Kargyraa Moan - A Blind Blues Musician's Journey to the Lost Land of Tuva

 

Tuva is a small, autonomous republic located in extreme southern Siberia.  It's capital city of Kyzyl may be best known for being located at the geographic "center of Asia".  But Tuva itself is best known for something even more esoteric - Tuvan throat-singing.

Throat-singing, also known as overtone singing or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the harmonics & resonances created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out the lips.  By doing so, a singer can create more than one pitch at the same time.  The results are amazing, and depending on the individual style, can be reminiscent of anything from birdsong to the rumbling undertones of a didgeridoo.

Paul Pena, a blind blues musician out of California, made his personal discovery of Tuvan throat-singing in 1984 while searching for a Korean language lesson on his shortwave radio.  When he finally tracked down a recording of some of the singers seven years later, he spent several months experimenting and taught himself the vocal techniques of three different styles of throat-singing.  He also taught himself the Tuvan language - but since there were no Tuvan-to-English dictionaries, he had to learn it the hard way: he used a Tuvan-to-Russian dictionary combined with a Russian-to-English dictionary.

In 1993, Pena attended a Tuvan throat-singing performance at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.  At an intermission, he impressed famous Tuvan throat-singer Kongar-ool Ondar with an impromptu Tuvan song in the kargyraa style.  Ondar was blown away and insisted that Pena come to Tuva to participate in the second international Khoomei (Throat-Singing) Symposium in 1995.  Paul would be the first westerner ever to compete in the Symposium.

 

Not only did Paul compete, but as you can tell by the ending of this track, he won first place in the Kargyraa contest, and also won the "audience favorite" category. 

Ondar (and other Tuvans) called Pena "Cher Shimjer", or Earthquake, for the deepness of his voice.  Unfortunately, Paul Pena spent a portion of his life suffering from both diabetes and pancreatitis, and died from complications of these illnesses in 2005.

A documentary film called Ghengis Blues was created in 1999 that documented Pena's journey to Tuva and his competition there.  It won the 1999 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for a Documentary, and was also nominated for an Academy Award in 2000 in the Documentary Feature category.

 

For more information on Tuvan throat-singing, along with many other links, please check out Friends of Tuva.  More info on Paul Pena, including links to buy his albums and Ghengis Blues, can be found at Paul Pena's website.