The post World première In|nbalance at Designing Voices 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.

That was the signal to also let the Anthology of Overtone Singing go public. First of all on Bandcamp, where the audio is now available for streaming or purchasing. I also submitted all tracks to Apple Music, Spotify etc. etc. 25 Artists that are not featured on Apple Music and Spotify yet now will be represented there. It took me about a year of preparations and it meant not a small thing to press that ‘SUBMIT’ button to me.

So book and music are available now from Terra Nova Press, from me and next week also from a European address. We are still working out the best solution to offer the music and the book in one go. For the moment, the book is available through Terra Nova Press and by writing to me directly, while the Anthology is available in Bandcamp. Possibly we offer both in one package very soon.

There is a limited number of books available with a CD that is nearly identical with the streaming version from Bandcamp: just two tracks have been shortened a bit to fit onto the CD format. Details will soon be published on Bandcamp; you can also write to me if that is what you need.

The major platforms will  start selling and shipping the book in December or January.

For now, get it directly from one of us!

Book on Terra Nova Press:

https://www.terranovapress.com/books/overtonesinging

Book and/or Anthology Album on Bandcamp:

https://markvantongeren.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-overtone-singing

You will find more details about the book on this page.

The post Book and Audio Anthology published appeared first on Fusica.

The timing of the invitation, some four months ago, was auspicious, because I had just began to delve deeper into the Mongolian long song genre with the intention to include it in my live repertoire. So a month or so earlier I picked up a book plus CD I had bought in Mongolia but never properly studied: Alain Desjaques’s Dix-Huit Chants Mongols Dzahtchin et Ourianhai. (If this sounds familiar to some readers, I wrote more about that in this recent blogpost.)*

While I was working on that material, Yang Song got in touch with me through a common friend, Frank Kouwenhoven, of CHIME in Leiden. Song grew up in Inner-Mongolia, part of the PRC, from partial Mongolian parentage, but in a Chinese-language environment. In the program notes to her piece, she admits that she is familiar with traditional Mongol music and yet not really used to them. “In my family Mongolian blood flows; I was used to be surrounded by Mongolian music in various formats, even though I did not understand the lyrics.”

The question was if I could provide a number of different techniques of throat singing / overtone singing, Mongolian long song, and Jew’s harp, to use as the ground material for her electronic composition and the orchestral piece. I wanted to oblige, as her music immediately appealed to me and our first conversation made clear we had many things in common aesthetically. At the same time I was a bit confused: Why Me? Wouldn’t it be easier and more logical to ask a musician from Inner-Mongolia to provide the basic tracks for her piece? Even though I am a Dutchman living in Taiwan, and she is a Chinese Mongol in Germany, we had a similar proximity, or rather: distance to the music that inspired her. Noticing that this was apparently what she wanted (someone with a certain distance to the living source of Mongol traditional music) I put the question aside and started to work.

I sent her my updated and expanded Anthology of Overtone Singing: a selection of my field recordings from traditional of overtone singing plus several of my own pieces and demonstrations (and which will be published soon as the 2022 version of my book Overtone Singing is in its final stages of publication). She sent me back samples of it and of recordings she found on the web. We agreed to work on 7 short pieces of about 30 to 90 seconds. Although initially it seemed she wanted to let me improvise, over time her ideas became more fixed. She wanted to let the orchestra sing or recite some of the long song syllables, so she ended up needing fixed lyrics. I then wrote lyrics inspired by Mongolian phonemes (I only speak a few words of Mongolian and do not want to make a fool of myself pretending I can sings ongs in fluently Mongolian). She also set out the rhythmical structure, fundamental notes and durations for my parts, all of which I recorded in a studio.

I am curious about the result but will not be able to hear it in its full 8-channel form with live orchestra. If you are near Saarbrücken, please go and listen for me – at least Frank Kouwenhoven will be there to give his account of how it sounded! Since this is a radio concert, I think it will be live on the radio too this Friday.

May 20, 2022, 19:00

Benjamin Britten
Variationen über ein Thema von Frank Bridge für Streicher op. 10

Yang Song
„In einem Moment – 须臾“

Uraufführung / World Premiere

Benjamin Britten
Violinkonzert d-Moll op. 15

German Radio Philharmonic. Conductor: Martyn Brabbins.

Website Link: Saarländischen Rundfunk Saal, Saarbrücken/Germany, 20th May 2022

Live broadcast:

Sendetermin | 20 Uhr zeitversetzt auf SR 2 KulturRadio

Künstlergespräch | 18.15 Uhr

Program booklet (in German)

https://www.yang-song-composer.com/

* Alain Desjaques’ book title is a reference to an earlier collection of songs and poems assembled by a Mongolian princess, Dix-huit chants et poèmes mongols, published 1937.

