Chirgilchin: Tuvan Throat Singers Make U.S. Debut
By Yafonne

After Bay Area luminary and blues musician Paul Pena set foot in Tuva in 1995, a trip featured in this year’s Academy Award nominated documentary film, Ghenghis Blues, the Tuvans are returning the compliment with a U.S. tour featuring throat singers Chirgilchin. Representing the cream of the young generation of Tuvan musicians, Chirgilchin made their American debut at the San Francisco World Music Festival two weekends ago.

As the newest group to come out of Tuva, Chirgilchin also amazed American audiences in an intimate concert last Friday at Clarion Music Center, singing in Tuvan while performing five styles of throat singing: the khoomey (general), the kargyraa (deep tones), the sygyt (hi tones), the borbannadyr (staccato-like whistle), the ezengiler (sound originating from clashing horse spurs) and the chilandyk (kargyraa and sygyt).

Meaning “mirage” or “miracle” in Tuvan, Chirgilchin consists of producer, translator and percussionist Alexander Bapa, 42; the 1997-98 grand prize winning throat singer Igor Koshkendey, 22; and Mongun-ool Ondar, 25, winner of the 1992 Grand Prix at age 16, who knows 5-6 throat singing styles and is close to inventing his own style. The group also includes Aldar Tamdyn 25 and Aidysmaa Kandan, 22.

“The name Chirgilchin comes from a traditional song. It took us two months to think of the name,” said Aidysmaa in Tuvan, laughing shyly. “It literally means dance of the air in the heat of the day.”

Dressed in richly embroidered blue silk robes with gold linings and thick black riding boots, Chirgilchin played to eager crowds last Sunday, blowing away music categories with their clear, brilliant, and unassuming mastery of throat singing. Their youthful friendly demeanor, and somewhat shy countenances belied an incredible vocal range. Though worlds apart from Americans, their earthy groove provided a bridge for mutual understanding.

“Tuvan music is mostly about the motherland, about horses and the people...” explained Alexander Bapa with a smile. “It is mostly about nature, taking some sounds of nature and using them in folk songs for thousands of years.”

The monotone sounds using long sustained notes that branch out into overtone singing with slight up and down shifts in pitch, when combined with the beat of folk drums and instruments, give Tuvan music its characteristic buoyant yet meditative drone quality. The songs are sung in minor pentatonic scale, similar to American blues.

The concert began with songs about the landscape, such as a quaint little village called Khandagaity, where Aidysmaa broke out in a mesmerizing minor key melody in her high, shrill voice, accompanied by a groovy beat with short bursts of men in unison chorus.

For Tuvans, migration is a way of life, and many songs speak of traveling across the land. In the fast and upbeat tempo in Kyshtaglar, Aidysmaa’s staccato like singing rung out as clear and resonant as a bell to the sound of horse beats. In Aryskan’s Wind, trembling strings and shrill, screeching sounds—accompanied Igor’s tenor yet baritone voice—became multiple voices, depicting the cold wind that freezes even human thoughts.

Several songs chronicled Tuva’s revolutionary history, as in 60 Heroes, a song about 60 warriors who led an unsuccessful uprising against Chinese occupation in Tuva. The song translates: Before I die I want to see my beloved so that my beloved does not forget me. I want to sing the last song. Listen to it.

The dramatic yearning baritone voice of Igor, sounding like a man’s deep groan and sighs, blended with the deeper gruff vibrato singing of Mongun-ool. Mongun-ool’s singing combined several styles at once, using his vocal chords in multiple but subtle variations of throat singing.

During the evening, Chirgilchin’s music also highlighted Tuvan folk instruments such as the doshpuluur (a kind of lute with two strings) with a jaunty folk tune with horse beats featuring three men in dreamy harmony interweaving the sygyt, khoomey and kargyraa throat singing styles. They also featured the fragile sounding igil (a violin with two strings and trapezoid harmonic soundbox), made of horse skin and pinewood.

The group also offered a glimpse into Tuvan shamanism through a ritual re-staged by Aldar Tamdyn, whose ancestors practiced shamanism, a religion that was repressed for 70 years during Bolshevism. Dressed in traditional Tuvan shaman attire, Aldar circled the stage floor, beating the dymbra, a rattle drum used by shamans in their rites. The shrill sudden cry of a crow made the ritual almost believable.

To hear Chirgilchin live is to experience a revelation of another reality—the reality of the mountains, the horses, the nomadic peasant way of life. Their traditional songs capture the essence of the Tuvans, and at the same time have universal ties to the land, which bring listeners to places they long to be. They remind us of an untouched sanctuary in music—one that rises forth from the earth and blends with the deepest regions of the human voice, rumbling down the memories and hearts of generations upon generations of the Tuvan people of Central Asia.

A part of Russia since 1944, Tuva borders Mongolia and Southern Siberia. The Central Asian land and people of Tuva go back thousands of years, speaking a Turkish group language. The country’s population is 300,000, with real Tuvans numbering 200,000.

Kutay Derin Kugay feels a special connection to the Tuvans, who are related to his people and nationality, the Turkish people, who originally came from Tuva. As a world music radio host, he has noticed that Tuvan music is becoming more popular throughout the United States and Europe.

“It is one of the final frontiers of human civilizations that Europeans and Americans are discovering,” Kugay said. “This is kind of untouched in some ways...The throat singing aspect is related only to Tibet and Mongolia. But Tuvans are the most developed in this area and the most accessible. They are open-minded people. Not many taboos, restrictions, and so forth. At this point it is a new discovery on both sides.”