Online Khöömeï contribution by Raphaël De Cock, candidate from Belgium, to the Tuvan Khöömeï Throatsinging Symposium 2013. ……. is a winner as 2 Laureate in the Internet Khöömeï Competition of the Tuvan Khöömeï Symposium 2013, Overtone throatsinging!
http://vimeo.com/68850525 Improvising at the Khöömeï River Loup , Colle-Sur-Loup, France, 4th of June 2013 A medley of improvisations on Tuvan throat singing, including kargyraa, dag kargyraazy, koptering kargyraazy (vertoleting kargyraazy), chylandyk, borbangnadyr, sygyt, ezengileer, …. Image & sound recording: Sascha Grimm (www.studiogrimm.eu) Thanks to Choduraa Tumat for the invitation and to Elisabetta Ragnanin for inspiration and Dukha* legends about the origin of khöömeï singing…. (* Dukha or Tsataan are a reindeer herding tribe of Tuvan/Tozha dialect speaking people in NW Mongolia) The Legend of the River Höömey Let me say something on throat-singing (höömey). Yeah, the thing called höömey is a nice and pleasant melody of the Tuvan land, Tuvan people. The old grandfathers told me from which place it came from at first, how it came into existence. In early former times, there were aals (camps) and peoples, there were Dukhan peoples herding reindeer and living in separate groups. As for that place, to the back side of the back taiga, there was a river called Höömey. A part of Dukhan peoples were living at that river. Among them there was a young orphan boy, without elder and younger siblings, without mother and father, without elder and younger siblings, wandering around. Among those aals, within a main, rich aal, there happened to be three girls. Of the three the youngest happened to be incredibly pretty. Yeah, our single hunting orphan boy fell in love with that girl, and what happens now? One day the rich Lord got informed that his small daughter got acquainted with a poor vagabond hunter boy and that she had become inseparable from him. The rich Lord called the boy one day. “Yeah my Lord, I came to you wondering why you called me. “So boy, if it is like this, as I heard, you are planning to get my daughter, isn’t it. Yeah, if it is like this, within seven days, there will be a big celebration in my honor. At that time, you will perform mastering höömey like the very melodic river that flows behind the high taigas. If you will manage to learn its singing art, you will get my daughter”. Yeah, the boy went to the banks of that river. The voice of the river was at its best early in the morning and in the evening. In whatever way he listened; what he heard was like kargïraa-höömey. Yeah, he was imitating the voice of the river, he sat at its bank, finding the places from where the most melodious notes could be perceived, and during fourteen days he imitated and imitated better and better the sounds of the river. So, time has passed and the day fixed by this rich family came nearer. At that party, now he was the person in charge of performing höömey, he had prepared himself really well, in order to perform höömey, he had cleared his throat, he had gone there thinking that he will actually perform höömey. At the very end of the feast that important and rich Lord called the orphan boy. “Yeah, did you forget the words I told you fourteen days ago?” The boy, “No, I did not forget”, he said. So, those many people listen to him and he performs höömey for about three hours. He performed kargïraa. “Now it is enough”, said the rich Lord at this point. “Yeah, you are indeed a person who performs höömey well. However, you cannot get my daughter yet. Now first, you will perform kargïraa again”, he said. Yeah, after that, after three days had passed, he came and once again he performed kargïraa. So, having gotten the girl, now, in the middle month of the autumn, on the fifteenth a big celebration is made. A big marriage party was made to marry those two ons. After many years, then all the children born from those two young ones happened to be performers of höömey. So, it is said that in the Toju region, in that direction, the thing called höömey was first discovered. (Adapted from Elisabetta Ragnanin, The legend of the river Höömey – recorded in the East Taiga in September 2008. Speaker: Gombo) Strangely enough the Dukha people don’t perform khöömeï (anymore?).. whereas the throatsinging Tyva clans don’t have any (reported?) legends about the origins of throatsinging…..