Throat singing

Throat singing refers to several vocal practices found in different cultures worldwide.

Throat singing consists of a range of singing techniques that originally belonged to particular cultures and which may share sounding characteristics, making them noticeable by other cultures and users of mainstream singing styles.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Terminology

The term originates from the translation of the Tuvan word

The term throat singing is not precise, because any singing technique involves sound generation in the "throat," with the voice being produced at the level of the larynx, which includes the vocal folds and other structures.[7]^[11][12][9] Therefore it would be, in principle, admissible to refer to classical operatic singing or pop singing as "throat singing." However, the term throat is not accepted as a part of the official terminology of anatomy (Terminologia Anatomica) and is not technically associated with most of the singing techniques.

Some authors, performers, coaches, and listeners associate throat singing with

"Singing with the throat" may be regarded as a demeaning expression to some singers, since it may imply that the singer is using a high level of effort, resulting in a forced or non-suitable voice. The word "throaty" is usually associated with a rough, raspy, breathy or hoarse voice. Despite being a term frequently used in the literature starting in the 1960s, some contemporary scholars tend to avoid using throat singing as a general term.^[citation needed]

There is a consistent and enthusiastic international reception for concerts and workshops given by musical groups belonging to the several cultures that incorporate throat singing [1][2]. Besides the traditional ethnic performances, throat singing is also cultivated and explored by musicians belonging to contemporary, rock, new-age, pop, and independent music genres.

Types of throat singing

Throat singing techniques may be classified under an ethnomusicological approach, which considers cultural aspects, their associations to rituals, religious practices, storytelling, labor songs, vocal games, and other contexts; or a musical approach, which considers their artistic use, the basic acoustical principles, and the physiological and mechanical procedures to learn, train and produce them.

The most commonly referenced types of throat singing techniques in musicological and ethnomusicological texts are generally associated with ancient cultures. Some of them, as the Khöömei from Mongolia, Tuva and China, and the Canto Tenore from Sardinia, are acknowledged by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

• Tuvan throat singing (or Mongolian throat singing) is a form of singing comprising several techniques; it is practiced in the Republic of Tuva, belonging to the Russian federation,^{[13][14][15][1]} in Mongolia and in China^[16][2][3][4].
• Buddhist chants, found in some monasteries in India (Tibetan exiled communities) and Tibet, sometimes involve vocal-ventricular phonation; that is, combined vibrations of the vocal folds and the ventricular folds, achieving low pitches.^[17][2][18]
• Inuit throat singing is a type of duet used in contests; it is practiced by the Inuit of Canada.^[19]
• Rekuhkara is a practice formerly done by the Ainu ethnic group of Hokkaidō Island, Japan.^[20]
• Canto a tenore, or Sardinian throat singing, is found in Sardinia.^[21][5]

In musically related terms, throat singing refers to the following specific techniques, among others:

• Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, or harmonic singing. This is the singing style more commonly associated with throat singing.^{[22][23][24][25][26]}
• subharmonics. It is generated by the combined vibrations of parts of the singing apparatus at a certain frequency and frequencies that correspond to integer divisions of such frequency, such as 1:2, 1:3, and 1:4 ratios.^[8]
• Diplophonic voice, which includes techniques that consist of parts of the singing apparatus vibrating at non-integer ratios and which are usually regarded as associated with pathological processes.^[28]
• Growling voice consists of a technique of growling, which employs structures of the vocal apparatus located above the larynx, vibrating at the same time as the vocal folds, particularly the aryepiglottic folds.^[29]
• Vocal fry^[30] is a technique associated to vocal fry register.

• Kargyraa.mp3
• Khoomei.mp3
• Sound samples, by Leonardo Fuks, at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

See also

• Tuvan throat singing
• List of overtone musicians
• Cantu a tenore

External links

Look up throat singing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Encyclopedia Britannica definition
• Throat Singing in Kangirsuk, a 2019 Canadian short documentary film
• Mongolian traditional art of Khöömei https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/mongolian-traditional-art-of-khoomei-00396
• Throat-singing article from Encyclopaedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/art/throat-singing
• Webpage from Tran Quang Hai Archived 2021-10-02 at the Wayback Machine, one of the main and pioneer throat singing performers and researchers in the world, named “Tran Quang Hai’s World Throat Singing”

References