Here is a video in which I explain some of the things that are essential for those who start on the path of learning to sing overtones. Enjoy!

The post How to hear your own overtones? appeared first on Fusica.

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AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

Do you want the physical book + ‘Anthology of Overtone Singing’ album?

                             Purchase Now

or order the physical book directly from us: 

                            Purchase Now

For the book only:

Amazon (affiliate link),

For the E-book:

through Amazon Kindle in E-pub format (affiliate link).

Or read on first, and go to Bandcamp to play the companion album while you are reading!

REVIEWS / APPRAISALS

Interview for 15 questions.

Great Book – Mia Bocceli (Amazon)

”I love your work and research. Your book and recordings are a must have. I use the overtone technique, mostly the vowels one, to rehabilitate voice disorders.  It’s amazing how speeds up recovery. ” – EDG, USA (Bandcamp)

”Thanks a lot for this epic work! It will be an invaluable asset for continuous studying… Also, i’ve just registered with the MUOM choir here in Barcelona (https://www.muom.net). My life will never be the same again :-)” – Gunter Strube, Spain (Email)

”This important book fills a gap in the history and art of overtone singing… Author Mark van Tongeren covers the entire subject from its scientific-anatomical studies of various techniques, to his ethnomusicological field work in Siberia’s Tuva republic, to a discussion of Western approaches and attitudes…The wide scope of this book and its detailed but accessible approaches will provide a greater appreciation of the power of voice and the ever fascination of exotic sound.” – Dr. Debra Jan Bibel, USA (Amazon)

Download the book’s introduction with a panoramic overview of the subject matter.

A bird’s-eye view of the book’s contents

Download the Table of Contents.

The book is divided into five parts: Physics, Traditions, Modernity, Metaphysics and Quintessence. They are devoted to these questions:

– how we can sing overtones, and why it is that we often do not hear overtones in the voice;

– where we can find older traditions of overtone singing, often called throat singing, like the most famous cases of Tuva (which is covered in one whole chapter) and Mongolia (which is covered together with Tibetan and other traditions);

– how overtone singing emerged recently in the modern world and its historical development in about 5 decades

– what many people in the modern world believe, experience and do with vocal overtones

– how all these aspects converge in the practice and thoughts of the author, and how they also often conflict with one another.

What follows is an excerpt from the book’s introduction. Read on to learn each section’s contents in greater detail. The entire introduction is also available as a download.

DOUBLE SPLITS AND A SYNTHESIS: THE FIVE PARTS OF THE BOOK

The challenge with this book is to give you a comprehensive understanding of a musical technique and principle in its ancient as well as modern forms; to show its cultural, religious and spiritual significance in widely diverging areas; and to explain its physical, acoustical properties as much as possible from an embodied and experiential perspective – not dry, theoretical facts. This scope is reflected in the four main sections: Physics, Traditions, Modernities and Metaphysics. In addition, I want to show you how I, for one, hold that panorama of ideas and practices together: hence the fifth and final part, Quintessence. To keep all those strands of creative, intellectual and contemplative work afloat in a more or less consistent view is sort of a juggling act, and that is what I have always loved to do most. I assembled what traditional practitioners, professional musicians and composers have told me and summarise what scholars have written about overtone singing and related subjects. We move from very specific case studies about a single musician or acoustic problem to another but always come back to bigger questions. Harmonics as such are timeless aspects of the sensory world that have left their traces in our ears and brains during the timespan of our long evolution.

Very few ethnic groups are known to have sustained a tradition of overtone singing for centuries, patiently passing on their skills for countless generations. Only very recently do harmonics, issuing from the voice as distinct sounds, enter into more general and global awareness. I consider this step a milestone in human evolution and feel immense gratitude for being able to explore, explain and ‘execute’ it. This book is intended for readers who are willing to open their ears, eyes, minds and perhaps their mouths to acquire a full picture of an art and a phenomenon that does not belong to any single culture, region or epoch.

I will now walk you through the book’s five parts, but I urge you to start reading wherever you like. Remember that none of the traditions has a well-developed theoretical understanding of harmonics! Frequent cross-references and use of the index will facilitate reading a single chapter or parts thereof, depending on your interest and your existing knowledge of or experience in overtone singing.

PART ONE: PHYSICS

‘How do you do that?’ is the first question most Western listeners ask when hearing those whistling notes above a low drone. It is also the question this book addresses in Chapter 1. Many listeners and readers who come to this music have received an education based on European models of knowledge, which means you need some concrete facts first. Instead of focussing entirely on musical and theoretical aspects, we investigate how we all make sounds in our body, how we shape them and how overtones play a role in most sounds we hear and make. Most of us do not have the slightest awareness of the complexity of the system to produce speech and a host of other noises. A mere thought in our brain is enough to utter it, and before we know it, the people at our table have (literally) incorporated that thought into their brains. Overtone singing is somewhat akin to learning a new language as an adult: We need to figure out where to put the tongue or add breath or emphasise the throat. From there we move on quickly to the advanced stages of creating clear, audible overtones. As much as possible in plain language, and with the help of many graphs, I explain the finer details of articulating or shaping vowels and overtones using specific mouth positions. We gradually see how singers can tip the balance from the fundamental we usually hear (with a certain timbre) to the overtones we usually don’t hear. We learn how monks and nomads tip that balance even more towards piercing overtones or towards crazily deep (sub)fundamentals by adjusting the source sound from their larynx. We will dwell on the somewhat confusing terms overtone singing and throat singing, look in the opposite direction to ‘undertones’ and consider the possibilities of female voices and choruses to produce overtones.

