Foto des Notenbandes Deutsche Volkslieder im Satz für Obertongesang von Jan Heinke

In memoriam Jan Heinke – German Folk Song Collection

20. April 2023/0 Comments/in Announcements, Compositions, Overtone Singing/by Wolfgang Saus

Hello fellow aficionados of Jan Heinke’s overtone music,

I am eager to share with you an emotionally charged story that has profoundly touched me. In April of last year, my dear friend and talented musician, Jan Heinke, sadly passed away. However, just hours before his untimely departure, he sent me an email containing a very special attachment.

In the email, Jan confided that he felt he wouldn’t be able to complete his work and requested that I see it through. I instantly knew what I had to do. Attached was a vast compilation of folk songs from around the globe, meticulously arranged for overtone singing by Jan – several hundred songs in total! He had initially begun working on this project in 2013 and had received a grant from the Kulturstiftung Sachsen to support his efforts.

In collaboration with Jan’s life partner, Claudia, we managed to finalize the first volume of the series, featuring 126 German folk songs adapted for polyphonic overtone singing. To commemorate the anniversary of his passing on April 20th, 2023, this volume will be made available on Jan’s website as a free e-book, complete with a complimentary Creative Commons license.

Jan’s nine years of dedicated work on these arrangements will now be posthumously shared with the public, fulfilling his cherished desire. According to a report on the project, the initial objective was to explore the potential of overtone singing as a vocal technique for both performers and composers in Western culture, an area that had not yet been extensively investigated. These song arrangements were intended to encourage the practical application of overtone singing in music.

I am both grateful and honored to continue Jan’s legacy and share his remarkable work with the world. His music will live on and inspire others – exactly as he wished.

Warm regards, Wolfgang

Jan Heinke – Memories of Jan
Download: Deutsche Volkslieder arranged for Overtone Singing PDF

David Harris – Neque Diliges

12. August 2021/0 Comments/in Compositions, Worth Listening/by Wolfgang Saus

Neque Diliges

Composition by David Harris, 2021, for mixed 6-part choir with overtone singing.

Performed by Laude, David Harris – conductor, 2021.

Sheet music: https://www.seeadot.com/store#!/Neque-Diliges/

A Costly Final Chord

29. April 2021/0 Comments/in Compositions, Worth Listening/by Wolfgang Saus

How Things Fall. He had little time to arrange his piece for Nordic Voices, says Koka Nikoladze, born in 1989 in Georgia, now living in Norway, composing and inventing instruments. How Things Fall and then spectrally spray, “How Things Fall,” 2021, performed by the Norwegian professional ensemble Nordic Voices, known for brilliantly handling overtone singing (from 1:44). Nikoladze keeps the final chord from us. He auctioned the final chord on ebay and realized $13,900. I love the Nordic self-irony, just right for lockdown times.

Bernat Vivancos – Obriu-me els llavis, Senyor

20. April 2020/0 Comments/in Compositions, Worth Listening/by Wolfgang Saus

Obriu-me els llavis, Senyor

(2000, Oslo)

Recording: Latvian Radio Choir, Sigvards Klava, 2011.
5 choirs (17 voices):
4 mixed choirs (at least 32 singers, preferably 64)
with divisi and a male voice choir.

Obriu-me els llavis, Senyor is one of those a cappella works that I present in almost all of my lectures as a reference for completely new possibilities in choral music. It begins with a cluster that achieves an immense effect through its pure intonation alone, before a shimmering chorus of overtones rises from a dense chord of precise vocals as if it were not from this world. It is one of my favourite passages from one of my favourite CDs: Blanc. This CD is one of my most listened to and is an absolute recommendation. Latvian Radio Choir, conducted by Sigvards Klava, is one of the best in the world.