The post World Premiere of Yang Song’s In Einem Moment 须臾 appeared first on Fusica.

The question was if I would be able to help out replacing the throat singer(s) that could not come to Taiwan, due to the pandemic? I offered the name of the only person I know of here to be able to do it, Unid, a young and talented Taiwanese student of Mongolian throat singing and the horse-head fiddle (morin-khuur), besides my own experience in various kinds of Tuvan and Mongolian throat singing. Two weeks ago I sat down with Mr. Hsu Po-Yun and his staff to discuss the realisation of an early work of his as a composer, written in 1977, called《境》, a single Chinese character that was originally translated as Mood, Field and has now been re-christened as Mood, Field, Mind, Environment. Although it does not explicitly ask for throat singing, it has been performed several times with a Mongolian long-song (urtyn duu) singer and a throat singer (khöömiich). The upcoming performances were all organised in a short time: the first concert in Taipei was less than three weeks away when we first met. Last week I attended a press conference at the National Theater. Meanwhile we have had the first (and last) two rehearsals. So I will be joining this project as a throat-singer, together with a long-song singer they found here in Taiwan, Thumentsetseg, and the young Taiwanese throat singer. The other main role in this piece is for the top percussion ensemble of Taiwan, Ju Percussion Group /朱宗慶打擊樂團 – and a mixed chorus.

Title page and first page of the score, which had mistakenly been labeled with 1997.

The timing of this invitation hardly could be better. One of the reasons we are founding TOSA is to make overtone singing in all its varieties better known. One thing I hope to achieve is to get composers interested to write new work that includes overtone singing, throat singing (and, by extension, Jew’s harps, tambura or any other conventional or traditional instrument that make special use of timbre and overtones). And behold, our association has just come to life and a big-name composer and agency holds concerts in the three major music halls of Taiwan, namely in Taipei (north), Kaohsiung (south) and Taichung (center), featuring two throat singers.

The other synchronicity is that early this year I picked up a work on Mongolian songs by ethnomusicologist Alain Desjacques, one of the few ‘Westerners’ to make in-depth studies of Mongolian music based on fieldwork in Soviet times. That book contains a CD and the lyrics and transcriptions of 18 Mongolian songs, with some truly wonderful melodies and original voices – the kind of hardcore grassroots stuff that most trained singers performing onstage can’t beat. I thought I should dig a bit more into the two genres presented in the book, the short song or bogino duu and long song or urtyyn duu, and upgrade my improvisations around the long-songs, which I have loosely imitated and incorporated in my singing for about a decade. I wasn’t quite thinking to present myself as a singer of long songs, but working alongside an actual long song singer from Inner Mongolia and using some elements of it in this performance does help to push me a bit more in that direction. (Even more striking is another invitation nearly at the same time to collaborate on a piece by an Inner-Mongolian composer, who also explicitly asked me for throat singing and long-song – the synchronicity was almost too good to be true).

Seeing the date 1977 of Hsu Po-Yun’s piece, I immediately began to think: this may well be the earliest work of new music incorporating throat singing outside Mongolia and Siberia / Russia. The Russian improviser-composer Micha Alperin is known for such cross-over work in the late 1980s (with Tuvan throat singers). He influenced Guus Janssen who created an opera with Tuvan throat singers in the early 1990s, and at the same time several well-known collaborations of the Tuvans started happening in the US (Frank Zappa, Kronos Quartet, Ry Cooder). But this Taiwanese piece was at least a decade earlier, at a time when foreigners hardly had access to or direct knowledge of traditional overtone-throat singing. When I asked mr. Hsu about the earliest performance, it turned out the 1977 version did not include any throat singers. The piece was commissioned by the NHK or Japanese broadcasting organisation and the vocal parts were taken care of by their own in-house chorus. For the extra traditional flavor he wished for, they had arranged for singers from the Ainu, the original, indigenous inhabitants of modern-day Japan. But as Mr. Hsu also told me, he did hear Mongolian throat singing in Japan already at that time, in 1977 or earlier, while working on his project. That must have been one of the rare visits of Mongolian singers abroad, which was especially rare outside the Soviet states (inside the Soviet Union and its satellite states, there was plenty of travel and work-exchange to encourage the brotherhood-of-peoples ideal). Later on, Hsu Po-Yun managed to bring throat-singers over to Taiwan, and he visited Mongolia himself some twenty times, by his own account, including one visit with Placido Domingo.

