years, if I had ever been in such a building at all. It simply seemed to breath by itself already.

We did some more research and learnt to our astonishment that this treasure was not part of the newly opened museum, but it had been standing there for 14 years. Some months later, Sunny noticed an announcement of an event in the tower with the architect, the next day: the day when IUooUI rehearses! I quickly jotted down a simple idea we could sing and shared it. We rehearsed it in the morning and set out to the museum. Exactly at the designated time, the architect appeared from a hidden door, as if coming from nowhere. In the center of the spiraling form he began to talk casually about the history of his tower, its symbolism, problems he had overcome, adaptations to the original idea and more. The place came alive even stronger with these stories. Pei, as the tower is called, really was opened 14 years ago and virtually nothing happened with it, to the chagrin of the architect, Lin Shuen Long.

During the Q&A we introduced ourselves and asked if we could sing a piece to honour the architect and his creation. We spread out and sang Pi:Ecce (I thought the name of the tower was Pi, not Pei). I then started an improvised piece which IUooUI completed beautifully with several solo parts. The architect was enthusiastic about our musical performances and told me something that moved me to the core: “this tower has been waiting for you for fourteen years”.

This place is a treasure, a multi-faceted gem of a building. Not designed with a 3-D program, but by bare hands with mud or clay, just like all that amazing pottery that the small town of Yingge is famous for. Some pottery shops in Yingge have a history of 500 years behind them, and took their technology with them from the mainland. There is no more suitable architectural tribute to the town then a tower designed like most pottery is designed: from an ancient, artisanal practise. We can be greatful to the decisions-makers who planned to build something like this, for chosing this architect, and for both parties to overcome all the hurdles necessary to complete the project. And what is 14 years in the light of generations of pottery making? Now let’s hope steps are taken soon to celebrate the incredible potential of this tower, both visually and acoustically!

Our more or less failed outdoor performance on that early Summer day happened for a good reason. I feel blessed that we ran into something so special.

The post Discovering Lin Shuen-Long’s PEI appeared first on Fusica.

What’s more, I soon found out that Dr. Canzio was the producer of an album of Tibetan chanting that I regarded as one of the most intriguing and well-recorded albums I knew. Most of my collection consisted of albums by the Gyütö Tantric College, with some by the Drepung and Gyüme monasteries, and a few from other lineages. This one, from the Bön-Po, stood out from the rest. Why exactly is an interesting story which I will explain another time – you can listen to the album first.

Ricardo, as I came to call him soon after, helped me make sense of my fieldwork materials from Darhamsala and began sharing his vast knowledge of ritual music chanting. He explained various topics to me showing his own materials on his computer. He put Tibetan texts, their transliterations and the curly ‘music’ notations together with the actual sound files into a special multimedia .pdf format. It took him hundreds of hours to create such lucid visual tools to understand these chants, making use of different software programs. Painstaking work, which he was and is still doing. Meanwhile he told me stories about the collection of these materials, which began in 1970 in India and also continues to this present day: decades more of patient work, often under difficult conditions, compared to the situation today. Dr. Canzio is well past 80 now but is still undertaking research, mostly in Nepal, during regular stays in local monasteries.

Dr. Canzio’s early training was as a player and a composer. He was born in Argentina, and undertook music research in indigenous communities in the Amazon rain forest, which he also published on an LP album. He studied Sanskrit, Indian Philosophy and Religions and Indian Music in Benares (India) and received his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London in 1979. He taught ethnomusicology at universities in Basel (Switzerland) and Paris (France) and was asked in the mid 1990s to help set up the Musicology Department at National Taiwan University, with Dr. Yuh-Fen Wang. Since that time he lives in Taiwan.

Dr. Canzio’s research output began with a translation of one of the first works in Tibetan dedicated to music. Not long ago a book was published that came out of that early work: the translation of Sakya’s Pandita’s Treatise on Music (Kathmandu: Vajra Books, 2019). Again and again Ricardo showed me his newer research, which is neither historical nor theoretical, but down-to-the ground analyses of the music chanted today in certain Tibetan (refugee) monasteries. It intrigued me, but the chants were very long and it did not seem likely I could learn to chant them myself. I had struggled to learn the subfundamental Tibetan chanting of the Gyütö and other schools since the mid-1990s, without much succes. I finally decided to try to learn one short chant for which I received detailed instructions from a chant master in Mundgod, India, in 2017. For that research I benefited greatly from Ricardo’s many pointers how to approach this task of collecting material.

Although I know could chant an actual prayer with the correct pronunciation and melody, many questions remained: there was still a large gap between the theoretical knowledge we discussed and the things that I read, and the recordings I listened to. I was looking forward to Ricardo’s publication, where I would certainly find many more answers and have the possibility to go over the audio and texts again and again.

Then during a visit in 2022, I asked Ricardo if he would be willing to teach me and some other students a few pieces from the Bön repertoire he knows so well. I wanted to understand its secrets and to see if we could achieve such great coherence among our voices as on the album. Ricardo graciously agreed, and so began a regular meeting at his home for a few patient learners. The chanting is low, but it is not the very deep, subfundamental singing. It does not involve explicit use of overtones either. However, the scope of the lessons was much wider than I had imagined. We not only learn to read, recite and chant texts. We also learn the many intricacies of drumming patterns and hand gestures; we hear about the complex relationship between text and melody, which is often counterintuitive; we study traditional notations and how to read them; we discuss the subjects of the chant and all kinds of terms, including questions of English and Mandarin translation. All of this with frequent excursions into many other subjects, directly or remotely related, such as European plainchant and its notations, history, language and music of India, Central Asia and the Middle East, and of course Tibetan religious history and ideas.

