CD Review: Tuva, Among the Spirits - Sound, Music, and Nature in Sakha and Tuva

Back in 1977 physicist and Caltech professor Richard Feynman and his friend, Ralph Leighton, became obsessed with Tuva, a remote corner of Siberia sitting on the (then) Soviet-Mongolian border. They decided to go to this isolated region because the capital, Kyzyl, was spelled without any vowels (they thought this was neat). The set about learning all they could of Tuvan culture: its language, its people, its history, and — significantly — its music. They formed the Friends of Tuva society, encouraging the spread of Tuvan culture into the west.

But Feynman never made it. He died of cancer in 1988, right before he and Leighton were granted permission to visit this region. Leighton did go, and you can read all about it in his book, Tuva or Bust! But it's thanks to the duo's decade-long obsession with Tuva (coupled with the fall of the Soviet Union and the birth of tourism in this previously off-limits region) that Tuvan culture --or, more specifically, Tuvan music, especially throat singing — has gained some notoriety. Throat singing is a technique that allows singers to produce two or even three notes simultaneously. It's a sound that is unheard in any other musical culture outside Central Asia.

This enthusiasm for throat singing opened the door for Tuvan music groups like Huun-Huur Tu, who have gained some notoriety among world music buffs. One of those buffs was Paul Pena, the blind American bluesman who, upon hearing Tuvan throat singing, became so excited that he promptly began studying throat singing; later he organized an expedition to Tuva in order to participate in a local music festival. A documentary about his journey, called Genghis Blues, was my first introduction to Tuva. Seeing that film inspired me to learn more about this region and its music. From there, I began to explore music from Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, and other ethnic regions of the former Soviet Union. I become so fascinated by all that I'd heard and learned that I decided to create this web site (with a name borrowed from Leighton's book).

Article Author: Michael Heumann

Michael Heumann received a Ph.D in English from the University of California, Riverside. He has taught college-level English at various colleges and universities for over ten years. He is currently the Distance Education Coordinator at a small community college east of San Diego. …

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