This synchronicity of the start of TOSA, the performance of Hsu’s work in three cities of Taiwan, and the other invitation to contribute voice recordings for an electro-acoustic work) is one of those moments when you feel an angel is watching over your shoulder. Most important of all: the music of Hsu Po-Yun I got to know is indeed ‘full of charm and power,’ just as we were asked to say  in a promo-video. The main role is for the percussion group, the players are the absolute top, the scoring is very imaginative and varied, with dozens of different instruments. And the singing part, well: come and check it out, if you can. There is another interesting work of Hsu performed live next month, the opera Medea, which he presented us on CD and also sounds quite appealing to me.

What makes this series extra exciting is that I am going to perform in the fantastic new performing art centers in Taichung and Kaohsiung. The latter has opened very recently and was co-developed by the Dutch architect agency of Francine Houben. For the best views, check their Mecanoo site,  here is a family snapshot taken a few weeks ago inside the arched corridors.

Above: Last month June invited us all to watch Bellini’s opera Norma in the new Kaohsiung Performing Arts Center; a few months earlier we saw Ricardo Canzio play in Astor Piazzolla’s opera María de Buenos Aires in another hall of this center Below: November 2016, at one of the opening performances of the Taichung National Theatre, designed by architect Toto Ito.

A radio interview with Chechena Kuular for Radio Taiwan International, about my involvement in this piece, is planned for next week.

Powerchip 2022 Classical Series:

HSU PO-YUN’ a 60th Musical Anniversary
March 3rd and 4th at National Concert Hall, Taipei
March 10th at Weiwuying Concert Hall
April 19th at the Grand Theatre of National Taichung Theatre
【力晶 2022藝文饗宴 許博允創作生涯六十週年】
3月3號、4號台北國家音樂廳
3月10號 高雄衛武營國家音樂廳
4月19號 台中國家歌劇院大劇院

Here is the blurb from the impressario’s website.

https://www.newaspect.org.tw/2022hsupoyun

The press conference was as much an intimate celebration of Hsu Po-Yun’s 60 years in the music industry by long-time collaborators, such as Lien Hsin-Sheng from the Asian Composer’s League, Tzong-Ching Ju, founder of Ju Percussion, Wu Hsing-Kuo of Contemporary Legend Theater and many others.

The blurb from Yahoo in Manadarin:

https://tw.news.yahoo.com/許博允創作生涯60週年樂展-開創東方音樂新藝境-070136205.html

【記者何弘斌/高雄報導】

2022年2月23日·3 分鐘 (閱讀時間)

在力晶文化基金會熱情支持下，【力晶二○二二藝文饗宴-許博允創作生涯六十週年】樂展呈現了許博允創作生涯一甲子的音樂盛會，邀集表演藝術各大領域頂尖藝術家：鋼琴家葉綠娜、小提琴家黃維明、大提琴家陳建安、長笛家胡志瑋、琵琶家黃立騰，攜手女力舞蹈家林秀偉、影視劇國寶吳興國、新生代舞者吳采璘及絲釋民，亞太弦樂四重奏、朱宗慶打擊樂團共襄盛舉，並重現已故大師-前輩男中音張清郎珍貴的歷史錄音，精選作曲生涯中最為雋永、值得反覆思索的《琵琶隨筆》、《心》、《寒食》、《點線面體》，更有《境》的呼麥暨馬頭琴藝術家烏尼德、蒙古長調歌者圖孟其其格、荷蘭泛音詠唱藝術家馬克‧范‧湯可鄰（Mark van Tongeren），以及許博允獻給妻子樊曼儂的全新創作《長笛隨想曲》，融匯詩意與形貌，跨越時間與空間，帶來結合器樂、人聲、舞蹈、戲劇的多元跨界展演；三月三至四日於臺北國家音樂廳演出、三月十日於高雄衛武營國家音樂廳演出、四月十九日於臺中國家歌劇院大劇院演出，更多活動詳情請洽詢官網。(見圖)\\;

許博允的音樂不僅展現現代音樂的精神，更成為國內外的許多戲劇、舞蹈製作創意發想的泉源。一九七二至一九七五年，許博允創作《中國戲曲冥想》、《寒食》、《琵琶隨筆》與《生‧死》，陸續成為「雲門舞集」主要舞碼《烏龍院》、《寒食》、《夸父追日》、《哪吒》的音樂；許博允之音樂透過「雲門舞集」在全世界公演超過四百次，各地讚嘆，一九八五年林懷民以《寒食》為該創作獨舞《夢土》，無限延長的白色衣絹，勾勒介之推內心糾結的約束與包袱。一九八○年代，「菲律賓國家舞蹈團」藝術總監-蕊蕬、美國舞蹈家-莫里路易斯、日本默劇家-箱島安及旅美電動雕塑家-蔡文穎都相繼使用許博允之音樂編作。\\;