Chapter 2 shifts the focus to the creative act of listening. You may think your brain simply registers the sounds out there in a more or less mechanical way. But there is a lot of selecting and processing going on to produce a sense of sound inside your head. Unawares, we adopt certain innate strategies for listening, which also means there are signals that we do not hear. If we compare ourselves to the Turko-Mongols, we are truly poor receivers of sound signals! To me they are sound technologists who cracked the code of how to listen better. Overtone singing is a technique that invites us to break through habitual patterns of listening: it confronts us with questions of perception (how we register sound signals from the outside world and transform them into neural patterns) and cognition (how we process them in the brain). I call the exploration of old and new musical, creative languages combined with creative listening strategies paraphony.

There is much to learn from composers and musicians who have a talent for listening and explore such concepts in their works. But there are also limits to what we can learn. To witness a Mongolian throat singer produce a melody of whistle-like sounds for the very first time is a life-changing, jaw-dropping shock for some people. For others it is just a mildly amusing curiosity because their hearing does not get fired up the way other people’s ears do.

PART TWO: TRADITIONS

Thinking back, I never had a jaw-dropping experience with vocal overtones, probably because I was already expecting there must be more to timbre than ‘one whole thing’. But I was never mildly amused, either. I became obsessed with the question of why so few cultures knew about overtone singing until recently and wanted to get first-hand answers from the experts. I got my early training in ethnomusicology, and that perspective informs my exploration of traditions in Part Two: Traditions. One important work that many of us refer to again and again is How Musical Is Man? by John Blacking, who stated: ‘Ethnomusicology is not only an area of study concerned with exotic music, nor a musicology of the ethnic – it is a discipline that holds out hope for a deeper understanding of all music’. To which I may add that ‘music’ must be stretched to include all kinds of sounds produced by humans and their environments. We will first turn our attention to the Inner Asian mountains and steppes, where nomadic (or formerly nomadic) peoples sustain lively sound-making cultures based on timbre and overtones. Tuva, where people speak an old Turkic language, has been my foremost destination for fieldwork because it boasts a great number of excellent khöömei singers. I was fortunate to witness a powerful renaissance of indigenous musical traditions in Tuva and neighbouring republics during the 1990s and meet dozens of talented musicians, many of whom have passed away.

The subsequent sections of Part Two highlight many other ways to make the overtones of human voices audible. A young Mongol wonders about his own voice, which sounds more like metal than flesh, and a young Khakas man discovers a talent, almost overnight, for telling lengthy epics in a deep guttural voice. The Mongolian, Khakas and other traditions stem from a common root, together with Tuvan throat singing. The chordal chanting of Tibetan Gelugpa lamas is a very different story, as is Mediterranean polyphonic singing from Sardinia that sometimes gives rise to a ‘virtual voice’ of fused timbres. These traditions are alive and well, as I was able to witness with my own ears in India and Italy, and so is American barbershop, which I have never heard up close. Now, in 2022, the very tiny slice of Xhosa people who practise overtone singing in South Africa is in serious decline. It is my hope that this book could spark more people’s interest in one of these little-known music cultures so that they can be sustained for generations to come. I should add that I have been able to return only to Tuva again and again; some of the other eyewitness accounts are from more than two decades ago. In this short time a new generation has begun to change those traditions that are still very much alive.

Photo: Mark van Tongeren

PART THREE: MODERNITIES

Two to three decades before Turko-Mongol musicians were able to freely travel abroad, composers and musicians in Europe and the USA began to learn about and explore the possibilities of making music with the overtones resonating in human voices. Part Three: Modernities traces the development of overtone singing as a vocal technique practised mostly in the Western world. The pioneers had to start mostly from scratch since they were unaware of or lacked ways to contact the Asian singers or lamas who knew more about the technical procedures of singing overtones. Most works coming from Europe and the States followed an aesthetic paradigm informed by avant-garde and experimental music and developed into newly created styles that had little or nothing to do with the older traditions. Many groups emerged that focused specifically on presenting these vocal sounds, some of which operated under the label ‘overtone choir’ (‘Obertonchor’) – or, in the case of the best-known representative: Harmonic Choir.

The Western narrative often emphasises that overtones are a universal phenomenon, that overtone singing has characteristics that apply everywhere. But, as we will see, there is plenty of variation in the musical styles and in the stories these musicians tell. Within the Western proliferation of musical subcultures, artists like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Michael Vetter and David Hykes have been dismissed as being either New Age or ‘too difficult’ and avant-garde. We must look closer than that to discover the stories that pioneering musicians try to tell us. Once there were many female vocalists at the forefront of experimental harmonic techniques, like Joan La Barbara, and after a period of domination by male singers, we hear more women in the youngest generation of singers. We will also see that the distinction between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ is quite arbitrary because there is a lot of mutual influence and frequent collaborations.