The fascinating thing about the overtones of the Latvian Radio Choir is that they maintain the lightness of the voice and the intonation of the fundamental notes without any obvious change in timbre when they change overtone technique. This is my sound ideal. The overtones seem almost unreal, one can hardly believe that the entire sound is sung exclusively a cappella. This skill unfolds the true magic of overtone singing. This is the future of professional overtone singing: the imperceptible, softly flowing transition from the classical voice to the world of overtones and back again.

Bernat Vivancos’ music is like a city of angels: blissful sounds populated by saintly spirits hiding between the notes as birds in a tree.
Lasse Thoresen

If you want to buy the CD, I recommend downloading it from the publisher’s website. There you can download a higher quality than the usual CD. And under the tab ”Scores” you will find a very special extra: free download of the sheet music.

Interview with the composer:

Lutang – for Accordion and Overtone Singing by Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis

18. June 2019/0 Comments/in Compositions, Worth Listening/by Wolfgang Saus

“solo accordion piece developed through close collaboration with Goran Stevanovic. The vocal control is as crucial as the accordion playing. The sung notes and the sound as a result of overtone singing, as well as whispering, are important materials in this piece.”
Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis about lu:tαŋ [Translated by ws]

Since Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Stimmung” (1968) overtone singing has had a place in serious music as “extended vocal technique”. The Philippine composer Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis, who lives in Austria, wrote this work for the accordionist Goran Stevanović. Goran Stevanović studied accordion in Bijeljina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover. The award-winning musician currently lives and works in Hanover and is involved in contemporary music and music education.

https://www.felizmacahis.com/

http://goranstevanovic.com/

Sōmei Satō – TANTRA, 4 Track Music for Tape (1990)

12. June 2019/0 Comments/in Compositions, Worth Listening/by wolf

Premiere: 1990 Wellington (New Zealand)
Commitioned by Victoria University of Wellington
RD:NEW ALBION/NA-099

Sōmei Satō – MANDARA, Music for Tape (1982)

12. June 2019/0 Comments/in Compositions, Worth Listening/by wolf

Sōmei Satō creates a multi-track overtone choir with his own voice and uses vowel overtone singing as an effect. I have heard something similar from Roberto Laneri’s “Two views of the Amazon” from 1981. At the beginning of the 1980s, this probably sounded more like electronic music to most listeners, as overtone singing was still virtually unknown in the West.

Premiere 1982. Tokyo.
Commitioned by Japan Foundation
RD:ALM/AL-26, NEW ALBION/NA-099, NA-016

Sōmei Satō – マントラ MANTRA, Music for Tape (1986)

12. June 2019/0 Comments/in Compositions, Worth Listening/by wolf

One of the very early compositions for western overtone singing. At that time overtone singing was hardly known.

23′
World premiere Tokyo 1986.
RD:NEW ALBION/NA-016, NA-099

Joby Talbot – Path of Miracles (2005)

4. April 2017/0 Comments/in Compositions, Worth Listening/by Wolfgang Saus

Recording of the first movement “Roncesvalles” from “Path of Miracles” by Joby Talbot. The choir Tenebrae sings under Nigel Short.

The English composer Joby Talbot wrote this work in 2005 on behalf of the ensemble Tenebrae under the direction of Nigel Short. It is set for 17-part mixed choir a cappella SSSSSAAAATTTTBBBB and Crotales.

This four-movement work describes a pilgrimage along four of the most important stations of the Way of St. James to Santiago: I Roncesvalles, II Burgos, III León, IV Santiago. The composer dedicated the composition to his father, who died in the year of composition. The premiere, which was scheduled for 07.07.2005 in London, had to be postponed due to the bombings on this day and took place on 17.07.2015 in the St. Bartholomew-the-Great Church in London.

The first movement begins the pilgrimage in Roncesvalles with a mystical sound ascending in glissandi, based on the Pasibutbut of the Bunun from Taiwan. The instruction to use different vowels other than /i/ is interpreted by the ensemble – similar to the Pasibutbut – as an overtone chanting. Already on the first four pages, the work demands an enormous range from A1 to C7.