Okna Tsahan Zam | |
---|---|
Born | Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR (now Republic of Kalmykia, Russia) | 2 April 1957
Genres | Throat singing |
Occupation(s) | Folk singer |
Years active | 1990-present |
Vladimir Okonovich Karuev [1] (born 2 April 1957), better known by his Kalmyk name Okna Tsahan Zam, [2] is a Kalmyk folk singer, known for his throat singing and as a performer of the Kalmyk national epic Jangar .
Okna Tsahan Zam does not have a traditional music education. According to an interview he gave to Tim Cope, an adventure filmmaker and author, he was educated in Moscow as a nuclear engineer and worked at a nuclear power plant. He turned to Kalmyk culture in his twenties and became a performer of the national epic Jangar . He toured extensively in Mongolia, as well as in Europe. [3]
Okna Tsahan Zam performs in the Khoomei style, a type of Tuvan throat singing, common in Mongolia, Tuva and Siberia. In 2005, he collaborated with Tanya Tagaq, a Canadian Inuit throat singer, and Wimme, a Sami yoiker from Finland, to release the recording Shaman Voices. [4] According to The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, he "intersperses traditional Mongolian stringed and wind instruments and throat-singing styles with natural steppeland sounds and experiments with urban remixes". [5]
Okna Tsahan Zam is a recipient of the Mongolian Order of the Polar Star, the highest civilian award Mongolia can present to a foreign citizen. [6] In 2002, he was awarded the Mongolian Golden Microphone Award for his song Edjin Duun. [7]
Inuit throat singing, or katajjaq, is a distinct type of throat singing uniquely found among the Inuit. It is a form of musical performance, traditionally consisting 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, polyphonic overtone singing, or diphonic singing, is a set of singing techniques in which the vocalist manipulates the resonances of the vocal tract to arouse the perception of additional separate notes beyond the fundamental frequency that is being produced.
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Music is an integral part of Mongolian culture. Among the unique contributions of Mongolia to the world's musical culture are the long songs, overtone singing and morin khuur, the horse-headed fiddle. The music of Mongolia is also rich with varieties related to the various ethnic groups of the country: Oirats, Hotogoid, Tuvans, Darhad, Buryats, Tsaatan, Dariganga, Uzemchins, Barga, Kazakhs and Khalha.
The music of Greenland is a mixture of two primary strands, Inuit and Danish, mixed with influences from the United States and United Kingdom.
Tanya Tagaq, also credited as Tagaq, is a Canadian Inuk throat singer, songwriter, novelist, actor, and visual artist from Cambridge Bay (Iqaluktuuttiaq), Nunavut, Canada, on the south coast of Victoria Island.
Tuva is a part of Russia, inhabited by a Turkic people. Tuvans are known abroad for khoomei (xöömej), a kind of overtone singing.
The music of Kalmykia, a national republic within Russia, has roots in the musical culture of the Oirats. Traditional instruments include the dombra, which is used to accompany dance music. The state folk ensemble Tulpan was formed in 1937 to promote traditional Kalmyk music.
Throat singing refers to several vocal practices found in different cultures worldwide. These vocal practices are generally associated with a certain type of guttural voice that contrasts with the most common types of voices employed in singing, which are usually represented by chest (modal) and head registers. Throat singing is often described as evoking the sensation of more than one pitch at a time, meaning that the listener perceives two or more distinct musical notes while the singer is producing a single vocalization.
Üliger, tale is the general term given to tales and popular myths of the Mongols of north-east Asia. They are an important part of the oral traditions among the Buryats and other Siberian tribes, and among other functions, were used to orally transmit Buddhist birth stories. The tales are significant in Mongolian literature, given its long-standing tradition of passing stories on by word of mouth.
Tsagaan may refer to:
Mongol-Tuvan throat singing, the main technique of which is known as khoomei, is a style of singing practiced by people in Tuva and Mongolia. It is noted for including overtone singing. In 2009, it was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. The term hömey / kömey means throat and larynx in different Turkic languages. That could be borrowed from Mongolian khooloi, which means throat as well, driven from Proto-Mongolian word *koɣul-aj.
The epic of Jangar or Jangar epic is a traditional oral epic poem (tuuli) of the Mongols. It was long thought to be particular to the Kalmyks, but is now known to also be widely told among the Oirats in Mongolia, China and Russia. The story is recited by singers called Jangarchi. The Jangar has approximately 25 or 26 chapters, though certain versions may have more than 100 chapters.
K-Space are a British-Siberian experimental electroacoustic improvisation music ensemble comprising Scottish percussionist Ken Hyder, English multi-instrumentalist Tim Hodgkinson, and Siberian percussionist and throat singer Gendos Chamzyryn. The trio was formed in Tuva, Siberia in 1996. They have played in concerts in Asia and Europe, and released four CDs, including Infinity (2008), which was a new type of CD that is different every time it is played.
Tengger Cavalry was a heavy metal band originated from Inner Mongolia and Beijing and formerly based in New York state and Texas. They combine elements of the traditional music of Central Asia and music of Mongolia with heavy metal into a kind of folk metal that Billboard and CNN refer to as nomadic folk metal.
Xoan singing or hát xoan is a genre of Vietnamese folk music performed in spring during the first two months of the Tết Nguyên Đán in Phú Thọ Province. The genre includes acting, ceremony, chant, dancing, drumming, and singing; with themes involve romance, riddles, and work. Traditionally occurring in temples, shrines, and communal homes, the songs are performed by a guild, led by a trùm, consisting of male instrumentalists, or kép, and female singers, or đào. A guild consists of ten to fifteen performers, but there are few remaining, increasingly aging, guilds and teachers of this primarily oral tradition.
Nature Ganganbaigal was a Mongol and Chinese music performer, songwriter, producer and film music composer based in New York City. Originally from Beijing, he was of mixed Han Chinese and Mongol ancestry, and performed Mongolian Morin Khuur and throat singing. His western name "Nature" comes from both of his given names, Mongolian Ganganbaigal 'beautiful nature' and Chinese Tianran 'nature'. He graduated from New York University in 2015, he held a master of music degree in film music composition.
The tsuur, choor (Kyrgyz), or chuur is an end-blown flute of varying lengths that is common among Inner Asian pastoralists.
Epic poetry, or tuuli in Mongolian, is an important genre of Mongol oral literature, with features reminiscent of Germanic alliterative verse. The two most well-known epics are the Jangar and the Geser. These tuuli are commonly sung with instruments such as the Morin khuur and the Tovshuur (lute). Most epics deal with topics of the history of the Mongols, their ideal worlds and heroes, and the acquisition of new lands. Epics are performed mostly as celebrations or during important events. Mongol epic poetry has, as of 2009, been on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.