Photo: Ariel Tsai

PART FOUR: METAPHYSICS

This book’s fourth part, called Metaphysics, is a companion to Modernities. It shifts the emphasis to such issues as meditation, therapy and philosophy insofar as they are related to harmonics and overtone singing. Although it draws upon some Eastern sources, its main focus is the Western world, where the fundamental principles of overtones are used as a metaphor, a belief system and a cosmology – even, one might say, as an artistic form of physics. In the new millennium yoga and meditation have become accepted, well-established tools for millions of new converts, partly endorsed by new scientific research. The positive effects of overtone singing and other harmonic sounds (singing bowls, didgeridoo, Jew’s harp, gongs) are widely reported or claimed in therapy and healing. Solid scientific proof is much harder to come by, and so we must look into several closely related subjects, such as ancient beliefs in the wholesome effects of harmonious proportions and relationships, the body-mind problem and chanting, mantras and therapeutic singing. Overtone singing can be a healing and therapic force for some singers but a great technical barrier for others. This is where tapping into the healing power of vowels, opening up to the natural resonances of the voice and a change of consciousness can be a solution.

PART FIVE: QUINTESSENCE

After zooming in on many subjects and geographical areas, we will zoom out and link up the findings. As a cultural musicologist and vocal performer not bound to a single style or genre, I am constantly comparing statements (or works of art) made within one circle (say: contemporary music professionals) to those of another one (say: anthropology of music). The fifth and final part, Quintessence, puts the four overarching themes in dialogue. It articulates what makes certain practices and ideas in the field of overtone singing stand out and debunks some persistent myths. It presents my vision of how to integrate the issues treated separately in the first four parts. I am placing sound in the centre and contrasting ideas about the self with some of the philosophical implications of modern science. I invite readers to weave the threads between all these aspects of sound and music in their own way.

THE AUDIO ANTHOLOGY

It’s all part of the fascinating paradox of overtones produced by human throats, made audible: a first attempt to glimpse the entire field, to give equal attention to all traditions and new inventions, to historical backgrounds and scientific evidence, to hearing and (a bit less) to singing (that’s another book or online course). I am extremely happy that the Anthology of Overtone Singing, mostly consisting of my on-site field recordings, now covers all the older traditions. Even though I wrote about all of the traditions in earlier editions of this book, I had not visited or made sound recordings of Tibetan, Sardinian and South African Xhosa overtone singing. By now I have made fieldwork trips to every area or, in the case of the Xhosa, spent time with the musicians on tour, witnessed their performance first-hand and made recordings. That means my current Anthology of Overtone Singing covers every area where overtone singing or throat singing has been practised for centuries. In addition, there are several demos and examples of modern overtone singing performed by myself, either alone or with others. The text of Parts One and Two often makes explicit reference to these recordings.

[end of  Double Splits and a Synthesis  from the book’s  Introduction ]

Facts about the book

The audio companion to the book Anthology of Overtone Singing offers the most complete survey of traditional techniques of overtone singing from various regions of the world to date, as well as many demonstrations/pieces with modern-style overtone singing. It is available online on Bandcamp for listening and for purchase as a download or CD, with or without the book.

About the author

Mark van Tongeren is a sound explorer with an interest in the synergy of the arts, sciences and contemplative traditions. He has 30 years of experience in theatre, music and dance productions and holds a PhD in artistic research from Leiden University’s Academy of Creative and Performing Arts. As a cultural musicologist, he has worked with indigenous musicians in Siberia, Taiwan, the Tibetan diaspora and Corsica/Sardinia, with a special focus on timbre and overtones. In his artistic output he seeks to absorb, juxtapose and transcend the music and performing arts from many of the world’s traditions, including Western music of past and present.

FORWORD BY TRÂN QUANG HAI

		The author onstage with Trân Quang Hai  in 1995 in Kyzyl, Tuva, at the International Festival Khöömei
The interest in that peculiar vocal style in the Western world began around the 1960s. Since this time there have been many specialised studies from scholars, as well as musical explorations by composers and singers. My fascination with overtone singing began in 1969. That year, the first sound documents of Mongolian throat singing were brought to Paris by anthropologist Roberte Hamayon. It pushed me towards overtones research from the acoustical point of view first, and later towards the anatomy of the voice, questions about music therapy and the musical aspects of its performance and composition. The increasing interest in overtones in the West has further become evident in contemporary music, New Age music and healing with the voice. In 1995, Mark van Tongeren and I met in Amsterdam before we began our trip to Tuva, where both of us participated in the Second World Festival of Throat Singing in Kyzyl. At that time, he had just finished his dissertation at the University of Amsterdam. It was the first extensive study of Tuvan music by someone outside the Russian Federation, carried out just after Tuva had become accessible to foreign visitors. It dealt with the history and modern practice of Tuvan khöömei or guttural overtone singing. As a singer, a collector of field recordings and a musicologist, Mark Van Tongeren brought new dimensions and developments of Tuvan throat singing to light through his excellent research. He also impressed me with his throat singing at the festival in Kyzyl, for which I was chosen as President of the Jury. In 2001, Mark van Tongeren released his CD on overtones with his original performances. That same year he sent me the manuscript of his book on overtone singing. In this well-documented book, you can find, for the very first time, everything concerning overtone singing in the West, from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s contemporary music to Jill Purce’s healing voice; from electro-acoustic to World and other fusioned music; from renowned Western performers such as Michael Vetter and David Hykes to great masters of overtone singing from Tuva, Mongolia and other parts of the world; and from the Pythagorean harmonic system to OM chanting and New Age mantras. Overtone Singing does justice to this multitude of cultural traditions and to the countless personalities that have contributed to the development of this way of singing. It has interesting and useful things to teach to everyone who is intrigued by the mysteries of sound and music. I am happy to recommend it to all lovers of overtone and throat singing in the world. Trân Quang Hai Ethnomusicologist / Composer National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris, France

