Throat Singing: The Ancient Tuvan Art of Multiple Pitches

One Voice, Two Notes, and a Tradition That Predates Writing in Central Asia

Tuvan throat singing — known in Tuvan as khoomei (also spelled xoomei or hoomii) — is a vocal practice in which a single singer simultaneously produces two or more distinct pitches: a continuous drone tone and one or more melodic overtones that float above it like a flute or whistle. The practice originates in the Republic of Tuva, a federal subject of Russia located in south-central Siberia bordering Mongolia, and in related traditions across Mongolia, Bashkortostan, Khakassia, and other parts of Inner Asia. Its origins predate written records in the region; Tuvan and Mongolian oral traditions place its emergence thousands of years ago, linked to the practice of imitating natural sounds — rivers, wind, animals — in the landscape of the Central Asian steppe.

The physics of what the throat singer accomplishes is genuinely extraordinary. All voices produce overtones above the fundamental pitch, but in ordinary singing these overtones blend into the overall timbre without being perceived as separate pitches. Throat singers shape the vocal tract — the position of the tongue, lips, larynx, and velum (soft palate) — to amplify specific overtones selectively, making individual harmonics audible as distinct melodic notes while the fundamental continues as a drone.

The Major Styles of Tuvan Throat Singing

Khoomei is not a single technique but a family of related styles, differentiated by register, resonance location, and timbre. Tuvan tradition recognizes several main styles.

The Mongolian tradition uses slightly different terminology and stylistic categories, with khoomii as the general term and styles including isgeree khoomii (whistle khoomii, similar to sygyt) and kharkhiraa (similar to kargyraa). Bashkir uzlyau from the Ural region represents another related tradition with its own stylistic characteristics.

The Acoustics of Overtone Singing

Every pitched sound contains a fundamental frequency and a series of overtones at integer multiples above it — the harmonic series. In normal speech and singing, these overtones blend together into the characteristic timbre of a voice. The art of throat singing lies in making specific overtones stand out while suppressing others.

The vocal tract functions as a resonant filter. By changing the shape of the tract — particularly through tongue position and lip rounding — a singer can boost (resonate) certain frequency bands and dampen others. In sygyt, the tongue tip contacts the palate just behind the upper teeth, creating a narrow cavity in the front of the mouth that resonates at high frequencies, typically between 1000 and 2000 Hz. The singer selects which specific overtone to emphasize by fine-tuning this cavity's resonant frequency.

• The overtones available as melody notes are limited to the harmonic series above the drone fundamental — the singer cannot produce any pitch, only those that exist as harmonics above their specific fundamental tone
• The fundamental drone is typically held continuous throughout a performance; the melody is created by moving between different harmonics of that fixed drone
• Kargyraa exploits a different mechanism: the ventricular folds (false vocal cords, above the true vocal folds) are recruited to vibrate in addition to or instead of the true vocal cords, producing subharmonics — pitches below the normal fundamental

Cultural and Ceremonial Context

Throat singing in Tuva was historically embedded in the pastoral and shamanistic culture of nomadic herders. The mimicry of natural sounds was not merely aesthetic — it was understood to forge a communicative relationship with the landscape, with animals, and with spirits inhabiting rivers, mountains, and wind.

• Specific styles were associated with specific landscapes: kargyraa with mountains and open steppe; sygyt with rivers; borbannadir with the rippling of water
• Performance contexts included solo practice during herding, ceremonial occasions, and communal festivities; throat singing was historically predominantly male in Tuvan tradition, though women increasingly practice it
• Shamanistic use: Tuvan and Mongolian shamans (called shamans or kam in Tuvan) incorporated throat singing in ritual contexts to summon spirits or enter trance states, though the relationship between khoomei and shamanism is complex and sometimes debated by researchers

In 2009, UNESCO inscribed Mongolian traditional music including khoomii on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Tuvan traditional throat singing has been separately nominated for UNESCO recognition.

Tuva's Throat Singing on the World Stage

The globalization of Tuvan throat singing accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s through several pathways. The physicist Richard Feynman became fascinated with Tuva in his last years and drew public attention to the region before his death in 1988. His collaboration with Ralph Leighton produced the book Tuva or Bust! (1991), which introduced Tuva to Western readers.

The group Huun-Huur-Tu, formed in 1992 from former members of earlier Tuvan ensembles, became the most internationally recognized performers of Tuvan throat singing, collaborating with Frank Zappa (shortly before his death), the Kronos Quartet, and performers from diverse world music traditions.

• Throat singing influences have appeared in film scores including The Last Temptation of Christ (Peter Gabriel's soundtrack) and in ambient and experimental music
• The technique has attracted interest from vocal scientists for its diagnostic value — studying how throat singers control vocal tract resonance has provided insights into normal voice production
• In Tuva itself, the annual Ustuu-Huree festival and the International Symposium of Khoomei performers draw practitioners from across Inner Asia and from Western countries where overtone singing communities have emerged independently