Saturday, August 2, 2008

Saturday serenade

I am not a music lover in the traditional sense. I can go days, weeks, without hearing music and never miss it. When I'm home alone during the day, the house is quiet. I have found that when I listen to music I must give it my full attention. There is no background music for me - sounds distract me, they dull my other senses. For instance, I need to turn down the radio in the car to properly smell if perhaps there's oil burning and I have hushed my husband while adding spices to a dish I was cooking. It's an odd quirk.

So the music I take the time to listen to usually has a transcendent quality: an unusual sound, a poetic lyric, an amazing voice.



Throat singing sounds otherworldly, and at the same time, utterly human. Imagine yourself hearing this Tuvan music on the great wide open plains of central Asia or being in the land of the midnight sun, listening to these two teenaged Inuit girls sing. Be transported.

9 comments:

Joe Allen said...

I've long been a fan of Tuvan singing, but I'd never heard the Inuit duets like these.

Wow. Just wow.

I hope those girls got the gig.

Joe

Home on the Range said...

Breda if you can let people know. For some reason, internet explorer is not opening blogs with sitemeter on it. I thought it was just mine but I've got about 2 dozen emails from folks having the same problem. I added Firefox to access the internet and now everything works.

Chas S. Clifton said...

I went to hear a group of Tuvan singers once. It was like hearing traditional Scottish ballads sung by bull elk.

Anonymous said...

At the start of the video I got a Bleeding Gums Murphy vibe. I'm going to the range to clear my mind.

The Remittance Man said...

Sounds distract you? Is this a good thing or a bad thing for an armed librarian to be telling us?

Tam said...

"There is no background music for me - sounds distract me, they dull my other senses. For instance, I need to turn down the radio in the car to properly smell if perhaps there's oil burning and I have hushed my husband while adding spices to a dish I was cooking. It's an odd quirk."

You are not alone. We should start a support group.

(Things I never do with the car stereo:
1)Listen in heavy traffic.
2)Listen if the car is in any way acting wonky.
3)Listen when I'm in a new place or trying to follow driving directions.)

breda said...

joe - they are some of the best I found on the internet. Young Inuits are working hard to bring back their culture.

Tam - Cool! I thought I was the only weirdo!

d smith kaich jones said...

Bless you. I CANNOT paint with music playing in the background. Silence is MY music.

:) Debi

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the film MONGOL, about the rise of Genghis Khan? Features lots of throaty goodness in the soundtrack.