Anna-Maria Hefele is a German overtone singer. Hefele is from Grafing near Munich. [1]
This technique of singing polyphonic overtones is also known as "throat singing," and Hefele has been practicing it since 2005. [2]
There are several styles of overtone singing found around the world. Canadian Inuit and several forms displayed in Mongolia and surrounding regions are the most recognized. Hefele's style is culturally practiced in the Siberian region of Tuva. This whistling vocal version is called sygyt. [3]
The Huffington Post has commented on her "amazing ability" and her singing being "utterly bizarre". [4] On 10 October 2014, she was number two on The Guardian's Viral Video Chart, [5] with one online video titled Polyphonic Overtone Singing, which features Hefele as she demonstrates and explains overtones. As of June 2021, this video has received more than 18.9 million hits.
A harmonic is any member of the harmonic series. The term is employed in various disciplines, including music, physics, acoustics, electronic power transmission, radio technology, and other fields. It is typically applied to repeating signals, such as sinusoidal waves. A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the frequency of the original wave, known as the fundamental frequency. The original wave is also called the 1st harmonic, the following harmonics are known as higher harmonics. As all harmonics are periodic at the fundamental frequency, the sum of harmonics is also periodic at that frequency. For example, if the fundamental frequency is 50 Hz, a common AC power supply frequency, the frequencies of the first three higher harmonics are 100 Hz, 150 Hz, 200 Hz and any addition of waves with these frequencies is periodic at 50 Hz.
An nth characteristic mode, for n > 1, will have nodes that are not vibrating. For example, the 3rd characteristic mode will have nodes at L and L, where L is the length of the string. In fact, each nth characteristic mode, for n not a multiple of 3, will not have nodes at these points. These other characteristic modes will be vibrating at the positions L and L. If the player gently touches one of these positions, then these other characteristic modes will be suppressed. The tonal harmonics from these other characteristic modes will then also be suppressed. Consequently, the tonal harmonics from the nth characteristic modes, where n is a multiple of 3, will be made relatively more prominent.
An overtone is any frequency greater than the fundamental frequency of a sound. In other words, overtones are higher pitches resulting from the lowest note or fundamental. While the fundamental is usually heard most prominently, overtones are actually present in any pitch except a true sine wave. The relative volume or amplitude of various overtone partials is one of the key identifying features of timbre, or the individual characteristic of a sound.
Inuit throat singing, or katajjaq, is a form of musical performance uniquely found among the Inuit. The traditional form consists of two women who sing duets in a close face-to-face formation with no instrumental accompaniment, in an entertaining contest to see who can outlast the other; however, one of the genre's most famous practitioners, Tanya Tagaq, performs as a solo artist. Several groups, including Tudjaat, The Jerry Cans, Quantum Tangle and Silla + Rise, also now blend traditional throat singing with mainstream musical genres such as pop, folk, rock and dance music.
Overtone singing – also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing, or throat singing – is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances created in the vocal tract, in order to produce additional overtones above the fundamental note being sung.
Randy Bruce Traywick, known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor.
"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley in 1978. It was first recorded by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club for their album English Garden. A more widely known version of the song was recorded later by British new wave/synth-pop group the Buggles, which consisted of Horn and Downes.
Ganga is a type of singing that originated from rural Dinaric mountain region. It is most commonly found in the regions of Herzegovina and Dalmatia, but it can also be found to an extent in western Bosnia, Lika, Kordun and rural areas of north-west Montenegro. It is characterized by a lone singer singing a single line of lyrics, followed by others joining in, using a vocal style that is best described as a wail.
The cantu a tenòre is a style of polyphonic folk singing characteristic of the island of Sardinia, particularly the region of Barbagia, though some other Sardinian sub-regions bear examples of such tradition.
"Teardrop" is a song by English trip hop group Massive Attack. Vocals are performed by Elizabeth Fraser, former lead singer of Cocteau Twins, who also wrote the lyrics. A harpsichord-driven track, "Teardrop" was originally set to feature vocals from Madonna, whom Massive Attack turned down in favour of Fraser. It was released as the second single from the group's third studio album, Mezzanine, on 27 April 1998.
Tuvan throat singing, known as khoomei, is one particular variant of overtone singing practiced by people in Tuva, Mongolia, and Siberia. In 2009, it was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. The term Hömey / Kömey means throat and larynx in different Turkic languages.
"World in Union" is a theme song for the Rugby World Cup. Its melody is "Thaxted", from the middle section of "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity", a movement from Gustav Holst's "The Planets", and was originally adapted for its use in the British/Anglican patriotic hymn, "I Vow to Thee, My Country".
"Amazing" is a song recorded by Romanian singer Inna for her debut studio album, Hot (2009). It was released as the fourth single from the record on 6 August 2009. Written and produced by Play & Win members Sebastian Barac, Radu Bolfea and Marcel Botezan, "Amazing" is a techno track with a Spanish guitar and beats in its instrumentation. One reviewer regarded the song as being similar to Inna's past work, however, with the addition of new elements. Other music critics gave positive reviews of the single, and praised its construction and foresaw its commercial success.
The Overtones are a UK based vocal harmony group. They were discovered by a Warner Bros. Records' talent scout while working as decorators in a shop near Oxford Street, singing during their tea break. Their first album, Good Ol' Fashioned Love, entered the UK Albums Chart at #16 in November 2010. After its re-release in March 2011, it reached #4. More than 500,000 copies of their first album have been sold.
"Gangnam Style" is a song by South Korean singer Psy, released on July 15, 2012, by YG Entertainment as the lead single of his sixth studio album, Psy 6, Part 1. A K-pop and dance-pop song, the term "Gangnam Style" is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul. The song received mixed reviews, with praise for its catchy beat and Psy's amusing dancing in the music video and during live performances in various locations around the world.
Baracksdubs is a popular YouTube channel and series that uses Barack Obama speeches to create cover songs, generally of popular songs. The channel was created by Fadi Saleh as a then-freshman student of the University of Tennessee. The channel was a Maker Studios partner from 2012 to 2015, when Saleh formed his own company, Spare Time Entertainment.
"Cups" is a song by American actress and singer Anna Kendrick from the 2012 extended play (EP), More from Pitch Perfect. The song rose to prominence following its debut in Pitch Perfect (2012). Republic Records released the "Pitch Perfect's When I'm Gone" remix on March 26, 2013. The original folk song was written in 1931 by A. P. Carter and later reworked by British musicians Heloise Tunstall-Behrens and Luisa Gerstein, recorded under the group name Lulu and the Lampshades.
"On the Regular" is a song recorded by American musician Shamir. It was released by XL Recordings on October 28, 2014. "On the Regular" is also featured on Shamir's 2015 debut album Ratchet.
"PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen)" is a single by Pikotaro, a fictional singer-songwriter created and portrayed by Japanese comedian Daimaou Kosaka. It was released as a music video on YouTube on 25 August 2016, and has since become a viral video. As of March 2021, the official video has been viewed more than 380 million times. PPAP spawned parodies, and was hailed as the new "Gangnam Style" by various newspapers and online media. The single itself reached number 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart and became the shortest single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, until it was displaced by Beautiful Trip. At the end of 2016, the song charted at number 6 on Japan Hot 100 Year-end Chart.