It’s like a thrumming growl, a low tone that has a higher, nasally note laid on top of it. it warbles from note to note. It pours out of Gavin Rusel’s mouth, but his lips barely move. There are no words here, no cheery melody, but it’s entrancing all the same. This is throat singing, a form of music practiced in Central Asia. To create the two different tones simultaneously, the singer starts with a low tone in the chest and then lets it reverberate in the nasal cavity, creating the upper tone. Gavin controls the sound by moving his mouth and soft palate as if making different vowel sounds.
Throat singing is practiced in a few separate cultures, mainly in parts of Central Asia, including Mongolia and Tibet. There is a rich tradition of throat singing or two-tone singing there and it is more harmonic. Traditional stringed instruments are also involved. It started out as a way for herders to pass the time and women were not allowed to do it. When Communist governments took over in the area, they denounced throat singing as a backwards ethnic practice and discouraged it. However, at this point younger generations are keeping the tradition alive: it gives them a sense of cultural belonging.
Throat singing is also practiced by Inuit tribes in Northern Canada. However, this tradition is distinct because it has less harmonics and was mostly practiced by Inuit women to pass the time and play games. The Xhosa tribe of South Africa does throat singing as well. They use throat singing as part of call-and-response songs and as part of backing music for dances.
Gavin’s practice of throat singing started after he saw a video of Tibetan throat singing and was intrigued. He’s been working on it for a while. He can’t do much with it, because he doesn’t know Tibetan languages to sing in, and he doesn’t know the instruments to play along with the throat singing. However, it’s a fun hobby. His favorite part of throat singing is people’s reactions: when he comes out with this strange vocalization, people are usually puzzled and just as intrigued by this performance as Gavin was the first time he saw it.