Dr. Trân Quang Hai was a dear friend and colleague who passed away in December 2021.

The book is dedicated to him, Michael Vetter and the Tuvans.

Dame Sainkho Namtchylak, one of the first throat singers to receive my new book and advertise it in her workshop – as I noticed many overtone singing teachers like to do. Taipei, February 2023.

MORE REVIEWS

Tot noch toe had ik nooit een boek gelezen over boventonen dat ik echt de moeite vond, tot nu dus. Wat een schat aan informatie en ervaring. … Ik hou ook enorm van het concept ‘paraphony’. Bedankt voor de inzichten en inspiratie!!! – Maarten Adriaenssens (FB)

Until now I have never read a book about overtones that I really found worthwhile, that is, up till now. What a treasure trove of information and experience… I also really like the concept ‘paraphony’. Thanks for the insights and inspiritation –  Maarten Adriaenssens (FB)

I spent all morning with you and your book and CD. The English is clear and not arduous, so it is easy and pleasant to read for a foreigner like me. – Arnaud Lechat (email)

”Thank you very much … for your book on overtone singing. I’m just finshing it, and It helped me a lot on my overtone journey, and even sparked the interest again, when I felt it was going down. Thank you for your work. :)”  – Alexei Ulinici (YouTube)

AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

Do you want the physical book + ‘Anthology of Overtone Singing’ album?

                             Purchase Now

or order the physical book directly from us: 

                            Purchase Now

For the book only:

Amazon (affiliate link),

For the E-book:

through Amazon Kindle in E-pub format (affiliate link).

The post The Overtone Singing Book 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.

Join me this weekend for the first of three launch events of the book and album Overtone Singing. The first one will be most suitable for people on Asian time (Saturday 7 January  at 12 AM for Taipei/Hong Kong) and LA time (US) on Friday 6 January at 8 PM). The second one takes place in NYC (Saturday 14, evening) and Asia (Sunday 15, morning). A third launch in European time will happen on February 4.

I will look back on 30 years of research as a singer and musicologist, tell stories, sing some demos and pieces and there will be one or more special guests to say a word about this book or their own experiences in the field of overtone singing. There will be a short Q&A at the end too.

Please celebrate this occasion with me. We will braodcast on the Fusica YouTube channel. If you would like to receive a notice or subscribe to other notifications, write an email to Jane Tsai by clicking here:   jame79522@gmail.com.

All information about the book is here.

LAUNCH #1

WESTCOAST US

Friday January 6

20-21:30 LA time

=

Saturday January 7

12-13:30 TW/HK time

The FB event page

https://www.facebook.com/events/565031861852798/?ref=newsfeed

LAUNCH #2

EASTCOAST US

Saturday January 14

20-21:30 NY time

=

Sunday January 15

9-10:30 TW/HK time

The FB event page

https://www.facebook.com/events/1810308066007379/?ref=newsfeed

LAUNCH #3

EUROPE

Saturday February 4

13-14:30 C.E. TIME

=

Saturday February 4

20-21:30 TW/HK time

The FB event page

https://www.facebook.com/events/1187454068549532/?ref=newsfeed

Official worldwide release date: January 10.

Global distribution everywhere through The MIT Press / Penguin Random House.

Available NOW through Fusica and Terra Nova Press.

Book (pre)orders: Publisher Terra Nova

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

Or as a package with the Anthology album:

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

The book in short:

The Overtone Singing Book

The post Book Launch 1, 2 & 3 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.

Today is the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the work of my dear friend Joachim Hartz, who passed away on August 14, 2021: painter, musician, videographer, scenographer. etc. etc.. Here I introduce a soundpiece we made in the mid 90s and some context of my early work in collaboration with Silo Theater and Jochem. The Dutch version contains a more detailed account of my early memories as a sound explorer with Silo Theatre, founded by Milou Veling, and its predecessors at the Object Theatre department in the Amsterdam Theatre School. The Soundpiece is part of the exhibition and also available below.

Jochem Hartz in the performance installation of Silotheater, Een kaar in de graansilo, Festival De Parade, 1995. Photo Ania Harre.