新象文教基金會董事長樊曼儂感謝「力晶文化基金會」鼎力支持這次音樂會，也感謝藝文界好友們的支持；豐富多彩的人生歷練，成就了許博允的綺想世界，從民歌採集、藝文展演到邊境行旅，藝術之路上的每顆星星都成為了他作品星系中獨一無二的光輝！

許博允將古今中外交融碰撞的火花融入編曲，《寒食》中編入融合蒙古吟唱、京劇聲腔、日本能劇及西方聲樂的高難度唱腔；他力求突破創新，《琵琶隨筆》就匯聚了古往今來的琵琶技巧，並首創了前所未見的高超技法；他熟稔東方源遠流長的音樂歷史，以中國八音、超過百種樂器、蒙古呼麥及臺灣原住民獨特聲腔創作《境》；他內省人性的雙重性格，於是誕生了《心》，讓陰與陽、柔與剛的心緒，在小提琴與鋼琴清麗的旋律中，偶然交會、互動，綻放光亮；他渴望探索天地的組織運行，就以《點‧線‧面‧體》拓展了聲音的維度，以擊樂的「點」、弦樂的「線」，編織成多重立體的聲響境界。

The post Performing Hsu Po-Yun’s Mood Field (1977) appeared first on Fusica.

TOSA members performing on January 1 at Mei Garden Restaurant, Taipei

In the end it was Sunny Chen who has done endless amounts of paperwork to have the first small meeting of founders last December. My heartfelt thanks to her and all those who signed up as founders. The next step is to go public, and this will happen right after Chinese New Year, on February 19. On that day our chairman Sky Tseng will tell more about bigger and smaller events we are going to host every year; about a practising group to brush up your overtone singing and chanting; about concerts we will jointly attend or important books and pieces or CDs we will discuss. Professor Chung Minder, or taimu as he is known to many, will look back to twenty years of overtone singing in Taiwan, and perhaps look forward too. My old friends, and long-time overtone singing lovers (and love-couple in the first place) Wei-Lin and Qi-Chung will do a presentation, and so do I: this serves as the upbeat to a full concert we are preparing for later this year.

To make all of this happen, we need to reach a minimum of 45 members by January 28 (and not by February 19, as we thought before). We hope you will consider to sign up this month and give our association a flying start. A little extra support at this point is much needed since only a small inner circle of people knows about this initiative. Once we get started in February we can reach out to more people.

TOSA founding meeting no. 1, 12/12/2021

2021 年 12 月 12 日，我們著手成立 TOSA，即「台灣泛音詠唱協會」（Taiwan Overtone Singing Association）。協會將在 2 月 19 日舉辦一場盛大活動，在一個美麗的新空間舉辦音樂會和講座，作為協會對外公開的開端。我想在此邀請你一同加入，成為協會成員。我長久以來都夢想能在泛唱領域為自己和其他藝術家創建更實際的平台。但由於中文讀寫能力有限，我遲遲無法實現這個願望。直到我身邊的合作夥伴 Sunny Chen 和 Jackal Mei 開始詢問我相關的想法，並提出發展組織及舉辦大型活動的建議，我的心願才開始逐步實踐。目前為止已經有不少人學習泛唱，可能是跟我學習，也可能是跟台灣或國外的老師學習（通常來自內蒙古或圖瓦）。近年來，有好幾位技術純熟的表演者和泛音愛好者，他們的技巧與日俱進。我在泛唱方面的工作往往是獨立進行，但我認為是時候幫助更多有志專精泛音詠唱的人發光發熱了！同時我也想與更多人分享泛唱各種形式的美，涵蓋藝術、療癒、傳統、現代等各個層面。

更多關於 2 月活動和 TOSA 計劃的訊息都可以在這裡找到。請註冊並成為會員！根據規定，我們需要在 2 月 19 日之前招募足夠的會員，所以如果可以，請現在（或在 1 月底前）點選連結，協助我們推動計劃。非常感謝你！

最後是 Sunny 做了大量文書工作，在去年 12 月召開了第一次小型的發起人會議。我衷心感謝 Sunny 和所有登記的發起人。協會的下一步是對外公開，時間將是農曆年後的 2 月 19 日。那一天，理事長 Sky Tseng 將詳細介紹協會大小年度活動、一起精進泛唱技巧的練唱小組、成員共同參與的音樂會、還有我們列入討論項目的重要書籍、作品和專輯。鍾明德教授（也就是大家熟知的大木老師）則會回顧台灣 20 年的泛音詠唱史。另外一個重頭戲是泛唱圈的佳偶啟仲和維琳的泛音雙重唱，他們是我的老朋友，也是資深的泛音愛好者。我自己也會有一段泛音獨唱，這兩段演出將為今年籌備中的正式音樂會開啟序幕。

