Dvořák with Overtones

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Stuart Hinds is undoubtedly the master of polyphonic overtone singing. He sets standards for this young vocal technique with his compositions. With Goin’ home, a melody from the second movement of the Ninth Symphony of by Czech composer Anonín Dvořák, Hinds here presents one of his easier pieces, that nevertheless will be a challenge for most overtone singers.

In addition to the version for solo baritone overtone singer and keyboad Hinds wrote a choral version, dedicated to the Prague ensemble Sprektrum, that sings the overtone part with even serveral choral singers. With such compositions hopefully many singers are encouraged to explore the fascinating possibilities of the polyphonic overtone singing.

Joby Talbot – Path of Miracles (2005)

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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.

CDs

(Affiliate links to amazon.de)

 

Path-of-Miracles-Tenebrae

Path-of-Miracles-Footsteps-Tenebrae

Sheet Music

Sheet music on amazon.de (affiliate link)

Sheet music at Chester Music Ltd

Related Links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_Miracles#cite_note-Talbot_Path-9

Insight into sheet music. https://issuu.com/scoresondemand/docs/path_of_miracles_14740/4

http://www.tenebrae-choir.com/path-of-miracles

Joby Talbot wrote the soundtrack to some famous productions like ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’.
Movies with film scores by Joby Talbot (affiliate link to buch7.de).

CD From Sea to Sea - Aaron Jansen

Uvavnuk Dreams / The Great Sea – Aaron Jensen (2012)

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A composition by Aaron Jensen, Canada 2012, for mixed choir a cappella and overtone soloist.

SSAATTB + overtone singer soloist (khoomej style) 6’00″

Text by Uvavnuk – translation: Jane Hirshfield

Commissioned by The Toronto Arts Council

Premiere: 12.05.2013 — The Elmer Iseler Singers, conductor Lydia Adams

Guest overtone singer: Scott Peterson

More about the composition on Aaron Jensen’s website.

Chamber Choir “I Vocalisti” & Anna-Maria Hefele – new CD

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One of Germany’s best amateur choirs for contemporary music in collaboration with one of the best overtone singers. The readers of this page will be interested in three pieces that are especially for the new CD “Kammerchor I Vocalisti & Anna-Maria Hefele: Cantate Domino Canticum Novum” from Chamber Choir I Vocalisti and its director Hans-Hoachim Lustig were commissioned by three renowned composers:

  • Cantate Domino (2015) by Uģis Prauliņš (track 1)
  • Cantate Domino (2016) by Hans Schanderl (Track 8)
  • Cantate Domino (2015) by Michael Ostrzyg (track 11)

These three works are written especially for Hefele’s solo voice. Three very different pieces that have one thing in common: Solo overtone singing. The rest of the programme is also a wonderful compilation of new music, sung at the highest choral level. This fantastic CD is thoroughly enjoyable and inspires me – recommendable!

CD Cantate Domino Canticum NovumBuy at Amazon.de (affiliate link)

Cantate Domino Canticum Novum (2016)
Anna-Maria Hefele, I Vocalisti, Hans-Hoachim Lustig
The CD was released on 28.10.2016 at Rondeau.
Total playing time 73:09
1. Ugis Praulins: Cantate Domino
2. Vic Nees: Singet dem Herrn
3. Thomas Hofmann: …Singet…
4.-6. Hugo Distler: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied
7. Josu Elberdin: Cantate Domino
8. Hans Schanderl: Cantate Domino
9. Aleksandar S. Vujic: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied
10. Vytautas Miskinis: Cantate Domino
11. Michael Ostrzyga: Canticum novum (…ab extremis terrae)
12. Alwin Michael Schonen: Cantate Domino

stimmig – 10 Vocal Excursions – Documentary

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A documentary film about the diversity of human voice expression by Lena Giovanazzi and Daniel Büche: yodelling, overtone singing, buccal voice, laughter yoga, the sound repertoire of contemporary classical music, oesophagus voice, beatbox and animal sounds.