If you happen to live in Taipei and are interested in joining, please contact me. We will start again on Thursday November 16 at 10:00, we finish between 12:00 or 13:00. The place is on Heping East Road near Linguang MRT, Muzha.

The post Learning Tibetan chant with Dr. Ricardo Canzio appeared first on Fusica.

During one of my concerts in Taucha, Germany, last month, I asked the audience who knows the name Michael Vetter. Several people raised their hands. But as I expected, many people at the Ancient Trance Festival don’t know his name. Of course, quite a few more may have heard his music in the Age of Spotify: you listen but don’t know what album is playing, now that a physical relationship to the medium (as in the time of LPs, CDs) is outdated. Besides, Ancient Trance is not exactly overlapping with Vetter’s artistic direction. He was much more avant-garde, with musical influences from Baroque to Dada and Fluxus, and a host of visual influences, from mediaeval religious painting and Chinese calligraphy to comics.

In the next few weeks O TRIOM is looking back at the life and work of the instrumentalist, vocalist, painter, poet, pedagogue and ordained Zen master Michael Vetter (1943-2013). We will be showing how his legacy continues to inspire, inform and transform our performing today in several concerts, a lecture and workshops. Why? Certainly not because Vetter was such a fine overtone singer. There are and have been many fine overtone singers, and Vetter’s style of singing and performing was one of many – not ‘just’ one of many, but a very influential one, to be sure. In the 1980s, anyone wanting to do something with overtone singing went to Vetter’s workshops and bought his albums, at least in very active German-speaking areas (and The Netherlands too). Vetter set certain standards for overtone singing, for a certain period of time, and those standards hardly changed.

Michael Vetter making Indian ink drawings, Academia Caparaia, Italy, 2009. (Photograph Mark van Tongeren under protection of Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND)

The interest of O TRIOM in Vetter also started with overtone singing, but soon branched out in many other directions. For example: Vetter as a typical Zen Buddhist. He insists again and again that one should give undivided attention to what one is doing when making music (or anything else, though he would not talk about anything, but about art). And he applied this attitude in all his music, and all his other creative work, as well as his cooking and everyday life. When I read and re-read his texts, or when I go through the conversations we had and the interviews I did with him, I frequently stumble upon contradictions (literally: ‘counter-speaking’) concerning his spiritual or religious outlook. You may be looking to clarify his positions towards spiritual questions, and find that he has much to say about that. Many people felt he was a very religious person and his biography testifies to that. Certainly a believer! But then you will sooner or later find a remark in which he warns for overzealous religious interpretations. “Here and there one learns about the connection between overtones and Our Lord. That is far removed from me!” And yet, many of his art and music works bear very clear Christian (and not just Zen) elements.

It seems that it does not make sense. And that is exactly what we can take away from Michael Vetter (or maybe from Zen in general), and what keeps me coming back to him for fresh insights: there is no single, or final way to talk about or do anything. There are only temporarily, or partially ‘true’ or ‘convincing’ arguments to believe, or positions to take. As soon as one clings too much to certain truths, it is time to let it go again and look for yet another perspective .

In the weeks to come we will prepare ourselves with this in mind: try as best as you can to follow certain aesthetic and creative paths, and be always willing to throw them overboard again and replace them with something new. I am excited about this moment in our O TRIOM collaboration, which began in early 2022, if I remember well. And I salute the brilliant artist who bridged so many visions and visuals, sounds and musics, thoughts and dreams in a lifetime bursting with creative output.

Read an earlier post about why we should remember Michael Vetter here.

PROGRAM

FOR CONCERT TICKETS

CLICK HERE

O TRIOM Artists

LEE Wei Lin

LU Qi Chung

Mark van Tongeren

Production

Organizer| Taiwan Overtone Singing Association TOSA
Executive Producer  | Lee Chichen
Visual Design  | Bai Chi Hao
Image source | Michael Vetter

Lecture| prof. CHUNG Mingder

Taiwan Overtone Singing Association is also on Facebook.

Photos from a 2014 concert by O TRIOM

O TRIOM 紀念米歇爾·費特大師 系列泛音講座、工作坊暨音樂會

與談者將說談泛音音樂在台灣發展的故事，從當年北藝大邀請國外泛音音樂家來台傳藝及演出，到《OM泛唱作為藝乘》一書的誕生，泛音藝術家米歇爾・費特大師的生平創作故事，及至往後泛音音樂在台灣生根2022年台灣泛音詠唱協會TOSA的成立。

＊同場放映呂啓仲拍攝之泛音藝術家費特大師來台紀錄片《Transverbal穿越語言的相遇》。

｜工作坊內容｜

介紹「泛音唱法」，引領學員如何唱和體驗泛音，藉由唱出和聽到泛音，踏上精神的探險之旅。

點此報名工作坊＆講座

O TRIOM 米歇爾‧費特大師 紀念音樂會

時間：

2023/10/21  六 19:00

2023/10/22 日  14:00

地點：

夢響廳 Dreamphony Hall

新北市蘆洲區光榮路97巷59號

**捷運蘆洲站步行約5分鐘**

演出者：Mark van Tongeren．呂啓仲．李維琳

 音樂會購票點此 

O TRIOM 演出者

製作團隊

主辦單位| |台灣泛音詠唱協會

執行製作  | 李紀辰

視覺設計 |  白濟豪

圖片來源 | Michael Vetter

講座講者| 鍾明德教授

台灣泛音詠唱協會Facebook

Read an earlier post about why we should remember Michael Vetter here.

The post O TRIOM remembers Michael Vetter appeared first on Fusica.