為了實現這一切，我們需要在 1 月底前招募至少 45 名會員（不是之前以為的 2 月 19 日）。所以我們希望大家能在這個月註冊，讓協會能有一個好的開始。這方面我們非常需要一些額外的支持，因為目前只有少部分人知道這個計畫。一旦在 2 月正式對外公開，我們就能觸及更多人了。

時間: 2022年2月19日，14:00-16:00

地點: 好好說話工作坊,

         台北市中山區明水路575號B1

https://goo.gl/maps/tjjuF6zGF9vqGYmV8

~~~~~~~~~~~

精彩分享包括:

1. 鍾明德教授分享〈泛音在台灣的歷史〉 

     (鍾明德教授為《OM:泛音詠唱作為藝乘》作者)

2. Mark van Tongeren， 泛音獨唱 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The post Founding the Taiwan Overtone Singing Association appeared first on Fusica.

I just checked the videos, with great sadness as I was supposed to be in Tuva myself these few weeks. And I also really regretted that in the end I did not submit my own contribution. Nice to see that others, of all levels, sent in their own versions from around the world (but hey don’t sing kargyraa instead of sygyt, know your styles!; ‘check the rules next time’, Kaygal-ool told you when he spoke in Tuvan on behalf of the jury).

All submissions were already in by August 10. So what you can watch is all the videos that came in, in chronological order, starting, accidentally, with Dutch Mongolian khöömii virtuoso Rowan Hartsuiker, who filmed himself in his yurt at home in Holland. Not many performers had such blessed, appropriate backgrounds: some sought out nature, others were at their ‘ordinary’ homes, living rooms, etc.

The playlist is here: you probably see it starting from “72 участник” or the 72nd participant. You can scroll down to “1 участник” if you like and go all the way up. Perhaps you need to select a video on top to see the next 20 or so items. Your American-speaking host here is Sean Quirk, a long-time resident of Tuva who first went there I think about 15-20 years ago for … you guessed it!

Here is one of the participants, Andryan Öpei, whom I recorded 20 years ago as a teenager. He is the son of Andrey Öpei. He sings the same song I recorded in the year 2000 first, then goes on to add something I have not seen before by a solo throat singer, a kickdrum, in the next song.

For this he deservedly got the prize for “Unique ornamentation of sygyt.”

Towards the end of the playlist, after no.70,  you will find the award ceremony, which is bi/trilingual (Tuvan, English, mostly, some Russian).

It is rather energetic, smooth and quick: no waiting for changes and microphone adjustments between performers, no breaks, not hours of discussion for the jury. Everything was prerecorded except this ceremony. The first 25-30 minutes there is the celebration of the birthday of shaman/singer Lazo Mongush, who usually performs a ritual in open air on Khöömei Day (and probably did so Monday morning, too). Then there are speeches by prominent throat singers, the Minister of Culture Aldar Damdyn, himself a fine throat singer and instrument maker, and jury member Kaygal-ool Khovalyk, of (need I say it?) Huun Huur Tuu fame, and others.

Photos of Lazo Mongush at the early morning ceremony of Khöömei Day 2018 (by Peter Oud).

Photos of Lazo Mongush at the early morning ceremony of Khöömei Day 2018 (by Peter Oud).

From about 20-30 minutes in, you can see the countdown of prizes awarded and get an idea of what the Tuvan jury gives prizes for. (see the link above).

The highest awards are the laureates and the Grand Prix.

The first of three laureates is another great Dutch singer (sorry, can’t help it, but he is impressive). Well done Frodi Fransman and congratulations for making it among the league of Tuvan winners!

And here is Laureate Number I, from Tuva, Möngün-ool Mongush, who gives a little new twist to traditional melodies by modulating. Overall superenergetic performance with some great animal imitations.

The Grand Prix went to Lopsan Mundukai who has a more traditional approach, no surprising modulations here, but meticulous sygyt nevertheless.

Fantastic that the Tuvan Cultural Center was able to organise a throat singing festival in this way for 2020, and let us all enjoy it. Many thanks Тыва Töп! Hopefully next time we can travel to Tuva again!

The post Online throat singing competition Sygyt 2020 appeared first on Fusica.

I learned of Hai’s work on overtone singing in the early 1990s. When I got to know him personally, I was astounded and (I will admit) a bit intimidated by his unbridled energy. He loves to share what he does, and he is in fact overflowing with enthusiasm: for overtone singing, for Vietnamese music, for playing the Jew’s harp and spoons, for ethnomusicology, for his constant travels as a performer and teacher. After my visits I was usually exhilirated (about all the new things I had learned or shared with him) and at the same time exhausted (feeling my life was a mess with no progress at all).

In fact, going to Paris has been almost synonymous with visiting Hai and his lovely wife Bach Yen (whose singing carreer goes way way back). And these visits became almost synonymous with absolutely great Vietnamese food. Bach Yen often spent hours and hours to buy fine ingredients like all kinds of fresh leaves, vegetables, seafood and meat and prepare them the Vietnamese way. We would have excellent diners, drank nice wine, as the couple made an annual ‘pilgrimage’ to different regions in France to stock up on boxes of quality wine to share with friends at home.

