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

In memoriam Jan Heinke – German Folk Song Collection

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

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

Autumn forest with sunrays

Forest Birds – My Contribution to World Listening Day 2022

July 18, 2022 is World Listening Day again. Forest Birds. I recorded them to be able to accompany my future planned overtone chanting meditation music with them.

Since the use of other people’s sound material in own productions often causes problems with copyright protection, I make this recording freely available to everyone and publish it under public domain, or CC0 license. So, help yourself if you like it.

Download mp3 (320 kBit/s): Waldvögel

Download wav: Waldvögel


CC0
To the extent possible under law,
Wolfgang Saus

has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to
Waldvögel (090524-Vogelzwitschern-Hky-320.mp3) and Waldvögel (090524-Vogelzwitschern-Hky.wav) audio files.

This work is published from: Deutschland.

Your Hearing Will Change – Forever

In this video you will learn how to hear harmonics in vowels. This will open up a new dimension of sound perception to you. This way of hearing is rare on the fly, but it can be learned and is a prerequisite for understanding and learning choral phonetics. And it makes learning overtone singing easy and fast.

Do You Hear Syllables or a Melody?

After this video, your hearing is immediately changed, and that irreversibly. It is like a picture puzzle: once you have seen both sides, you will always see them. After the video, you are always able to hear harmonics in sounds. As soon as you have perceived both syllables and overtones, you can decide what you want to hear. And if you focus on harmonics for the next 3 weeks from today, your overtone hearing will become an integral part of your sound perception. Your brain will form new synapses.

Side Effects

You’ll be surprised what additional changes come after that:

  • You will hear more empathically, understand better how other people feel, just by hearing their voice.
  • When you sing in a choir, you will perceive intonation quite differently and unconsciously find a resonance with other voices.
  • Many also report that they perceive colors and scents more intensely afterwards.
  • You will notice a more conscious access to resonance in your voice.

If you immediately heard the melody in the first example, then you already were an overtone listener. Then the video will help you understand and become aware that you hear differently than 95% of the people around you.

But I Never Sang a Melody

One of the most exciting things about overtone listening for me is: In the end, everyone has heard the melody once, right? – but I never sang a melody! In all the singing examples, all the pitch frequencies are unchanged. I have not changed a single pitch. So in the classical sense I did not sing a melody. I only changed resonances and thus volume ratios, so in the classical sense I sang syllables on a single note, which is what most people heard at the beginning.

Despite Contradiction Everybody is Right

So if someone thought at the beginning that there was no melody, he was right, even when the melody became obvious to everyone. And everyone who hears a melody is also right. One would have to define melody independently of the tone pitch.

Many years ago, after I found out that others do not hear the same as I do, I had sent a sound file of the first example to various experts. But nobody found a melody, not even with the most modern methods of analysis. Why not? Because apparently no one thought to look for a melody. However, after hearing the melody, one finds it in the sound spectrum. But only as a volume pattern, not as a pitch change. Isn’t that exciting?

Personally, I have learned from this to approach perceptions of other people with less prejudice, especially people from the spiritual realm, who I might have dismissed as unscientific in the past. Leaving paradigms behind is probably part of the coming zeitgeist in many ways.

Find more information about the test as well as an audio version for download in my blogpost “A Melody Only Some Can Hear – Take the Hearing Test”.

Next Level Resonance Strategies – Singing Phonetics


Recording of the webinar “Voice Masters Live” by Philippe Hall from Singing Revealed on March 29, 2022.
Recording of the webinar Next Level Resonance Strategies in the Voice Masters Live series by Philippe Hall from Singing Revealed, on March 29, 2022.
Sprache: English


 

Next Level Resonance Strategies – Singing Phonetics

  • What are formants?
  • What are resonances?
  • Why are vowels dependent on pitch?
  • What is formant tuning?

Philippe Hall talks to Wolfgang Saus about vowels and their importance for resonance strategies.

Resonance is a cornerstone of any vocal technique. However, the relationship between vowels, resonances, formants, harmonics and pitch is a complex topic and often confusing.

