Thursday, April 18, 2013

Khöömei #FTW

"Genius" has connecting elements; I was bought into that belief overnight. It connects Richard Feynman to Ron Fricke to Sheldon Cooper - the iconic physicist to the legendary moviemaker to TV's biggest geek (on TBBT). Talking about Fricke there's one thing that first comes to mind... Baraka - the most unimaginable and undefinable cinema project to date. Of course, it's gotta do with Baraka. And to be technical, not Fricke, not even the composer for Baraka, Michael Stearns, but it was David Hykes, that connects with Feynman and Cooper here.

Hykes, you see, did this one esoteric sound recording titled "Rainbow Voice", with an esoteric band called "The Harmonic Choir". The recording introduced something new, perhaps to the world... something that even the music composer Michael Stearns picked up and used in Baraka; it was the art of Khöömei, or Choomej, or Tuvan Throat Singing as its more popularly known (to refer to it without the regional distinction). Its origin lies in Tuva, a once-a-country with a capital city called Kyzyl, a landlocked region sandwiched between then-Soviet Russia and Mongolia, later taken over by the Russians (it is now a federal republic of Russia).

Tuva is a discovery; this is what got Feynman here.. So is Tuvan throat singing; this is what got Sheldon Cooper (on demand of Leonard Hofstadter, the friendship agreement incorporated - under Article 3: Cohabitation, addendum #3 - "Sheldon will no longer practice Tuvan throat singing".

Since the beginning of the 1990s, throat singing has been attracting the attention of a growing number of music lovers from all over the world, and in particular groups from the republic of Tuva, situated northwest of Mongolia. Shu-De is a group who presents this amazing music, alongside such groups as Huun-Huur-Tu and Chirgilchin. Throat singing is a technique that has been apparently developed in Mongolia which allows a singer to sing two or three notes at the same times. The people of Tuvan were able to develop five different ways of producing this particular type of singing. Feynman not only journeyed to Tuva (who was the first American to have come to Tuva), but he also wrote a book on it, called "Tuva or Bust!". Somebody learnt of that music, picked up that book, and even decided visit Tuva, to find the Feynman trail , compete in throat singing and make a movie on it. I'm slowly growing all the more fond of this singing and the region.

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