Musical pearls from Tuva in Taiwan

本活動中文詳細資訊請見本信下方說明。TuvanPearls EDM:

In April two excellent musicians and friends from Tuva are coming to Taiwan, so that people here can get better acquainted with this fascinating musical culture from the North. Get to know Tuvan music and culture and learn throat singing directly from established, original masters!

be amazed by Tuva’s signature sounds of throat singing

hear the beats of the shaman drum and Jew’s harp

resonate with the buzzing strings of horse-head fiddles and lute

get blown away by flutes from the steppe

THE PROGRAM FROM APRIL 11 TO 13

Saturday April 11, 19:30   Concert Pearls from Siberia, at Wistaria Teahouse.

Donation-based. Very limited seats!

At Wistaria, an atmospheric original Japanese building, you will be seated on tatami mats. The concert is purely acoustic, so you can enjoy the sounds directly with your own ears. An excellent way to get to know the amazing acoustic world that Tuvans have developed over the centuries. Tuva’s auditory culture has become an icon in the last two decades for its remarkable throat singing techniques, which they share with Mongolia. Choduraa Tumat and Otkun Dostay both perform seveal throat singing techniques, which you will be able to hear at close range: the soft, light technique called khöömei, the whistle-like sygyt and the thundering low kargyraa. In Tuva we also find the horse-head fiddle (igil) and erhu-like fiddle (byzaanchy), lutes (doshpuluur, chanzy) and flute (shoor), the Jew’s harp (khomus) and the shaman’s drum (dunggur), among others. Choduraa Tumat and Otkun Dostay master many of these and will play tunes and pieces from different regions and times in Tuva. Songs and pieces will be alternated with stories about and from Tuva and its rich musical folklore. The only public Tuvan concert in a very special intimate setting!

As a donation we suggest 500 NT$ for the perfomance, tea and a snack. Call Wistaria and leave your name and number for a seat: (02)2363-7375 or register here.

This event is sponsored by Wistaria.

Sunday April 12,  10-17      1-day workshop Tuvan throat singing and culture, at Canjune Training Center

Learn to sing khöömei, sygyt and/or kargyraa with Otkun Dostay and Choduraa Tumat. The one-day Throat Singing workshop will have not just one, but two expert throat singers, including a female throat singer. A rare opportunity to learn the three basic Tuvan styles of throat singing: khöömei, sygyt and kargyraa, which tend to be a little softer and therefore easier than the Mongolian counterpart. During the day you will learn about Tuvan music and culture and get plenty of chance to hear throat singing and try it for yourself. With a maximum of 15 students (plus perhaps a few listeners), there is a chance to get personal feedback from Choduraa or Otkun for everyone. About half the time will be devoted to throat singing, the other half to other music and culture of Tuva.

Otkun Dostay teaching khöömei in Venice

We aim at a 50/50 divide of male/female voices. The workshop is held in English/Russian with Chinese translation. Mark will be there to help translate Russian-English, if needed.

If you are interested and want to reserve a place, you can call or write Mark (mark@fusica.nl, 0910382749) or Wu Wentsui (wuwentsui@gmail.com, 0928867512).

This event is sponsored by Canjune.

Monday April 13, 19:30-21:30      Concert Tuvan music and culture. National Chengchi University, Arts and Culture Center, Audiovisual Theatre

This presentation features introductions, videos about the beautiful, unknown land of Tuva, a display of many styles of throat singing and different musical instruments. Choduraa Tumat and Otkun Dostay both perform seveal throat singing techniques: the soft, light technique called khöömei, the whistle-like sygyt and the thundering low kargyraa and other substyles. They will also present a selection of pieces and instruments found in Tuva, such as the horse-head fiddle (igil) and erhu-like fiddle (byzaanchy), lutes (doshpuluur, chanzy) and flute (shoor), the Jew’s harp (khomus) and the shaman’s drum (dunggur). Choduraa Tumat and Otkun Dostay master many of these. Songs and pieces will be alternated with stories about and from Tuva and its rich musical folklore. Afterwards there is a chance to talk to the musicians during the Q&A.

The concert at NCCU is free and open for everyone.  Just register here. Without reservation there may still be places when you come, there is no guarantee but there are 300+ seats.

This event is sponsored by the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission in Taiwan.