Wolfgang Saus shows participants how to use a vowel resonance chart to see at a glance why some vowels work excellently at a particular pitch and others not at all. Participants learn how resonances can be controlled by tongue movements and how they can optimize their resonances by using the right vowel nuances. After the seminar, they will be able to deal confidently with the terms vowel, resonance and overtones.

Still, still, still – for Overtone Singing and Keys

Still, still, still is an Austrian Christmas carol from the Salzburg region. It first appeared in print in 1865 in a collection of carols with the following text, which is no longer common today:

1. Sleep, sleep, sleep, my precious baby sleep!
Maria sings a lullaby sweet
And lays her true heart at your feet.
Sleep, sleep, sleep, my precious baby sleep!

2. Great, great, great, the love is more than great.
God has left his throne on high,
To walk the street, to come us nigh.
Great, great, great, the love is more than great.

3. Rise, rise, rise, all Adam’s children rise.
O, kneel at the feet of Jesus now,
Our sins to atone he did vow.
Rise, rise, rise, all Adam’s children rise.

4. We, we, we, ee all implore Thee:
Open for us heaven’s gate
Let your kingdom be our fate.
We, we, we, – we all implore Thee.

5. Rest, rest, rest, allow the Child to rest.
Saint Joseph snuffs the candle out,
Angels are guarding all about.
Rest, rest, rest, allow the Child to rest.

(Translation wikipedia)

Performers:
Michael Reimann – Keys
https://michaelreimann.de/
Wolfgang Saus – Overtone Singing
https://www.oberton.org/
Video – josephphackney pixabay
https://pixabay.com/

What a sound! – Young Ensemble Dreden, Olaf Katzer, Jan Heinke

Such sounds cast a spell over me. Those who know me know how much contemporary choral music touches me. And as an overtone singer, I have been trying to bring overtone awareness to choirs for almost four decades. I am all the happier when composers who know something about overtone singing write choral music.

Jan Heinke is an absolutely exceptional musician. We have been friends for many years now, and Jan never fails to impress me with his deeply reflective worldview. His music is unique in the world, his playing on the steel cello he built, his ultra low bass and the virtuosity of his overtone singing. The Junge Ensemble Dresden under the direction of Olaf Katzer is one of the top chamber choirs in Germany and one of the select ones dedicated to contemporary classical music at the highest level.

You find the CD here: https://jungesensembledresden.de/cd

CD „Licht über Licht“
Performer: Junges Ensemble Dresden
Artistic direction: Olaf Katzer
Soloist overtone singing: Jan Heinke
Total playing time: 61:30

Jan Heinke: http://www.janheinke.de/, http://www.stahlquartett.de/

“Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” – for Overtone Singing and Piano

Noten aus dem Speyerer Gesangbuch 1599 - Es ist ein Ros entsprungen“Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” is a Christmas carol from the Speyerer Gesangbuch 1599. Here as a version for piano (Michael Reimann) and overtone singing (Wolfgang Saus).

The challenge for overtone singers here is especially the intonation conflict of the natural overtone thirds with the equal-tempered ones of the piano. In this version, I have partially adjusted the overtones to match the equal-tempered tuning, resulting in “out of tune” fundamental tones. The alternative of intonating the harmonics in relation “out of tune” is found by some to be cleaner overall. An interesting experiment. Piano and overtones never fit together exactly because, except for the octave, none of the piano intervals correspond to the natural harmonic order. I think it sounds delightful nonetheless.

Free sheet music here.

Performers:
Michael Reimann – keys
https://michaelreimann.de/
Wolfgang Saus – overtone singing.
https://www.oberton.org/
Video – caelan, pixabay
https://pixabay.com/

Maria Walks Amid the Thorns (Maria durch ein Dornwald ging) – Overtone Singing

“Maria durch ein Dornwald ging” is a German Advent hymn from the 19th century. The melody possibly dates from the 16th century (wikipedia). It was first printed in 1850 in “Geistliche Volkslieder mit ihren ursprünglichen Weisen – gesammelt aus mündlicher Tradition und seltenen alten Gesangbüchern”, [August Haxthausen]. Paderborn 1850. https://sammlungen.ulb.uni-muenster.de/hd/content/pageview/1931586

For overtone singing, the challenge is the minor scale melody. Because the singable harmonic series is tuned in major, you have to change the fundamental several times to be able to sing the melody. Michael Reimann improvises his piano part according to the demands of overtone singing. He can do that because he himself sings outstanding overtones. We are so well attuned to each other that we were able to improvise this version freely and record it in one take.