In spring 2021 I began to organise the transfers of my DAT tapes with recordings from the Silo and from the Silo Theatre. When I learnt that no action was undertaken by my sound guy, some six weeks ago, I found someone with a DAT machine. I attempted to transfer some tapes, but several tapes, including one Silo tape, broke. When the news about Jochem arrived I went to look for audiocassettes recorded under the bridge during Een Kaar in de Graansilo, at Festival De Parade, 1995. One crippled recording of the Waterorgan turned up, and a complete one. The last one was immediately followed by an excerpt of a recording made by Jochem and others in an actual silo, with a long delay time. It was a repetitive sound of clanging metal, a pan flute and some voices. They vaguely reminded me of church bells and seemes somehow fitting as a sonic farewell to Jochem, so I decided to keep these two connected pieces in the original form, live from under a bridge in Amsterdam.

Waterorgel Kaarklok (Waterorgan Silobell).

Waterorgan designed and built by Jochem Hartz, played by Jochem and Mark van Tongeren

Silobell played by members of Silotheatre in the Graansilo.

All rights for the sound piece and photos reserved by the respective makers.

Jochem’s Waterorgan

In 1994 or 1995 Jochem had built a waterorgan. It consisted of several pipes that were placed vertically, and also vertically movable. These were not round pipes, but square ones, made of four planks. Like any organ pipe, the sound was produced through a slit in the side of the pipe. In ordinary organ pipes there is a bellows system that pushes air through the pipes. Jochem’s organ had a different method of producing airflow: the pipes were resting in a trough filled with water. The lower end of each pipe was open. By moving the pipes up and down by hand, we would change the height of the water inside the pipe, and add air pressure. I am not 100% sure about how it worked anymore: supposedly we pushed one or two pipes deeper into the water using one or two hands, driving the water level up into the pipe and increasing the air pressure, so that the tone began to sound. Once we let a pipe down again, the water would slowly recede, the pressure would be reduced and the tone would slowly fade out. The control of the tones was therefore not so direct, and not stable either. This allowed for several effects usually avoided in organ pipes, like the sound of moving air without a clear tone, or the occurance of so-called ‘voorlopertonen.’ These less stable tones would give rise to the flageolets (instrumental overtones) you hear. Of course Jochem was still working on this organ as we began to play it. Then we obtained precious studio time and the help of a sound engineer to make recordings to be played back in the theatre performance. We made several attempts to arrive at a satisfactory composition, adjusting things on the go. The recordings became part of a mix of playback sounds I would play and live sounds at the performance Een Kaar in de Graansilo.

Silotheater, Een kaar in de graansilo, De Parade, 1995. Photo Ania Harre.

The exhibtion opens today at the Fuse Gallery, NDSM, Amsterdam, and runs till October 3.

http://www.ndsm-fuse.eu/programma.html.

Here is a a video of some of Jochem’s work.

ADDITION October 2021: I just saw this video of the actual exhibition which I could not attend (10.000 km away). I am stunned really by the amount of work on display, what a productive guy he was!

What follows are my memories of Jochem’s early performances and our collaboration, including my first-ever performance, in Dutch.

Scène 1 Akte 1.
Eerste herinnering.

Rond 1990 gaat Daphne Object Theater studeren en zo doende zie ik vanaf het eerste jaar heel veel voorstellingen van alle studenten, vaak als collectief werk. De herinnering aan de allereerste voorstelling is nog in mijn geheugen gebrand. Vooral het stuk van Jochem.

We zitten te kijken naar een rij kartonnen borden op een afstand van een meter of 3-4. Daarop tekeningen of schilderingen van brommers (of mensen op brommers? – daar wil ik van af zijn). We horen het geluid van brommers die stilstaan, pruttelende motortjes. De borden bewegen amper, maar gaan gaandeweg een beetje onrustig heen en weer. Misschien een stuk of 10? De brommertjes beginnen zich te roeren, de geluiden worden wat drukker. Gepruttel wordt af en toe een dotje gas. De borden willen naar voren, dat is duidelijk. Het lawaai neemt toe, harder en harder, met van die aggresieve gas-stoten waar je je als wandelaar op een oversteekplaats niet bij op je gemak voelt. Nu wordt het echt heel onrustig, de brommers beginnen enorm intimiderend lawaai te maken. Dan opeens gaat er een bel: kennelijk was het een brug die weer open gaat. Het volle geweld barst los. De borden spuiten naar voren, recht op ons af, het geluid wordt angstaanjagend. Terwijl wij terugdeinzen is het geluid opeens weg, het licht uit en de zaal weer pikdonker.

(Jochem maakte de opname daadwerkelijk bij een geopende brug vlakbij de Theaterschool, en souffleerde de wachtenden, met  microfoon in de hand, steeds heftiger de gashendels te openen).

Silotheater, Een kaar in de graansilo, De Parade, 1995. Photo Ania Harre.

Scéne 1 Akte 2.
Tulundusac.

