Indeed, singing largely uses vowel-like sounds ( Story, 2016). When speaking, we change the shape of our vocal tract to shift formants in systematic ways characteristic of vowel and consonant sounds. The vocal-tract filter has multiple resonances that accentuate certain clusters of overtones, creating formants. Upon emanating from the vocal folds, they are then sculpted by the vocal tract, which acts as a spectral filter. Harmonic frequencies in this sound above f 0 are called overtones. This vibration is not, however, simply sinusoidal, as it also produces a series of harmonics tones (i.e., integer multiples of f 0) ( Figure 1). Normally, when a singer voices a song or speech, their vocal folds vibrate at a fundamental frequency ( f 0), generating oscillating airflow, forming the so-called source. How, indeed, does one singer produce two pitches at one time? Even today, the biophysical underpinnings of this biphonic human vocal style are not fully understood. Khoomei, now a part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is characterized as "the simultaneous performance by one singer of a held pitch in the lower register and a melody … in the higher register" ( Aksenov, 1973). This is a form of biphonation, or in Feynman’s own words, "a man with two voices". Although he was never successful in visiting Tuva, Feynman was nonetheless captivated by Khoomei, which can be best described as a high-pitched tone, similar to a whistle carrying a melody, hovering above a constant booming low-frequency rumble. A key catalyst came from Kip Thorne, who had gifted him a record called Melody tuvy, featuring a Tuvan singing in a style known as Khoomei, or Xöömij. In the years preceding his death, Richard Feynman had been attempting to visit the small republic of Tuva located in geographic center of Asia ( Leighton, 2000). Together these discoveries show how very small, targeted movements of the tongue can produce distinctive sounds. The computer model helped explain that these two constrictions produce the distinctive sounds of throat singing by selectively amplifying a narrow set of high frequency notes that are made by the vocal cords. One key constriction occurs when tip of the tongue nearly touches a ridge on the roof of the mouth, and a second constriction is formed by the base of the tongue. This approach revealed that Tuvan singers can create two pitches simultaneously by forming precise constrictions in their vocal tract. The images showed changes in the singer’s vocal tract as they sang inside an MRI scanner, providing key information needed to create a computer model of the process. The analysis involved high quality audio recordings of three Tuvan singers and dynamic MRI recordings of the movements of one of those singers. have better pinpointed how throat singers can produce their unique sound. Previous studies using static images taken with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suggested how Tuvan singers might produce the two pitches, but a mechanistic understanding of throat singing was far from complete. Singing and speaking in general involves making sounds by vibrating the vocal cords found deep in the throat, and then shaping those sounds with the tongue, teeth and lips as they move up the vocal tract and out of the body. This practice has deep cultural roots and has now been shared more broadly via world music performances and the 1999 documentary Genghis Blues.ĭespite many scientists being fascinated by throat singing, it was unclear precisely how throat singers could create two unique pitches. These singers simultaneously create two different pitches: a low-pitched drone, along with a hovering whistle above it. The republic of Tuva, a remote territory in southern Russia located on the border with Mongolia, is perhaps best known for its vast mountainous geography and the unique cultural practice of “throat singing”.
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