Huun Huur Tu - Tuvan Throat Singers



FM calls me around 5pm on Saturday and exclaims that Tuvan Throat Singers (Huun Huur Tu) are performing at the Old Town at 10pm and asks me if I want to go. $20. The Old Town School of Folk Music. I can't say no.

Geographically speaking, Tuva is nestled between two of my favorite places -- Mongolia and Siberia. I'd first heard recordings of the tuvan throat singing years ago, they were somewhere between astounding and ridiculous. The singer can create complicated harmonies within his own throat! I couldn't resist getting to see/hear this myself.

The concert was better than I had imagined it would be. Huun Huur Tu was a quartet of skilled musicians and vocalists. There was more instrumentation (strings, flutes, drums) than I would have guessed, and that combined with the throat-singing created a rich full sound.

The spokesman for the group, the singer who spoke fairly good english, clued us into the thematic landscape that the songs filled. Generally speaking the songs were about* sadness (love is, of course, a subset of sadness), revolution (ok, so there was only one song about revolution), the land (the landscape's beauty), and horses. After you had an understanding of the prevailing themes, you could generally tell what the song was about without much of an explanation.


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(*FM informed me that there is another major thematic category. Songs about the tuvan throat singing. Much like the boasts of a battle-MC as he touts his own prowess)

Posted: Sun - February 5, 2006 at 04:58 PM      

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