So you could listen to a CD of throat singing over and over and you'll hear more and more as you study it. And, in fact, a lot of fun is also in developing your hearing. RALPH LEIGHTON: That's about as far as I've gotten in about five years. And then for this particular Khoomei style, you make a kind of a ooh sound. That's the first thing you have to do is tighten your throat. But when I try to learn it that I have to think about what I'm doing and in this case, you just starts out a little bit like the Wolf Man Jack. So if you ask Ondar how he does it, he says I just do it. When the Tuvan throat singers would come through town, in a matter of a couple of weeks, you know, two, three-year-old kid is starting to make overtones with formal instructions, it's just that he's around it. You know, children over here could pick it up if the culture around them encouraged it. The culture encourages people to sing in this way, producing several notes at the same time, so children are able to pick it up. LEIGHTON: I can try, but I would like to point out that in Tuva, the culture encourages this. GROSS: Ralph, can you explain at all how this is done technically? GROSS: Ondar, thank you very much for that performance. So you're going to get three notes at once in the Khoomei style. And then the third note, if you really concentrate, you can hear a rhythmic syncopation suggesting riding on horseback and that's an octave above the low notes. And then you'll hear a melody much higher that is moving around up in the registers where one normally whistles but it's really a harmonic. And what you can listen for in this is a drone note that's going to be a constant note. The Khoomei style is actually a three note style you're starting right at the top you.
I mean they're just arbitrary words, really. You could think of them as high, medium and low if you want. Can we start with a style called I think I'm pronouncing it right, Khoomei? They're so different from the kind of singing that Westerners do. And in part, because I think it's so hard for us Westerners to imagine making those sounds. You know, to kind of demonstrate those styles for us. And I was wondering if we could ask Ondar to perform. There's different kinds of Tuvan and throat singing. And through hearing this over and over, Ondar said that this type of singing got into his blood. And in the evening they would sit around the fire, and he heard a particular uncle singing in this way. RALPH LEIGHTON: When he was a child, he would visit the Yurt villages where his relatives herded their animals. Because he didn't speak English, with Ondar in the studio was Ralph Leighton, who co-produced Ondar's CD, "Back Tuva Future." He told Terry how Ondar learned throat singing. In 1999, Ondar demonstrated his singing for Terry Gross. He was also featured in the 1999 film "Genghis Blues." He performed around the world and collaborated with Ry Cooder, The Chieftains, Mickey Hart, Willie Nelson, Randy Scruggs and others. Ondar won a U.N.-sponsored international festival of throat singing and was honored by his nation with a title: People's Throat Singer of Tuva. Traditionally, it was practiced by herders. KONGAR-OL ONDAR: (Singing in foreign language)īIANCULLI: The technique - known as throat singing - is an ancient style still practiced in Tuva - a small republic between Siberia and Mongolia's Gobi desert. He was known as Ondar, and he sounded like this: The first time I heard him on FRESH AIR, I went out and bought every CD of his that I could find.
He died July 25th at the age of 51 from complications after a brain hemorrhage. Earlier this week, we were sorry to learn of the death of Kongar-Ol Ondar, an internationally renowned Tuvan throat singer and a superstar in his own country.