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Paula Marie Celine M. Molina

COM 110.7

Tuva An Unexpected Journey

It took some time for me to choose the kind of music I would be writing this paper
about, my initial desire was to write on Japanese music as it was the first experience I
had in my life with world music (from the opening sequences of the anime shows I used
to watch as a child) but eventually, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and chose
Mongolian, particularly, Tuva music. I was intrigued by the practice of singing both the
high and low notes at the same time, something I had seen before with the Pentatonixs
Avi Kaplan. I assumed that the music in Tuva Voices from the Land of the Eagles
would be cover songs applying this wonderfully different technique of singing.
I must admit that it was difficult to listen to the album in its entirety; I kept pausing
and leaving the album because the music style defied every notion I had to what music
was. Initially, I thought the songs would simply be instrumental because it took more
than a minute for the singing to actually begin, the scales were completely different to
anything I had ever listened to and there was the added difficulty of not understanding
what they were singing about. When I steeled myself and got around to actually focusing
on the music, I noted that the instruments that they used were similar to the stringed
instruments our local tribes had up in northern Luzon and for percussion, I think they

were either clucking their tongues or lightly slapping their cheeks. Listening to the music
then felt like I was journeying up the mountains and surprisingly, the album became
relaxing and I felt as though I was slowly exploring a culture that I never dreamed I could
explore.
The men in this particular Tuvan ensemble could reach incredibly high pitches
and initially, I wondered why there were no women (at least as far as I could tell) in the
album but then I realized that reaching the lower pitches might be particularly difficult for
women to reach. The eighth song in the album, entitled Kargiraa-Style Song strongly
reminded me of Misty Mountains from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. And now I
will forever imagine the Tuva ensemble as dwarves singing about their beautiful territory
with the added bonus of stringed instruments.
As intriguing and unique as the Mongolian Tuvan singing is, I dont think it will be
the kind of music I will be placing into my iPod in the foreseeable future but I am glad to
have been exposed to it as I feel a little bit more cultured now.