Special guest star

One of the sheer highlights of the week for me came on Tuesday evening. Chingis is a young throat singer. He is very talented and skilled. It was arranged by one of the senior women in the fellowship to bring him into to perform. He's not actually a believer yet. He performed some traditional Tuvan songs. The songs were simply about nature and were not Shamanist in nature.

Chingis also performed some songs to Christian lyrics. It was fascinating to watch him sit down, read some lyrics for the first time, compose some music in his head, practice it a couple of times and then record it.

The above two stringed instrument is called an Igil. Naturally, being Tuvan, the strings as well as the bow are made from horse hair. Even though an Igil only has two strings, it has a remarkable range.

In Summer last year I attended a concert in Kyzyl. It was billed as a Tuvan spectacular event. Aside from one young girl who sung in a traditional nasal style to traditional music, the rest were painfully untalented pop artists, who suspiciously looked like they were lip syncing, and did not have a single harmony. It was rather disappointing that not a single throat singer appeared that night.

Chingis' appearance at our recording sessions made up for that disappointment of last Summer in a big way.



Chingis not only plays the Igil and throat sings, but also plays on the guitar. He has an amazing way of making the guitar sound like a Tuvan instrument. Have a listen for yourself.

The first song is a traditional Tuvan song. I am sorry that I don't know what the words are. It runs 4:09. This was the first time that I have seen throat singing in person and I have to remark how impressive it really is.


The second song has Christian lyrics. The music was composed almost on the spot. It runs 3:00. Personally, I find it intriguing to see a Christian song performed to a very Tuvan style of music. Chingis had no pre-conceived notions of what a Christian song should sound like. He had no reference point of western or Russian influenced music to copy or interpret. What you see is unadulterated Tuvan music.



The next two are performed on the guitar and have an upbeat tempo, something that I personally appreciate a lot. The first of these two runs 1:15 and the second 1:09. The last of these songs is my favourite for style and sound.



I have mentioned previously that in many ways I think Tuva is more a part of central Asia than it is Siberian. I think this is reflected in that Tuvan music seems to be more developed than some of the northern Siberian peoples. (From what I have seen so far anyway.)