George Harrison's death last year and subsequent news stories about his musical career and interest in Indian music, as well as Ravi Shankar's announcement of the end of his touring career, has sparked a bit of new interest in Eastern musical forms. This edition of cyberfolk is about two forms of eastern music - one instrumental and one vocal.
The Sitar
The sitar is a classical instrument of Northern India which has 18 strings, 20 frets. It is difficult to play and fascinating to listen to. A good introduction to the sitar can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7267/absitar.html.
For more in depth information about the sitar, including its origins, check out http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sitar.html. If you're inspired to learn to play the sitar yourself, there is an online tutorial at http://www.buckinghammusic.com/sitar/sittut/btut.html
While you're exploring, put on some sitar music in the background. At http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sitar/streaming_audio.html, you'll find an extensive list of sitar audio by various artists, most of them posted at mp3.com.
Another general introduction to the sitar can be found at http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sitar.html This site includes a nice diagram of all of the parts of the sitar as well as a tutorial for beginners, and sitars for sale.
Tuvan Throat Singing
Throat singing is an unusual vocal art practiced in parts of Central Asia in which an individual singer simultaneously sings with two, three and even with four voices at the same time. The tradition is practiced today in Tuva, which is now part of Russia, Western Mongolia, and even in Finland and the USA!
A site from Finland contains an excellent introduction to this art form, including the various techniques used and even tips on how to get started yourself. Find it at http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~sjansson/throat.htm.
An excellent technical treatment of the subject, and lists of additional sites to explore can be found in an article on "The Throat Singers of Tuva" from Scientific American, at http://www.sciam.com/1999/0999issue/0999levin.html.
This is something that you have to hear to
believe, so give it a listen at these sites: http://www.sciam.com/1999/0999issue/0999levinbox5.html
http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~sjansson/samples.htm
http://www.atech.org/khoomei/spec.html
If you think that you'd like to try this yourself, check out the tutorial at http://www.fotuva.org/music/emory.html
As with any type of folk music, it has been taken up by new artists that have added their own influences to it. The group Spectral Voices, from Connecticut, has blended throat singing into their new-age, ambient music, space music sound. Check it out at http://www.spectralvoices.com.
To connect with others who are interested in throat singing, check out the throat singing club at Yahoo! http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/tuvanthroatsinging
Thanks to Paul Brown for suggesting topics for this article!
If you have any favorite sites or topics you'd like to see mentioned in Cyberfolk, please let us know. Write to me care of Common Times, or email me at chris.mcintosh@usa.net. See you in Cyberspace.
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By Chris
McIntosh
Copyright © 2002 Chris McIntosh
All Rights Reserved.