Interview with Sean Quirk
Published 05 September, 2007, 16:46
Sean Quirk, an American musician living in Tyva told Russia Today about his way to throat singing and its specifics.
Russia Today: You're actually a musician. You've come all the way from America and you now live here. Tell me about your journey from America when you discovered throat singing.
Sean Quirk: In 1999, in my last year of college I heard an album from Tyvinian Group “Houn-hoo 2”. I've always been a musician but I was struck by the beauty and uniqueness of the music, and I knew that this music I had been waiting for a long time in my life. So I began to teach myself how to sing like the Tyvinians and during that time I was working as a bicycle courier in Chicago. After three years doing that, I realized I had to come to Tyva. It was very important to do so in order to further learn the music and be truly respectful for the love of music, and the culture it's associated with. Therefore, I applied for a Fulbright grant and came here in 2003, and lived here for a year. During that year I began to work here in the Tyvinian National Orchestra. I further studied Tyvinian instruments and Tyvinian music, and met the young woman who eventually became my wife and the mother of my daughter. Now I've been living permanently in Tyva for four years.
RT: You're part of the orchestra, but ordinary Tyvinians, how do they throat sing? Is it just on special occasions or is it any time?
S.Q.: I mean really at any time you feel it is right. I'd say sure, on special occasions you could sing for people, but people just often sing on their own when nowadays they are driving their cars. But, traditionally, when you're out with your sheep, for instance, when you're alone – just to pass your time as if to connect with nature. The only thing – you do not want to use it like a toy. That's a most important thing. It's very amazing, very beautiful. It's like being a Jedi. You've got a light sabre, but you don't go around waving it all the time.
RT: You have used it on special occasions. You sang for President Putin a year ago. Now you are going to give our viewers a demonstration of throat singing. What style are you singing as there are many styles? Tell us what it means?
S.Q.: I'll sing you the style called syvet coming from the Tyvinian word “to whistle”. It's the highest of the sounds – a kind of whistling of the breezes in the crevasses in a cliff. It's probably one of the hardest to learn as a foreigner.
(Sean Quirk sings)
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