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Khoomei is the throat singing of the Tuva herders that inhabit the
southwest extremity of Siberia, near the Mongolian border. Scientific
American explains, Tuva is like a musical Olduvai Gorge -- a living
record of a proto-musical world, where natural and human-made sounds blend
to interact with and represent their aural environment.
By
controlling the vocal and false folds they can create two distinct tones.
By adjustments in the mouth, they are capable of adding harmonics that
paint acoustic images of waterfalls, wind, animals and their movements,
and can express complex emotions as well as psycho-spiritual
awareness. Similar use of sound in Tibetan chanting has been found to
directly harmonize brainwave patterns.
In a modern
acoustic environment predominated by nasal and pelvic fixations, and in
popular culture where sound waves are used to clean dentures, excavate
mines, and produce new weapons (all important activities), there is
certainly room for a more individualistic, personal effort at producing
our own harmonic sounds. Hum a little tune with an open heart.
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