Milou maakt een voorstelling over een IJslandse mythe en nodigt mij uit om boventonen te zingen. Toevallig heb ik een paar weken geleden (augustus 2021) de opnames van deze voorstelling en de voorbereidingen teruggehoord op een oude cassette. Langdurig irritant geratel van een zware ketting over een katrol, een authentieke luchtdruk sirene (zo een die ik na 30 jaar opnieuw zie en hoor in een restaurantje in Yilan waar de chefkok aan alle gasten demonstreert wat het is), druk gepraat en geroep, en ik maar oefenen met zingen.
Jochem maakt een apparaat waarmee een bos omgehakt moet worden. Nou ja, wat heet. Het bos zijn slierten die van het plafond van de theaterzaal naar beneden hangen, plastic slierten. De machine is een stel wieken waar scheermesjes aan vastgemaakt zitten die dus al draaiend, horizontaal dat plastic moeten doorsnijden. En die wordt aangedreven door de motor van een centrifuge. En hoe wordt die machine dan wel gebruikt? Welnu die machine (inclusief die motor) moet op het hoofd van een boventoonzanger komen. En die motor moet op zeker moment flink gaan draaien. Dan loopt die boventoonzanger al zingend door dat bos en worden de bomen dus gekapt. Logisch toch? (Laat ik nou toevallig ook nog eens bang zijn voor centrifuge-motoren, die eens bijna mijn hand meesleurden en mijn arm aan gruzelementen draaiden omdat ik dacht een beetje te kunnen spelen met een handdoek die ik naar binnen liet zakken, terwijl het onding op volle toeren draaide. Ik keek ademloos naar de geweldige en mogelijk ook gewelddadige kracht van techniek). De scene in het bos met boventoonzang en een zacht-ronkende motor werd ruw maar wel opzettelijk verstoord door vreselijke lawaaiïge apparaten, als kettingzagen, ook door Jochem bediend. Dankzij Jochem kan niemand mij ervan beschuldigen dat ik alleen maar zoet-zalvende boventonen zing, mijn debuut uit 1992 is het bewijs. Milou houdt zich ondertussen met 1001 dingen bezig maar voor zover ik me herinner laat ze ons lekker onze gang gaan, heel karakteristiek, een werkwijze die ze later nog zal verfijnen en die tot allerlei memorabele sessies leidt.

Silotheater, Een kaar in de graansilo, De Parade, 1995. Photo Ania Harre.

Scène 1 Akte 3.
Waterorgel

Jochem heeft een waterorgel gebouwd voor de afstudeervoorstelling van Milou waar ik ook weer aan mee doe: ‘Een Kaar in de Graansilo,’ 1995. Jochem heeft daarvoor een fraai waterorgel gemaakt. Die bestaat uit enkele verticale, beweegbare pijpen die een toon kunnen maken door een sleuf in de zijkant. Het zijn geen ronde pijpen maar vierkante, zelf in elkaar gelijmd door Jochem van vier planken. Normaalgesproken drijft een blaasbalg de lucht door de pijpen, maar Jochem heeft een alternatief systeem bedacht: de rij pijpen rust in een trog met water en het ondereinde van elke pijp is open. Door ze met de hand omhoog te trekken uit het water en weer neer te laten, kan je de hoogte van het waterniveau en dus de luchtdruk variëren. Volgens mij trokken we ze omhoog waardoor het water laag kwam te staan en de pijp als het ware ‘inademde,’ en begonnnen dan de pijp gecontroleerd weer in het water te laten zakken waardoor de toon ging klinken (maar het kan evengoed eerst omhoog halen geweest zijn). We konden de toon niet helemaal direct of stabiel controleren, hij stierf langzaam weg naarmate de druk weer wegviel. Er ontstonden zo geluiden die normale orgelbouwers koste wat kost willen vermijden, zoals het geluid van duidelijk hoorbare ‘ademende’ lucht en voorlopertonen (dat dat zo heette leerde ik later van instrumentenbouwer Horst Rickels, die mogelijk de aanzet had gegeven voor Jochem’s waterorgel tijdens lessen op de Theaterschoool). Deze minder stabiele tonen leidden tot de flageoletten (instrumentale boventonen) die je hoort. Uiteraard was Jochem nog bezig zijn orgel te bouwen toen we ermee begonnen te spelen. We kregen studiotijd en een technicus toegegewezen om opnames te maken voor gebruik tijdens de voorstelling, deden diverse pogingen om tot een rudimentaire compositie te komen en leerden al doende. De opnames werden onderdeel van een mix van allerlei geluiden die ik van banden en obscure elpees en cds had verzameld, en vermengd met live gezongen en gespeelde geluiden en muziek.

Silotheater, Een kaar in de graansilo, De Parade, 1995. Photo Ania Harre.

Scène 2 Akte 1.
De Parade

De chemie rond het brandende kernpunt van Milou en Jochem breidt zich uit tot een organisme dat zichzelf voortdurend ontwikkelt en transformeert. Terts Brinkhof ziet het stuk en nodigt Milou uit om op een uithoek van festival De Parade te komen spelen, onder de brug over de Amstel. We krijgen de kans het stuk nog wekenlang op te voeren, vaak non-stop gedurende lange avonden. Ik voel me als een vis in het water in deze vreemde multidimensionale wereld, waarin mensen over het plafond en de zijmuren lopen, de grond een spiegelend oppervlak is, en het achterdoek soms een peilloze diepte van een soort tunnel laat zien, die toch geen tunnel is (het is een filmopname loodrecht naar beneden in een kaar van de Graansilo). Wat hier gebeurt, is veel groter dan wat ik ooit zal kunnen bevatten. De biotoop die Milou om ons heen bouwt zwelt aan tot haast mythische proporties: bouwers, restaurateurs, licht- en projectiemensen, performers, en vooral veel denkers-makers zoals Jochem. Ik begrijp soms bar weinig van de discussies waar dit allemaal over gaat, maar het prikkelt enorm en opent deuren. Alles hecht zich diep in mijn wezen vast en plant zich ook in mijn onderbewustzijn. Gedurende tientallen jaren zullen Jochem, Milou en de Graansilo in allerlei fantastische dromen opduiken, allemaal terug te voeren op die eerste voorstellingen.