After moving to Taiwan, my encounters with Tran Quang Hai were scarce, and visits to both of them even more. In 2019, it has been around ten years since we last met in Paris. So I was delighted to see them again some weeks ago. Tran Quang Hai retired a decade ago from the ethnomusicology department at the Musée de L’Homme in Paris, but has remained an active performer and workshop leader for all these years. Bach Yen is a famous singer of popular songs and entertainment music, as well as a singer of many different genres of traditional music. Together they have given hundreds of concerts in Europe and elsewhere, and they continue to do so. Here is a photo of their appearance in Genoa, Italy, a week or so after I met them.

Late August, when I walked down the platform of Gare de Lyon, Hai and Bach Yen were waiting for me. Once again I was overwhelmed to be in their buzzing, energetic presence. The first thing they did, was to get out their cameras and make many photos together. Then we strolled to their car, and their warm hands and arms embraced my arms. I sometimes think of myself as someone who easily touches people, but this time I thought I am quite distant compared to them. It was really (excusez le mot) touching to stroll down the platform chatting and to be ‘wrapped’ by their tender hands and arms on both sides. Hai told me once about using his hands to heal people and showed me some methods. But it seems the couple just radiates warmth and energy naturally, even without using a special method.

For our Vietnamese food, this time we drove to a place called Pho Bida, pronounced Fo Beeyaa. Pho is the famous Vietnamese noodle soup, but what about Bida? It turns out to be derived from ‘billiard’, as the former location of this restaurant housed a popular billiard room as well. The place is not very spacious but we were early and could chose any seat. By the time we left lots of people waited outside. The food was great and loved by Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese alike: highly recommended! (Pho Bida Vietnam, 36 rue Nationale, 75013 Paris)

Tran Quang Hai’s New Book

When we sat down, Hai gave me his new book, a thick volume with many of his articles and listst of all his achievements, titles, appearances, etc. organized in a single volume. Some articles I have known for a long time. So I particularly enjoyed reading those things I did not know in detail.

First, an article about Vietnamese music and its historical background, very helpful for understanding the relationship to Chinese music and culture. It also covers many of the recent developments in Vietnamese music, making it in effect a kind of encyclopaedic entry into Vietnam and all its music. With this work Hai most clearly follows in the footsteps of his late father Tran Van Khe, also a well-known musician and musicologist.

“Tran Quang Hai. 50 Years of Research in Vietnamese Traditional Music and Overtone Singing.”

Second, an article that accompanied a double CD issued in France in 1997, dedicated to the absolutely fascinating world of mountain tribe musics in Vietnam. There is a dazzling array of types of instruments and ways of playing, and these liner notes give a good overview of this field.

If you are interested in overtone singing and still love printed matter, as I do myself, then this is a good way to get your (physical) hands on several key articles on this technique by Dr. Tran Quang Hai and understand the background of his research. (Note for academic readers: for research purposes it is better to consult online pdfs of the articles in their original format). Available here.

Tran Quang Hai and the Dan Moi

During our lunch I also learned where the common name of the Vietnamese brass Jew’s harp comes from. It is usually referred to as dan moi, which is a Vietnamese word (compare for example dan tranh/đàn tranh, the plucked zither, or the unique one-string zither dan bau/đàn bầu). However, the thin, finely crafted Jew’s harp, probably smaller than any other type of Jew’s harp, originates from the mountain tribes who live close to Yunnan in South China. The Hmong’s native language and culture has little to do with that of the dominant Viet or Kinh ethnic group, who are historically tied to China. When travelling in the mountains in North Vietnam (around Sapa), I encountered the Hmong people who play this instrument and managed to get one made locally by their craftsmen. They referred to it as gya, phonetically speaking, though in writing it is referred to as djam. A personal note from Tran Quang Hai shortly after publishing this post: the Hmong name of the Jew’s harp is ncas (pronounced ncha).

The djam I bought in Sapa from girls who played the instrument along the mountain road. (photo by the author).

