In their return appearance last night, the Huun-Huur-Tu Throat Singers flooded Spaulding Auditorium with musical images of the nature found in their homeland, Tuva.
From the outset, it was clear how important nature was to throat singing. In a pre-concert "Spotlight discussion," Professor of Music Ted Levin described the first song as a welcome which expressed Huun-Huur-Tu's hope that they may benefit from America's inexpensive cars and that the audience may benefit from Tuva's clean air and water.
The concert was indeed a breath of fresh air, offering metaphorical glimpses into Tuva's primitive wildlife and landscape.
It was a celebration of the beauty of nature, expressed through the emotional drama created by rock steady vibrato of the singers. The Throat Singers seem to have perfected "khoomei" as a means of emotional expression, using music to convey a unique sense of their culture and tradition. The Tuvans view the music not only as an art, but as a utility as well, using throat singing to pacify restless animals.
Their rich, lyrical harmonies illuminated the finer points of "khoomei," an ancient folk art of throat singing that has been perfected in Tuva, a former Soviet Republic.
The most amazing aspect of "khoomei" is how the artist can produce two or more separate notes simultaneously, allowing the singer to integrate melody and harmony in the most intimate way possible.
The sounds that result, ranging from background bass drones to high pitched flutelike resonances, mimic the sounds of nature that Huun-Huur Tu focuses their concert around.
The Throat Singers were exceptionally successful in executing the harmonic part of their music but their melodies were somewhat disjointed at times.
This may also be a consequence of the sharp contrast between Western music, sounds which we are most attuned to, and the complex tones and scales common to Eastern music.
The singers expertly weaved multiple rhythms and melodies into their songs, creating a beautiful, haunting effect.
Salmaan Siddiqui '97, a student in Levin's Music 4 class, commented "The performance made a thoughtful impression. The shapeliness of the phrasing and command of technique certainly couldn't be denied. The songs of nature really kept things moving and gave the concert a very unique feel. The overall impression was of precision, delicacy and intimacy."
The Throat Singers performed to a sold-crowd in a Hopkins Center concert in 1992. Since then, word of their talent has spread throughout the United States and the group is returning as part of its current tour.
The Boston Globe described the group's music as "sounds that are at once earthly and otherworldly, direct and subtle."
Echoing a similar sentiment, The Los Angeles Weekly stated "This music is astoundingly pure, dunking you into a fragrant cauldron of ear-twisting exoticism."
Huun-Huur Tu's most recent accomplishments include two critically acclaimed recordings, "The Orphan's Lament" and "60 Horses in My Herd." They also performed on the original-cast soundtrack of the film "Geronimo."
