Tag Archive for: occidental overtone singing

Young girls from Slovenia blast all choir dimensions – new vocal theatre

Carmina Slovenica – TOXIC PSALMS / Ultimate collective experience

Carmina Slovenica is an exceptional girl choir from Slovenia, or, as they themselves call their performances: Vocal Theater. With overwhelming choreographic charisma the teenagers present here an incredible diversity of vocal techniques and choral traditions from Estonian ancient spells in setting of Veljo Tormis up to overtone singing from Sarah Hopkins. Toxic Psalms of Karmina Šilec was premiered in 2013 in Berlin. Absolutely thrilling.

In addition to the above-featured performance TOXIC PSALMS Carmina Slovenica sing and dance / play extremely different programs, including overtone singing. Presumably, the ensemble is better known for its spectacular performance of Karl Jenkins’ Adiemus (no overtone singing):

Carmina Slovenica - Adiemus (part 1)

Now, that’s a vocal range – Alber Hera

The Italian jazz musician Albert Hera, who refers to himself as “Sound Teller”, is a specialist in experimental voice and choir improvisation in the style of circle singing. I really like this little video sample, that allready gained more than 10,000 views on Facebook (June 2015). He demonstrates a vocal range from gigantic 5 octaves in the few seconds, from A1 till G#6, higher than the top tone of the Queen of the night by Mozart, using undertone singing, overtone singing and whistle register, in addition to this a funny musical arrangement.

Source: Facebook – Albert Hera

Overtone Singing in Electroacoustic New Ground

Mhmmhm

Fu Acune is the name of a new duo by Natasha Nikeprelevic and F.X. Randomiz. Electronic club music combined with vocal art. On the track mhmmhm Natasha Nikeprelevic uses her crystal clear overtone singing.

http://acunemusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/fuacune

Iridium – Spherical Film Music from Australia

Dean Frenkel is one of my favorite overtone singers. His clear, sparkling cleanly homophonic overtones bring out the special effect of the natural intervals in harmony with classical instruments particularly impressively. In “Iridium” he sings the 5th harmonic, the natural major third, to the minor third in the instrumental part, which I like very much in this piece.

In my overtone singing Masterclasses (year groups) I teach my students to avoid this conflict and to skip the 5th and 10th harmonic in a minor setting, or to replace them with polyphonic fundamental tone changes. Because almost all, even professional overtone singers improvise on the overtone series simply uncontrolled up and down, without even realizing that the natural major third is in conflict with a minor accompaniment, which I mostly do not like. Especially if the keynote becomes unclean, which usually happens.

I don’t know whether Dean Frenkel sings this interval in the composition consciously and deliberately, but I suspect so. Because of the fact that he sings his keynote so clean, the special effect of the 86-cent hovering of an equal-tempered minor third to the natural major third unfolds to a pleasure for me.

The film by cinematographer Murray Fredericks, producer Michael Angus and editor Lindi Harrison belongs to the SALT project, saltdoco.com, and shows in fast motion the miraculous change of Lake Eyre in Australia, which is rarely filled.

The music is from Dean Frenkel’s former group Aajinta – Dean Frenkel, Jason Day, Michelle John.

Daniel Pircher Live with dp.O.Ton

dp.O.Ton Projekt from Berlin, with a wonderful Daniel Pircher – overton singing, Stefanie John – campanula, Marc Miethe – didgeridoo.

www.facebook.com/dp.O.Tone

www.youtube.com/PircherDaniel

www.soundcloud.com/dp-o-tone

http://www.overtone.cc/profile/DanielPircher

 

Natasha Nikeprelevic Solo – Towards the Light

“Towards the Light” was an encore at a concert that Natasha Nikeprelevic sang on the Silent Art Festival in 2008. The composition demonstrated how much music already is in a single tone.

Oh, come, little children

“Ihr Kinderlein, kommet” im Satz für polyphonen Obertongesang in einer Neufassung mit Keyboard-Begleitung von Michael Reimann.
Als ich 1984 meine polyphonen Obertongesangsstil entwickelte war”Ihr Kinderlein, kommet” eines der ersten Lieder, die ich mit wechselnden Grundtönen sang.

Ich singe hier eine einfach zu lernende Fassung mit nur drei Grundtönen, die Du am schnellsten durch Mitsingen lernst. Die Noten dazu kannst Du Dir hier kostenlos herunterladen:

Text:

1. Ihr Kinderlein, kommet, o kommet doch all’!
Zur Krippe her kommet in Betlehems Stall
und seht, was in dieser hochheiligen Nacht
der Vater im Himmel für Freude uns macht.

2. O seht in der Krippe, im nächtlichen Stall,
seht hier bei des Lichtleins hellglänzendem Strahl,
den lieblichen Knaben, das himmlische Kind,
viel schöner und holder, als Engelein sind.