So I asked Hai how the name dan moi came about. He explained: there is no Jew’s harp in the music of the ethnic Vietnamese. So when he learned about the traditions of the mountain people around 50 years ago, he had to make up a new name himself in order to accommodate the minorities’ instrument in the system and language of Vietnam. To use ‘dan’ (meaning ‘instrument’) was an obvious beginning point. Hai decided to add ‘moi’ for lips, to designate it is played between the lips. Most brass or metal Jew’s harps are held against the teeth, with the lamella vibrating between the teeth; the dan moi is held between the lips and vibrates there. In this sense it is more like a type of wooden or bamboo Jew’s harp, particularly the ones vibrated by a string attached to one side.

A Hmong girl playing the djam for me in 2003 (photo by the author).

The dan moi went on to become a very popular instrument around the world once non-Vietnamese musicians discovered them, at the turn of the millenium. Many people asked me for it when I brought them back in 2003. I remember giving one to Tuvan throat singer Sainkho around 2004. She immediately fell for its bright sound and expressive qualities, and asked for more several times after (and so did other people). At the same time, a German company saw the potential of this cheap instrument to reach a huge audience and set up (web)shop, calling it www.danmoi.com. It has a become a one-stop shop to buy all kinds of Jew’s harps. So dan moi, Hai’s new name for the djham, a minority instrument, and for Jew’s harps in general, now has become sort of a symbol of 21^st century global Jew’s harp culture. And it seems to be growing year by year: here in Taiwan I have seen many new Jew’s harp enthusiasts taking the stages recently, often sporting a collection of world Jew’s harps, including, of course, the dan moi.

Here is a video where you see the movement of the dan moi lamella in slow motion, played by Hai’s student Dang Khai Nguyen.

Learn more about Tran Quang Hai

Hai is still actively teaching, find out where his next workshops are by going to his blog:

https://tranquanghaisworldthroatsinging.com

(the blog itself amounts to a ‘wikipedia’ of sorts for throat/overtone singing, where you will find a huge amount o copies of scientific and popular articles, videos, and indeed copies of wikipedia entries, as well as some original posts about Hai’s workshops and travels).

Go here to find more entries in English and in Vietnamese:

https://tranquanghai1944.com

https://tranvankhe-tranquanghai.com

And for more news from Fusica and Mark van Tongeren subscribe to these blogposts here.

Finally, back to some Asian flavour, but East-Asian instead of the South-East Asian of Hai’s origins. Here is a hilarious video from the time Hai was flown into Japan to demonstrate overtone/throat singing in a hypertheatrical popular entertainment program.

TRAN QUANG HAI on JAPANESE TELEVISION, part 2, December 26, 2012

* OK, for this one I have no way to tell if it is true, but Hai does mention in his new book (page  32) that he wrote “more than 500 articles in Vietnamese for 30 Vietnamese magazines in America, Europe, Asia and Australia.”

The post Catching up with Tran Quang Hai appeared first on Fusica.

It is trivial, I know, but it is a good exercise for the lungs, diaphragm and the entire respiratory system. The other challenge is to make some musical sense. The throat singing is far from perfect (some of the overtones should not be there) but I decided to share it anyway as an example of some of the things I practise.

The post Can I sing sygyt for one minute without taking a breath? appeared first on Fusica.

Workhop and meetings in Hong Kong

Once or twice yearly I teach workshops in English at Soundtherapy Hong Kong. This time I also managed to have a side-meeting with theatre director Ho, through Taiwan dancer/director/improviser WU Wentsui. I attended the rehearsal for the piece which she joined, a fascinating play where everything (text, movement, sound) was improv – my cup of tea! Next day he took us to see a very interesting performance in public spaces, arranged by some of his students.

Workshop Catch the Spirit of the Moment in Jianshi

VISIT TO BALI

We made a family trip to Bali, a destination that has been on my wish-list since I was young (my great-grandmother was Indonesian, but not Balinese). Our whole family first took gamelan classes with the wonderful musicians and dancers of Cudamani, right before they left for a tour in the USA. These were our teachers and here is also some audio. You can see some videos of them here).

Balinese gamelan melody Bilak as taught by the Cudamani musicians to our family. Repetitive, but full of mistakes this first time around!

Later we went to the North where we stayed at the Suryanamaskar Ashram of I Gede Budasi. He showed us around to many interesting places there, including gong makers.