Silotheater, Een kaar in de graansilo, De Parade, 1995. Photos Ania Harre.

De Waterorgel Opname

Dit voorjaar wilde ik mijn digitale audiocasettes laten overzetten van opnamesessies in een kaar (de verticale schacht die als opslagplaats voor graan etc. diende) en van andere geluiden gebruikt voor Silo Theater. Toen ik merkte dat daar niets van kwam vond ik in augustus iemand met een DAT machine en wilde beginnen met het overzetten. 1 of 2 Silo tapes braken of wilden niet afspelen. Toen het nieuws over Jochem’s dood kwam ging ik de gewone audiocassettes checken. De opname hier is een fragment van vier uur tape opnames, live onder de brug op de Parade, 1995. Het Waterorgel kwam diverse malen voorbij en wordt hier gevolgd door een opname die een aantal leden van Silo Theater maakten in zo’n kaar van de Graansilo aan de Westerdoksdijk. De lange galm van de kaar en het kerkklok-achtige geluid met wat vage andere geluiden, voorafgegaan door Jochem’s waterorgel, vormde de soundtrack van mijn eigen rouwproces hier in Taiwan. Vandaag opent de tentoonstelling aan het zeer diverse werk van deze veelzijdige kunstenaar en dierbare vriend. Inderdaad, “Jochem was een hartzvriend van velen” zoals de poster vermeldt.

Jochem Hartz, 1999. Photo by Mark van Tongeren

Het ligt in de bedoeling dat dit bescheiden audioretrospectief rondom Jochem een vervolg krijgt met meer audioreleases uit de Silo en van Silo Theater.

Hier is nog een mooi artikel in Trouw gewijd aan Jochem.

Rechten van audio, video en foto voorbehouden.

All rights of audio/video/photo reserved.

The post Waterorgan with Joachim Hartz (1961-2021) appeared first on Fusica.

Here is a letter I wrote earlier this year when I was about to turn 50 (want to get on the mailinglist too? let me know!):

I love the number 49 and its symbolism. Much better than 50. So I prefer to send out a shout to everyone on the last day of my 49th year in which I am walking on this strange and wonderful place called earth, rather than on the first day of the 50th year. My dear sister Daphne somehow knew I wanted to celebrate while I was still 49, when she organised a surprise party for me several months ago. I completely and totally bought it, even after my mom and two friends showed up in a park where you would not expect that. What a great present!

And then the Tuvans, for whom 49 is a special number, play their magic on me too. Tuva and its inhabitants have shaped my life in many ways. When I was halfway on to this point of my life and getting close to 25 years old, I first visited Tuva and fell in love with the place forever. 12 Years later I visited Tuva with June Wen, and it was then and there that we found out that we are destined for each other. That led to our marriage, to our kids, to me moving to Taiwan. Life-changing experiences in which Tuva seemed to play a role.

And right now, guess what? Earlier this year I began organising several Tuvan concerts here in Taiwan, and I was asked to curate two different acts for the Asian Pacific Traditional Arts Festival. And today (last day of 49) the first Tuvan group, a young quartet called Ezengi, has just finished their job (which they did very well) and returns to Tuva. And tomorrow (first day of 50) four fine senior musicians arrive from Tuva to Taiwan for this weekend’s performances: Shonchalai and Nachyn Choodu, Andrei Öpei and Valerii Mongush. Coincidence?

And then, there was this other coincidence this year. When I fist visited Tuva I learned about a Scythian ornament found during archaeological excavations, consisting of a panther biting its own tail. A wonderful symbol of infinity and the ever-repeating cycles of events. “Ma fin est mon commencement” (“my end is my beginning’) as mediaeval poets and musicians such as Guillaume de Machaut knew so well. This spring a very noble and inspiring friend, the philosopher Fons Elders, sent around a message with his view about this symbol, which is known as the ouroboros in the western world. A little later I performed in the Oosterkerk in Amsterdam with the wonderful Turkish ney player Sinan Arat, a concert I had arranged to be filmed so that I could share it with everybody. In the background of our stage happened to be . . . an ouroboros. So a few days ago, while working on the video I decided to call it “The Ouroboros Concert”. The next day I took the Tuvans to the Pacific Ocean – Tuva being very far removed from any sea or ocean. They decided to try surfing and that’s how I noticed the Scythian ouroboros tattooed on the arm of Anchy Damdyn. What a great idea! The first time ever I imagined I could have a tattoo too.

So by way of celebration and to express the gratitude I feel for being a human amidst so many wonderful human beings I share this Ouroboros concert video with you.