3. Da liegt es – das Kindlein – auf Heu und auf Stroh;
Maria und Josef betrachten es froh;
die redlichen Hirten knie’n betend davor,
hoch oben schwebt jubelnd der Engelein Chor.

4. Manch Hirtenkind trägt wohl mit freudigem Sinn
Milch, Butter und Honig nach Betlehem hin;
ein Körblein voll Früchte, das purpurrot glänzt,
ein schneeweißes Lämmchen mit Blumen bekränzt.

5. O betet: Du liebes, Du göttliches Kind
was leidest Du alles für unsere Sünd’!
Ach hier in der Krippe schon Armut und Not,
am Kreuze dort gar noch den bitteren Tod.

6. O beugt wie die Hirten anbetend die Knie,
erhebet die Hände und danket wie sie!
Stimmt freudig, ihr Kinder, wer wollt sich nicht freu’n,
stimmt freudig zum Jubel der Engel mit ein!

7. Was geben wir Kinder, was schenken wir Dir,
du Bestes und Liebstes der Kinder, dafür?
Nichts willst Du von Schätzen und Freuden der Welt –
ein Herz nur voll Unschuld allein Dir gefällt.

8. So nimm unsre Herzen zum Opfer denn hin;
wir geben sie gerne mit fröhlichem Sinn –
und mache sie heilig und selig wie Dein’s,
und mach sie auf ewig mit Deinem nur Eins.

Melodie:  Johann Abraham Peter Schulz 1794. Text: Christoph von Schmid 1798. Video: Falling snow by Matt SCC BY 3.0, Artikelbild: pixabay CC0.

Pachelbel’s Canon

Here is my overtone variation about the canon of Johann Pachelbel, in which I sing bass and soprano at the same time. It is an exercise for polyphonic overtone singing, which I once wrote for my students in the mid 1990s.

I have developed a series of preparatory exercises for my Masterclass students to build up the polyphonic singing skills step by step. It takes a whole weekend and a few weeks of practice. But if you want to try it out with the canon right away: Download the sheet music for free here.

It is a multitasking exercise that requires concentration. I sing two melodies contrapuntally. I lead the bass melody (ostinato) with my left hand and sing it first without overtone technique. Then I start the melody in the overtones and follow it with my right hand.

The left hand is linked to the right brain, where the perception of overtones is located. But it follows the basic melody, which is processed in the left brain. The right hand is controlled by the left hemisphere, but follows the overtones that are processed on the right side (see “How overtones work in the brain” and “Test: Are you an overtone or a fundamental listener?“).

In my experience, this crossover of hand control and auditory perception has an accelerating effect on learning and intonation gets better. If you occasionally swap hands, i. e. overtones on the left and fundamental tones on the right, this intensifies the training effect. But generally I recommend to practice the first version.

At the beginning you always have the problem that either the overtones don’t sound good or the keynote is completely out of tune. This is probably due to the fact that the brain can initially concentrate either on the clarity of the overtones or on the intonation of the fundamental tones. This multitasking is very similar to playing the piano, where the left hand plays the bass and the right hand the high part.

Try out which hand follows the overtones more easily and leave it in the comments. And whether you’re right or left-handed. I’d like to know if left-handed people are different.

Overtones in Canon | Mundwerk

The Munich a cappella group Mundwerk sings Brother Jaques not only with voices in canon, but also with overtones. My student and master class graduate Oliver Zunker (now no longer with the group) sings together with his colleague Jens Ickert the canon exclusively with overtones. Oliver himself is an excellent overtone teacher, as you can hear. I think the whole choral arrangement is superb!

All tones of the melody are already contained in a single keynote (harmonic 6 to 13, cf. composing with overtones). So you can sing them on one fundamental note.

Here you can download the sheet music for free →

Sources & Links

https://www.facebook.com/oliver.zunker?fref=ts

http://www.mundwerk.biz/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A8re_Jacques

World Music or experiment? – Ensemble Supersonus

Supersonus – Rosary Sonata 1 and Ritus

SUPERSONUS
The European Resonance Ensemble
http://www.supersonus.eu

Anna-Maria Hefele, overtone singing
Eva-Maria Rusche, harpsichord
Anna-Liisa Eller, kannel
Wolf Janscha, jew´s harp
Marco Ambrosini, nyckelharpa, jew´s harp

New experimental overtone music of the group Supersonus – The European Resonance Ensemble (Resonance, not Renaissance) brings overtone singing into a whole new musical context, something between world music and experiment. The instruments are in fact from Renaissance times, but probably have hardly been heard in this combination. And overtone singing is quite new to this world of sound.

Anna-Maria Hefele is one of the most promising new overtone singing talents in Germany. Her Western overtone singing style derives from the contemporary Western music, and not from Central Asian styles. However, you can hear influences of Mongolian throat singing in her way of pressing the voice. Her approach to music is refreshing experimentally. She easily connects various musical instruments, dance and drama with her versatile vocal techniques.

Tag Archive for: occidental overtone singing

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