Dear friends of Jan Heinke,

Today I would like to tell you for the third time about this moving story, which continues to touch me deeply.

In April 2022, my friend and musician Jan Heinke passed away. Just a few hours before his death, he wrote me an email with a special attachment and a request. It was to be our last contact on this earth.

In this e-mail, Jan wrote to me that he felt that he was now dying and would no longer be able to complete his work and asked me to take on this task for him. Of course I took on the task. Attached was a huge collection of folk songs from all over the world that Jan had set for overtone singing – several hundred songs! Jan had already started the work in 2013 and had received a work grant from the Kulturstiftung Sachsen.

Together with Jan’s partner Claudia, we have now completed the third and final volume of the series with 196 international folk songs, children’s songs and classics for polyphonic overtone singing. On the occasion of the 1st Advent 2024, this volume will be published here International Folk Songs for Overtone Singing – by Jan Heinke 2022/2024 and on Jan’s website as a free e-book with a free Creative Commons license.

Jan’s nine years of work on these movements will now be made available to the public posthumously, thus fulfilling his wish. As stated in a factual report on the project, the starting point of the work project was the attempt to open up overtone singing as a possibility of voice use for performers and composers alike that has not yet been sufficiently investigated in Western culture. The song arrangements should help to promote the practical use of overtone singing in music.

I am grateful and proud to be able to carry on Jan’s legacy with his companion Claudia and present his work to the world. His music will live on and inspire people – just as he would have wanted.

Wolfgang

Jan Heinke’s Website

PDF Volume 3: International Folk Songs for Overtone Singing – by Jan Heinke 2022/2024