Dingildai

The piece I listened to this week, "Dinglidai" by Igor Koshkendey, is an example of Tuvan throat singing which comes out of southern Siberia. Tuva is a subject of Russia which lies in southern Siberia in central Asia. Tuvan throat singing is a form of overtone singing, or harmonic singing. Throat singing has a long history and is practiced in Mongolia, Siberia, and Tuva. In throat singing, the singer produces a base pitch and one or more pitches over the base pitch, simultaneously. In music from Tuva, an instrument called the Igil is used, which has two strings. One thing that I found to be really cool about throat singing as I was researching it, is that the root of throat singing is said to be human mimicry of nature's sounds. Nature seems to play a big role in throat singing. Nature is often used as a way to shape the sound of the singing, often times singers will explore nature to find a place that will create the best environment for their singing- such as a river or a mountainside.

The opening note to this piece struck me as being very dramatic and dark. Once the vocals kick in on top of the melody, the result is monophonic. The throat singing in this piece, to me, sounded a lot like chanting and reminded me of a sort of prayer. Another voice joins soon after in a higher pitch than the first vocalist, creating a really nice harmony. Later on in the song, the vocal melodies seem to begin to differ from each other, creating some dissonance in the piece. During the throat singing breaks, the pitches of the vocals become dissonant while the instrument carries on the melody. The simple melody that is introduced at the start of the song is continuous throughout the entire piece, and serves as a base for the vocals and other instruments to build off of.

When I first started listening to this song, I did not like it very much. I guess that was because it was so unlike anything else I had ever listened to. When the vocals first came in, I thought that they were very odd sounding and kind of unpleasant to listen to. They honestly reminded me of the Oompa Loompa's voices from Willy Wonka. As I kept listening, though, I suppose I just started getting used to them. When the second voice came in and created a really nice harmony is when I was kind of able to take a step back and enjoy the piece for what it is, which is something very unique from what I'm used to- especially in terms of vocals. By the forth time I played it, the piece no longer sounded so strange to me and I felt I was really able to start listening to it critically. After listening to Dinglidai and really delving into it, I am now extremely excited to see Alash perform. I am sure that witnessing the phenomenon of throat singing live will be an awesome experience.