Tuvan Throat Singing

The overtone singing tradition of the Tuva Republic in southern Siberia, in which a single vocalist produces a low fundamental drone and simultaneously articulates one or more flute-like harmonic melodies above it. Styles include khoomei, the generic middle-register technique; sygyt, with its piercing whistle tones; kargyraa, a deep, growled register; and the ornamented ezengileer and borbangnadyr. Singers traditionally perform unaccompanied or with the igil, doshpuluur, byzaanchy and shoor, and the repertory imitates the sounds of wind, water, birds and livestock, reflecting the pastoral and animist culture of the steppe in which the practice developed.