I also heard the wonderful sound of flutes attached to birds while they fly around, producing sometimes a higher sometimes a lower pitch, and these two pitches waving up and down due to the Doppler effect. See this video with explanations. The bird sounds in the first 30 seconds are quite faint and you can hardly see them (tiny spots in the center of the film, only in the beginning)!

(The references I make here are the book A House in Bali by composer Colin Mc Phee and a film produced in China in the 1980s by Jack Body. The documentary film was online on Jack’s personal website until recently but Jack whom I worked with at several occasions and who was a great inspiration to me, passed away in 2015 and his website is now defunct.)

LUCHO LIBRARY CONCERT

Frequent collaborator and tireless Taiwanese impro promotor LEE Shih Yang organised another event with soprano LIN Chien Chun, himself and cellist CHEN Yu Long. We played traditional music from Tuva and Holland, contemporary works by Georg Asperghis (1945-) and Chien-Chun’s late father-in-law, Li Tai Shiang (1941-2014) and various improvisations.

TEACHING/PERFORMING IN SEOUL

I received an invitation to teach at the Seoul National University’s Department of Music by ethnomusicologist Hilary Finchum-Sung. A very rewarding experience with many students and professors/musicians/composers. Quite surprisringly, they taught me at least as much as I taught them. For several consecutive days they showed me a wealth of Korean musical instruments and playing styles. Part of these demonstrations led to collaborative work and to a final performance with students.

After that, I did a performance at Dotolim with pieces from my new solo program, run by curator Jin Sangtae. Places like Dotolim are decisively 21st century, with a focus on all sorts of experimental digital/elecronic and semi-analog art, like Sangtae’s own use of the noise produced by PC hard drives as a sound source. I thought it’d be better to bring my Kaoss pad so I would fit in with the mostly electronic acts. However, it turned out my Kaoss Pad had broken down so I had no choice but to go completely acoustic. I even left the microphone for what it was every now and then.

Thanks to a chance meeting in Tuva in 2016, I got to know a great Korean theatre director, Seong Kyun Yoo. We stayed in touch and he now hooked me up with a young pansori singer for an intimate evening of solo and some duo music at a semi-private gathering. After the performances, the host had arranged for Korean barbecue and other delicacies, a real treat.

I left greatly inspired and with a sense of invogoration by the Korean spirit in which shamanism and great rhythmic and dynamic complexity form the roots of a dynamic performing arts culture.

TYVA KYZY IN TAIWAN

Through the National Center for Traditional Arts in Taipei I was able to bring Tyva Kyzy over for their 20th Anniversary World Tour.

RECORDING WITH OORBEEK

ANNUAL AROMA/MUSIC PILGRIMAGE TO CORSICA

It is becoming sort of a tradition to move to Corsica with all of the family, to lead a Canjune aromatour with a large music program. This year for the first time we witnessed the harvest of Immortelle. We also heard music in Pigna, the picturesque town in the Balagna, from several singers of A Cumpagna, Two of them I met in 1989 when I was their tourguide in the Netherlands and then the year after, when I visited them. Nicole Casalonga (also at the Dutch 1989 tour) led a workshop for us and made all our Chinese travellers sing Corsican songs. During the half-hour stop we made in Ile Rousse I immediately ran into old friend Battista Acquaviva, no doubt the best known female Corsican singer nowadays, ever since she made it big in The Voice. She is now having a very different kind of carreer than her father Nando Acquaviva, who until recently sang and played actively.

SOUND JOURNEY: TUVA #2

For the second time I organised a tour to Tuva for travellers from Asia and Europe, together with Choduraa Tumat. Lots of throat singing, some wrestling, abundant nature, two shamanic ceremonies, festivals, and great food.

CURATING EZENGI and FOUR VOICES FROM TUVA FOR ASIAN-PACIFIC TRADITIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

I was invited by the National Center for Traditional Arts in Taiwan to select musicians from Tuva for this year’s edition of the Asian-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival. I selected four soloists to play their own work and one young group, Ezengi, directed by Mengi Mongush. Photos below from Four Voices of Tuva and Andrei Öpei.

FOCUS ON HOLLAND CONCERT in TAIPEI

How wonderful to put Dutch improvisers in the spotlight during this latest edition of the on-going Taipei International Improvised Music Festival! With Mark Alban Lotz, Wilbert de Joode, Felicity Provan and Rogier Hornman from Holland, and LEE Shih Yang, TUNG Chaoming, Min-Yen Terry and Li Chin from Taiwan – plus me somewhere in between I guess.

Photos by To Hong Bond Chen.

OORBEEK’s FIRST 7″ COMES OUT

Two popular Dutch/international X-mas tunes given the Oorbeek treatment. Published by Blowpipe Records, where you can also hear them.

The post 2018 in pictures (and some stories) appeared first on Fusica.