Traveling on the train the other day a group of school kids bundled in and started larking around like they do. Then suddenly one of them started emitting a rough low droning sound in an attempt to throat sing! Roll back over thirty years and I was trying the same thing after hearing Mongolian Tserendavaa’s astounding sounds emerging from his mouth at a concert of Mongolian music in London. He sounded a continuous rich drone and at the same time, what seemed to be an ethereal silvery high flute like melody. Tserendavaa’s strength, power and resonance profoundly struck a chord throughout my body and to be seemingly voicing two sounds at the same time stimulated my mind. In 1988 there was no internet to search, so I bought cassettes and vinyl and started experimenting intoxicated by the extraordinary sounds just like the youth on the train. He may have been one of the 33 million that heard the latest Mongolian throat singing group The Hu on youtube. The Hu combine the deep earthy vibrations of undertone singing with the distorted force of overdriven metal guitars. Connecting their perception of the ancient with the new.

Throat singing has enthralled, baffled and inspired musicians, audiences and researchers worldwide. This brief incomplete feature attempts to unpack the basics of throat singing, focusing on Mongolian and Tuvan traditions. Everyone vibrates their vocal folds in the larynx to speak and sing. This is part of the throat structure, so everything is throat singing! It is sometimes translated as overtone singing and/or undertone singing. Maybe it could be called precision timbral singing. 

Inspired, I travelled to Mongolia in 1993 to experiment and learn more. Mongolians have a general name for this type of sounding, Khöömii (khöömei in Tuva), which physiologically can be translated as pharynx although much more is involved. If you asked anyone at that time where Khöömii was strong in Mongolia they would say go west and in particular Chandman district in Khovd province (see Map). I met Khöömii singer Tsengedorj at the Khovd City Drama Theatre and then travelled to Chandman, where a five-year circle was completed as it was here, in Tserendavaa’s ger (round felt tent), that I  was honoured to learn. I met Tsengedorj the khöömiich (throat singer) at Khovd City Drama Theatre and then travelled to Chandman where a five year circle was completed as it was in Tserendavaa’s ger (round felt tent) where I was honoured to learn. It was not easy, it needs daily practice and I am still learning.

History and Origins of Throat Singing

It is impossible to precisely know when and where these styles of vocalising originated. However the places shown on the map are the strongest contenders. Tuva, a republic within the Russian Federation has probably the most Khöömei singers per population and is the home of Huun Huur Tu the most travelled of Tuvan groups. The western Mongolian provinces are another main region. In the Altai Republic the epic singers sometimes sang in a rich compressed style called Kai, the Khakhass as well. A style called Uzlyua is also sung by the Bashkirs in Bashkoristan far west by the Ural mountains. 

Mongolian and Tuvan legends and stories relate some of their throat singing origins to the sound of wind on water reverberating in mountains, echoes bouncing off cliffs and the sound of water running through rocks. Listening carefully to these complex sounds you may hear ever changing timbres competing within the continuous sound, a vertical way of listening. Researchers have postulated that throat singing may have developed as some kind of vocal response to these sounds and possibly an offering to placate the animate forces inhabiting themselves and their landscape. Another avenue is the non verbal sounds that are sung/called to help herd animals. Calling in Yaks is an instance where throat singing may have been used. Amongst most khöömiich, Khöömii is not considered singing in both a Mongolian/Tuvan and Non Mongolian/Tuvan sense but sounding with the pharynx. Maybe throat singing is at the intersection between vocal and instrumental music. Overtone rich instruments such as Jews-harps, the Tsuur/Choor end blown flute (where a vocal drone is sounded at the same time as playing the flute), the Tuvan igil fiddle and the overtone laden Mongolian khailakh epic singing sound quality played their part. As may have Buddhism and animism/shamanism in pre communist times. 

It seems up until the 1980/90’s that khöömii was not formerly taught in Chandman district, Khovd, other west Mongolian provinces and Tuva. Instead it was learnt by being inspired to copying great singers, advice from relatives who sang, hours practicing in nature and possibly listening to Mongolian Radio. However in Ulaanbataar you could learn a professional repertoire at the Arts and Culture College. This performative version of throat singing in which melodic innovation and eventually ensemble playing came to the fore germinated in Khovd Theatre via a film ‘Our Melody’ (Manai ayalguu) from 1956. It then went to Ulaanbaatar in the 1960’s and the national song and dance ensemble in the 70′ and 80’s where only a handful of self taught throat singers put khöömii on the stage. It was similar in Tuva. In 1976 The Ensemble Sygyrga was fomed and included talented self taught older Khöömei singers. Then in the 1980’s scholar Zoya Kyrgys created youth Khöömei ensembles as way of encouraging the dying tradition. The young singers were recruited into the state sponsored Ayan and Sayan ensembles which became into the Tuva ensemble in 1987.

Khöömii/ei was first heard live outside the Soviet block in 1980’s, usually concert tours organised by researchers specialising in musics from the region. When communism collapsed in the early 1990’s state funding of the arts was reduced and about the same time “world music” festivals, labels and enthusiasts invited newly formed bands and individuals to Europe, Japan and the USA introducing a commercial music business aspect to their work and performances. 

Huun Huur Tu gained the most recognition, continuously touring and also collaborating with the likes of Frank Zappa, the Kodo drummers and the female Bulgarian vocal ensemble Angelite. They became the premier throat singing group with the amazing Kaigal-ool Khovalyg being the star. In Europe, Mongolian groups like Egschiglen and Altai Khangai wowed the audiences not only with throat singing but also virtuosic Morin Khuur playing. Albert Kuvezin left Huun Huur Tu to form Yat-kha in order to create a powerful combination of throat singing with electric guitars, bass and drums that amongst others the Hu are now emulating. The next generation of Tuvan Throat singers formed Alash, Chirgilchin and the all female ensemble Tuva Kyzy. Innovations with mixing Tuvan and Mongolian styles/melodies, new compositions, arrangements of old tunes in new ways, using non traditional instruments, western style harmony, collaboration with other music cultures like rock, pop, and jazz were developed in the 2000’s by Mongolian groups such as TransMongolia, Sedaa, Altan Urag and the Ethnic Ballad Group Khusugtun. This inspired musicians from Inner Mongolia to study throat singing in Tuva and Mongolia. Of these Anda Union and Hanggai are continuing to entertain audiences worldwide.

The history of throat singing could be thought in a similar way as the winds blowing on the endless steppe continuously evolving, changing direction and gusting back on itself. Each performer creates their own unique sound, each generations idea of authenticity looks back to the past and into the future. You never know, maybe that youth in the train will become the next throat singing sensation.

For in-depth English language Mongolian musicology please check out Carole Pegg, Johanni Curtet (in French!), Andrew Colwell and for Tuva, Ted Levin, Mark van Tongeren and Robert Oliver Beahrs.