If you want to sing it, you can find the free sheet music in my sheet music collection.

Performers:
Michael Reimann – keys
https://michaelreimann.de/
Wolfgang Saus – overtone singing
https://www.oberton.org
The video is from jrydertr, Pixabay.

Free: sing2 – A Practice Book for Polyphonic Overtone Singing for Female Voice, English Version

 

Mit großer Freude darf ich hier ein Buch zweier meiner Schülerinnen und Absolventinnen meiner Obertongesangsausbildung präsentieren: sing2 – Overtone Melodies for Women, von Beate Eckert und Barbara Lübben.

Mit steigender Tonhöhe nimmt die Anzahl singbarer Obertöne ab. Deshalb stellt polyphoner Obertongesang an Frauenstimmen hohe Ansprüche, denn hohe Stimmen müssen den Grundton häufiger wechseln als tiefe Stimmen, um bestimmte Melodietöne mit Obertönen zu erreichen (→ Komponieren mit Obertongesang). Barbara Lübben und Beate Eckert haben dieses Büchlein mit polyphonen Oberton-Übungen herausgebracht, dass sich speziell dieser Anforderungen annimmt und für Frauen den Einstieg in den polyphonen Obertongesang erleichtert. Aber auch Männerstimmen können die Melodien in ihre Lage transponieren.

Eine der Herausforderungen beim Erlernen von Grundtonwechseln beim Obertongesang besteht in der Koordination von Resonanz und Sington. Das Multitasking bei der Konzentration auf zwei Melodien führt anfangs häufig zu Verwechslungen der beiden Melodie erzeugenden Prinzipien beim Obertongesang. Während die Unterstimme wie gewohnt von den Stimmbändern erzeugt wird, wird die Obertonmelodie durch Formveränderung im Mund- und Rachenraum gebildet.

Sing2 verwendet bekannte Melodien für den Obertonpart, was die Konzentration auf zwei gleichzeitig gesungene Melodien erleichtert. Selbst wenn man mal die Orientierung verliert, was anfangs auf jeden Fall passieren wird, findet man in eine bekannte Melodie schneller wieder hinein.

Ich selbst habe viel Freude an den Übungen und verwende sie gerne in meinen Kursen für Fortgeschrittene.

Im November des Coronajahres 2020 erschien die kostenlose englische Ausgabe von sing2. Die beiden Autorinnen haben beschlossen, nicht nur diese Ausgabe kostenlos zur Verfügung zu stellen, sondern zusätzlich noch einen Download mit Sounddateien, in denen alle Stücke von den Autorinnen selber vorgesungen werden. Wer mag, findet auf ihrer Homepage einen Link für einen freiwilligen Beitrag, den ich natürlich allen nahelege, die an dem Büchlein Vergnügen oder einen Nutzen haben. Die deutsche Ausgabe könnte Ihr in gedruckter Form zusammen mit einer CD auf der Website kaufen.

https://www.polyphona.de/sing2-en.html

Voice Disorders - a Focus of Clinical Speech Science (in German)

Currently FREE: Voice Disorders – a Focus of Clinical Speech Science

As the Federal Association of German Clinical Speech Scientists announced today, the jubilee volume on the occasion of the DBKS’s 25th anniversary, Voice Disorders – a Focus of Clinical Speech Science, is currently available free of charge in Open Access. “This is a reminiscence of our wonderful colleague and former DBKS board member Anke Bergt, who died far too early and who had acted as co-editor,” said the spokeswoman of the Department of Speech Science and Phonetics and director of the Institute of Music, Media and Speech Sciences, Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Susanne Voigt-Zimmermann.

I contributed a short text on the control of formants to the volume. You can read the volume online and download it as PDF.

→Voice Disorders – a Focus of Clinical Speech Science (in German)