Throatsinging in Finland

As a reply to Hai´s request I write couple of lines about situation in Finland. Although I left Finnish Throatsinging Society, it is still active and new president is Jari Ilmonen (who happens to be now in London and I suppose, he is going to sing tomorrow 30th Nov there with Michael Ormistone in some Mongolian restaurant...). I am having a duo Shumuul with jari. Cedip Tur is resting, because members are so busy with other projects. At Etnosoi - organized by Global Music Centre - we had recently Sainkho and throatsingers have plans also for next year. So khoomei is going strong even without me. Take a look at our leading khoomeist Impre Peemot at Finnish TV: http://areena.yle.fi/toista?id=1680699. Programme is in Finnish but there is nice views and music. Imre comes around 8 minutes. Finnish Throatsingers: www.kurkkulaulajat.fi

Sauli
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    Sauli Heikkilä

    It is longo ago, I saw it. Can´t really remember. Robbers were singing int he party? Don´t think it was joik. Have to check it out. It is nice film anyway.



    Dan Zimmermann said:
    If I'm not mistaken, there is a duo of bards featured in the movie "Ronja, Robber's Daughter" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088015/ that sing a neat style. I always think of these guys when I hear the term Joik, but I'm probably far off, eh?
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    Sauli Heikkilä

    Guttural yes but throatsinging? I don´t think so but depends how you describe throatsinging... Monotonous? Well, some people say that rock is monotonus and some people say that classical music is monotonous...
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    Stacey

    Wolfgang Saus said:
    Hi Stacey,
    thanks for your post. Do you have a recording of joik with overtones?

    Yea, somewhere around here... Try this: http://shub.zuul.org/~zuul/zuul.org/jojk/ These are from Sverige Radio's Musica Sveciae series and was recorded around 1953 to 1954. I don't have the bear jojk there... Here's what the accompanying book says:

    Mention has already been made of the inadequacy of our conventional notation in providing a somewhat faithful image of both melodic and rhythmical characteristics of the yoik. And notation tells us hardly anything at all about the actual manner of singing. Yet the style of singing is one of the yoik's most important features ... ... it may be of use to some listeners to indicate some of the most characteristic features that clearly distinguish the way in which the yoik is sung from that which is normal in Western music and which we willingly believe to be "natural". The most obvious feature is the compressed voice resulting from greatly tensed vocal chords and a narrow throat. This technique gives a fairly coarse sound and very little deep resonance. Inhalation is often completely independent of the musical phrases and in many cases the great tension in the vocal chords is maintained while a breath is being taken, given a strange effect of the melody being cut into pieces and the note being forced out under great strain. There is also an impression of the rear of the tongue being pressed almost completely against the palate, preventing the air from passing. (Examples: Olof Blind [10:1,2], Jonas Ponga [10:4,5], Nils Anders Ponga [10:6].) Many of our contributors also commented on several occasions that it was highly strenuous to yoik, both physically and mentally. ... A further manifest result of the great tension in the vocal chords is that the note ends abruptly when there is no breath left. The melody is cut off sharply, as with the bagpipes