The Principles of Sound and Tuvan Throat Singing-3
List of Terms to Know:
- Sound wave
- Mechanical wave of pressure
- Audio frequency
- Harmonics or overtones
- Fundamental tone or frequency
- Timbre
- Throat singing
- Pitch
- Loudness
Music is sound. With that in mind, we will explore here some basic principles of sound and how these help to explain a type of unusual singing, often called throat singing, found among the Tuvans.
1. Familiarize yourself with the following terms and their definitions (from Wikipedia)
a. Sound Wave:
In physics Links to an external site., sound is a vibration Links to an external site. that propagates as a typically audible mechanical wave Links to an external site. of pressure Links to an external site. and displacement Links to an external site., through a medium Links to an external site. such as air Links to an external site. or water Links to an external site.. In physiology Links to an external site. and psychology Links to an external site., sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain.
b. Frequency and Pitch:
An audio frequency (abbreviation: AF) or audible frequency is characterized as a periodic Links to an external site. vibration Links to an external site. whose frequency Links to an external site. is audible to the average human. It is the property of sound Links to an external site. that most determines pitch Links to an external site. and is measured in hertz Links to an external site. (Hz).
c. Harmonics or Overtones:
The richness of a sound or note a musical instrument produces is sometimes described in terms of a sum of a number of distinct frequencies Links to an external site.. The lowest frequency is called the fundamental frequency Links to an external site., and the pitch Links to an external site. it produces is used to name the note, but the fundamental frequency is not always the dominant frequency. The dominant frequency is the frequency that is most heard, and it is always a multiple of the fundamental frequency. For example, the dominant frequency for the transverse flute is double the fundamental frequency. Other significant frequencies are called overtones Links to an external site. of the fundamental frequency, which may include harmonics Links to an external site..
d. Timbre:
In music Links to an external site., timbre also known as tone color or tone quality from psychoacoustics Links to an external site., is the quality of a musical note Links to an external site. or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments Links to an external site., string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the perception of timbre include spectrum Links to an external site. and envelope Links to an external site..
In simple terms, timbre is what makes a particular musical sound different from another, even when they have the same pitch and loudness Links to an external site.. For instance, it is the difference between a guitar and a piano playing the same note at the same loudness. Experienced musicians Links to an external site. are able to distinguish between different instruments based on their varied timbres, even if those instruments are playing notes at the same pitch Links to an external site. and loudness Links to an external site..
e. Throat Singing:
The art of Mongolian and Tuvan throat singing is a style in which one or more pitches sound simultaneously over a fundamental pitch, producing a unique sound. The history of Mongolian throat singing reaches very far back.
2. Note that most sounds in the environment are complex, they contain overtones or one of more sounds vibrating at the same time. The fundamental is the loudest of those tones and determines the pitch or note. In other words, a violin that plays the note A causes a string to vibrate at 440 Hz, which in the west is the standard pitch for the note A. That vibration consists of several overtones. The fundamental is the loudest and the one we recognize as the note A, although there are less audible overtones in the sound that may vibrate at different Hz.
This helps to explain the musical concept of timbre, and important one. Timbre is tone quality or how we describe a musical sound or instrument. Is it light, bright, dark, heavy, restricted, and so forth? This becomes especially important when looking at musical instruments. For instance, a trumpet and violin can both play the note A at 440 Hz. However, why does the timbre of the trumpet sound hard and bright, whereas the violin sounds perhaps warm and earthy? The short answer are the physical materials out of which both instruments are made. When a sound wave travels through the trumpet the brass material filters out or alters some of the overtones of the sound, thus giving it a distinct timbre. Wood does the same thing. Different types of wood, according to their denseness and other properties, filter out overtones or alter them. Musical instrument makers try to learn about these in order to produce instruments that filter out unwanted overtones and accentuate the desirable ones in order to produce a good sounding instrument.
With this basic understanding of the properties of sound and how sound works, you can better understand what a Tuvan throat singer is doing. Watch the video of a Tuvan throat singer. Throat singing is the ability to isolate the fundamental of a tone, plus one of its overtones. Hence, they are singing two notes at the same time. As you watch and listen to the Tuvan throat singer, try to focus on the higher overtone or whistling, which he isolates in addition to the lower overtone or fundamental.
Throat singing is not generally found in the west.
Copy and paste the following link in your browser to view the following clip of a Tuvan throat singer. Note at roughly 0:17 seconds into the song the singer produces a buzzing sound consisting of two pitches, one higher or lower than the other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1pcEtHI_w
Links to an external site.
The following clip is done by a westerner who has mastered the different styles of Tuvan throat singing. You can skip around the video, while noting those occasions when he is singing two pitches at the same time. Remember, he is isolating the fundamental and one of the overtones.