Cast

Christian Zehnder
Arjopa
Wolfgang Saus
Angela Mecking
Peter Krause
Michael Edward Edgerton
Angela Wingerath
Laryngeal Loss Choir León
Uwe Westphal
4xSample
PerformanceChoir for Experimental Singing Berlin

Crew

Lena Giovanazzi
Daniel Büche

Festivals and Awards

  • Open Eyes Filmfest Marburg 2012, 1st place Audience Award
  • 36th Weiterstadt Film Festival, 2012
  • Festival Internacional de Cine de Puebla, Mexico, 2012
  • Kinofest Lünen, 23rd festival for German films
  • Soundtrack Cologne, Festival See the Sound, November 2012
  • Blue November MicroFilmFest, Seattle, November 2012, “Best Illumination” and “Best Vision”
  • Flensburger Kurzfilmtage, November 2012, Main Award Documentary Film
  • Filofest 2012, International Student Film and Video Festival Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Bamberger Kurzfilmtage, February 2013
  • Contrast, the Bayreuth Film Festival, February 2013
  • Landshut Short Film Festival, March 2013
  • Emmental Short Film Festival, 18-20 October 2013

Filmplakat Stimmig

Harmonics in The Golden Compass Film Score

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The Golden Compass (2007)

Imdb

Direction: Chris Weitz

Composer: Alexandre Desplat

Right at the beginning you hear flageolet glissandi of an electric cello (using chorus pedal) blending with overtone singing by Michael Ormiston and give mystical soundscapes, in which individual instruments are difficult to detect. Alexandre Desplat in an interview with mftm: “I love to blend sounds together so you can’t really tell what instrument it is.”

In the film, this sound symbolizes the freedom from the system control (Magisterium), which is represented by the main character Lyra together with the golden compass, which predicts the future and reveals the truth. A very striking association, because harmonics shift the perception into the right brain hemisphere, and thus beyond the control from outside. This is the film adaptation of the first volume of the phantasy trilogy “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pullman.

Perhaps for this reason the film was panned by critics (for alleged “anti-religion”), which meant that the other volumes of the trilogy were not filmed. I like this movie very much, I saw it several time and recommend it.

Shamanic Biphonation with Animal Sounds

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Olga Podluzhnaya presents from 1:11 biphonation, a unique two-part singing technique. Actually, biphonation is a vocal disorder. It is assumed that the left and right vocal cords vibrate at different frequencies . But here it is an artistic intention and certainly not pathological.

I did a sound analysis of my favorite part at 1:30 to 1:36. There you can see unusual things: the two tones produced at the same time have a gap of 324 cents between the major and minor thirds. This interval does not occur in the overtone series. So it’s really two separate sounds. But they have far too many overtones. The expected overtones are laid over the spectrogram as a diagram. And these can also be seen in the spectrum. But there are still more overtones in between, which cannot come from the two fundamental tones. I don’t have an explanation. Anybody have an idea?

Olga Podluzhnaya Biphonation

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Cosmos – Sunrise – A Cappella from Latvia

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The Latvian a cappella group Cosmos (2002 – 2009,2015…) is characterized by extraordinary sounds and own arrangements, including overtone singing, as here in “Sunrise” (Saullēkts). Their shows are also remarkable. More on their YouTube-channel.

Female Bass, Male Soprano

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This duo from Tuva ensures disbelief, when suddenly the woman sings a deep bass and the guy singing three octaves above. And what a bass! She uses the Tuvan undertone singin technique Kargyraa. It produces these deep tones with both the vestibular folds and the vocal cords. The man sings the famous Sygyt, the whistle throat singing style of the nomadic peoples around the Altai Mountains.

Almost overtone singing… a genius beatboxer

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Gene Shinozaki voice-performes his own composition Home in YouTube Space New York. The new generation of beatboxers starts using the formats purposefully – the art of western overtone singinger of the 2nd generation.