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The Art of Tuva Throat Singing

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There is a land at the vast, windswept meeting of Siberia and Mongolia, where humankind's most ancient, nomadic past still lives in song. The place is called Tuva, and the Tuva throat singers do today what ages of pastoral herders have done on those vast grasslands.

The Tuva singers produce harmonies within one voice, two deep and arresting tones from one throat. They do it in imitation of the sounds of the land — of wind and the bleating of sheep and the murmur of water. But now they do it all over the world, off jet planes and cell phone calls, ancient animism in the swirl of the modern world.

Hear the deep and wondrous sound of the Tuva throat singing.

Guests:

Theodore Levin, Professor of Music at Dartmouth College
and author of "Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound Music and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond.";
The Huun-Huur-Tu Band: Sayan Bapa, Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Aleksei Saryglar, and Radik Tyulyush.

This program aired on January 13, 2006.

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