Nederlands

Hier is een brief die ik onlangs rondstuurde, toen ik op het punt stond 49 te worden (ook op de mailinglijst? laat het weten!):

49 Is een prachtig getal met een prachtige symboliek. Veel beter dan 50. Dus stuur ik een groet aan iedereen op de laatste dag van de 49 jaar dat ik op deze vreemde, wonderlijke planeet rondloop, in plaats van de eerste dag van mijn 50e. Mijn lieve zus Daphne voelde kennelijk al aan dat ik liever even stil sta bij mijn leven op mijn 49e, toen ze een surprise party voor me oganiseerde enkele maanden geleden. Ik stonk er totaal in, zelfs nadat mijn moeder en enkele vrienden spontaan opdoken in een park waar je hen toch niet 1-2-3 samen verwacht. Wat een geweldig cadeau!

En de Toevanen, voor wie het getal 49 ook speciale betekenis heeft, duiken ook weer op haast magische wijze op. Zoals jullie weten hebben Toeva en haar inwoners mijn leven op allerlei manieren vorm gegeven. Toen ik halverwege het punt was waar ik nu ben, dus bijna 25 jaar oud, bezocht ik Toeva voor het eerst en raakte voorgoed verslingerd aan deze plek. 12 Jaar later ging ik naar Toeva met June en we ontdekten, toen en daar, dat we voorbestemd waren voor elkaar. Dat leidde dus tot ons huwelijk, kinderen en tenslotte mijn verhuizing naar Taiwan. Nog een levenswending waar Toeva haast een sturende hand in leek te hebben.

En wat is er nu aan de hand? Ik begon eerder dit jaar een aantal Toevaanse concerten te organiseren hier in Taiwan, en werd onder andere verzocht twee programma’s in te vullen voor het Asian Pacific Traditional Arts Festival. En vandaag (de laatste dag dat ik 49 ben) vertrekt de eerste Toevaanse groep, een jong kwartet genaamd Ezengi (nadat ze zich trouwens uitstekend gekweten hebben van hun taak). En morgen (de eerste dag dat ik 50 ben) arriveren er vier geweldige senior musici uit Toeva: Shonchalai en Nachyn Choodu, Andrei Öpei en Valerii Mongush. Toeval?

En dan was er nog iets dit jaar. Toen ik Toeva voor het eerst bezocht leerde ik een Scythisch ornament kennen, dat bij archeologische opgravingen gevonden was en dat bestaat uit een panter die in zijn staart bijt. Een prachtig symbool van oneindigheid en de eeuwigdurende cycli van gebeurtenissen. “Ma fin est mon commencement” zoals middeleeuwse dichters en musici als Guillaume de Machaut heel goed wisten. Dit voorjaar stuurde vriend en inspiratiebron Fons Elders een bericht rond met daarin zijn visie op dit symbool, dat bekend staat als oeroboros in de westerse wereld. Iets later trad ik op in de Oosterkerk in Amsterdam met een geweldige Turkse ney-speler, Sinan Arat, een concert dat ik liet opnemen op video (en waarvoor je de link onderaan vindt). Juist achter ons podium bevond zich . . . een mooie uit hout gesneden oeroboros. En dus besloot ik een aantal dagen geleden toen ik met de video bezig was om ons optreden Het Oeroboros Concert te noemen. De volgende dag (afgelopen zaterdag) nam ik de Toevaanse musici mee naar de oceaan (waar de Toevanen verder van verwijderd zijn dan zo’n beetje wie dan ook ter wereld). Ze wilden graag gaan surfen en zo ontdekte ik de tatoeage van zo’n Scytische oeroboros op de arm van Anchy Damdyn. Wat een geweldig idee! Nooit eerder had ik ook maar een seconde de gedachte gekoesterd dat een tatoeage voor mij zelf ook best interessant kon zijn.

Dus om even stil te staan bij dit bijzondere moment in mijn leven en uitdrukking te geven aan de dankbaarheid om een mens te zijn te midden van allerlei fantastische mensen met wie ik mij omringd weet, deel ik nu deze Oeroboros concertvideo met jullie.

The post The Ouroboros Concert appeared first on Fusica.

The post Workshop boventoonzang in Oosterkerk appeared first on Fusica.

Sinan bespeelt naast de ney rietfluit ook lijsttrommels en zingt, en hij heeft Indiase muziek bestudeerd. En aangezien ik de laatste jaren ook experimenteer met fluiten en met de Marrokaanse bendir lijsttrommel én omdat ik ook al jaren met Indiase muziek bezig ben, hebben we aardig wat overlap. Ik ben heel benieuwd hoe dat gaat uitpakken, zijn voornamelijk traditionele spel met mijn meer experimentele benadering.

Het concert is op zondag 15 juli en begint om 12:00

Gratis toegankelijk (donaties welkom).

Adres: Oosterkerk, Kleine Wittenburgerstraat 1, Amsterdam.

De dag ervoor doe ik een eendaagse workshop boventoonzang, ook in de Oosterkerk in Amsterdam, voor wie wil kennismaken met deze techniek.

Beluister ook het mooie interview met Sinan rondom de VPRO sessie.

“Sinan Arat uit Turkije speelt en improviseert op de ney (Turkse fluit) en laat zich inspireren door de Ottomaanse en Anatolische traditie. Hij wordt begeleid door Alper Kekeç op percussie. In het interview met Giovanca vertelt Sinan hoe hij kennis leerde maken met de ney.”

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