 

THE MUSICIANS

Otkun Dostay

In the late 1980s Dostay was the youngest member of the internationally acclaimed Tuva Ensemble. During the late Soviet era he enrolled a theatre school in Leningrad (now Sint-Petersburg), and was engaged in acting, dancing and storytelling. With fellow students Stanislav Iril and Olaak Ondar he took part in Buddhist ceremonies in Leningrad and founded the group Özüm (‘sprouts’). They recorded their first CD in 1991, published by Window to Europe/Orpheus. Dostay has continued to direct Özüm with changing group members over time. He plays horse-head fiddle, all the Tuvan varieties of Jew’s harp and the shaman’s drum. He organised festivals to commemorate the great throat-singer Gennadi Tumat in his native village Khandagayti. He is currently active as the founder-director of the Tuvan-Japanese friendship Center and works as a correspondent for Tuvan State Radio, under the State TV & Radio Company. He regularly performs in solo, duo and ensemble projects, which he toured in Germany, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Morroco, Japan and China. He has been involved in recording, producing and playing on several CDs of Tuvan music published in Russia, Japan and Europe. In 2013 he published his first solo CD, an exciting mix of traditional songs and melodies with 21st-century sounds.

 

Choduraa Tumat

Born in Western Tuva, as a girl Tumat was fond of listening to khoomei and sygyt throat singing performed by her brothers. She studied traditional music in music college in Tuva and went on to become one of the world’s most active female overtone/throat singers, as well as the founder and artistic leader of the all-female throat-singing folk ensemble Tyva Kyzy (‘Daughters of Tuva’, www.tyvakyzy.com). She is an accomplished performer of all basic throat-singing styles, sings traditional folk songs, and plays various Tuvan string instruments, Jew’s harps and zither. As a performer, she received many titles in Tuva. She is a teacher of traditional music and khöömei throat-singing at the Pedagogical College of Tuvan State University in Tuva’s capitol Kyzyl. With Tyva Kyzy and with solo projects she toured extensivly in the USA, Poland, Russia, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Japan. She recorded and released several CDs and DVDs, among which her outstanding solo CD Belek/ The Gift.

 

《西伯利亞溫暖的靈魂之聲》2015 台灣

聆聽薩滿擊鼓的節律和口簧琴彈出的音場
與琵琶和馬頭琴琴弦嗡嗡的共振
圖瓦傳奇的喉音叫人驚艷
讓草原的哨音將你吹往他方

本系列活動邀請兩位圖瓦喉音大師來台，讓您聆聽北方草原音樂之美並直接向大師學習道地的喉音，認識圖瓦傳統音樂與文化！

《圖瓦的女兒》Tyva Kyzy 主唱楚都拉．圖瑪特 (Chodurra Tumat)
《圖瓦樂團》Tuva Ensemble 歐特昆．都斯泰(Otkun Dostay)
今年四月為您帶來西伯利亞圖瓦共和國傳奇的「呼麥」喉音演唱與工作坊

《泛音歌唱》Overtone Singing作者與【共鳴】泛音課程教師及表演者Mark van Tongeren 馬克．范．湯格鄰策劃

本系列活動更多詳情及最新資訊請見：www.fusica.nl ; https://fusica.wordpress.com
活動聯絡信箱：mark@fusica.nl 連絡人 Mark / chichenlyv@gmail.com 李小姐

【喉音簡介】

俄羅斯境內的圖瓦共和國(Republic of Tuva)位於西伯利亞南部，與蒙語毗鄰，以具特色的喉音(throat singing)音樂引起全球音樂界的注意。著名的音樂家Sainkho Namtchylak就曾多次到台灣演出，以圖瓦音樂吟唱與爵士樂、電子樂等前衛即興音樂結合，讓台灣聽眾認識圖瓦傳統音樂的多樣性。

喉音，又名呼麥（khoomei)，最讓聽者驚豔的是能在一個演唱者的聲音中聽見高音與低音兩個聲部。圖瓦的喉音伴隨傳統樂器馬頭琴(igil)、琵琶(doshpuluur)、胡琴(byzaanchy)等，將圖瓦傳統音樂流傳至世界各地。

圖瓦喉音大致區分為以下幾種，包括khoomei（呼麥）、kargyraa(卡基拉)、sygyt（西奇）、chylandyk(蟋蟀鳴聲)、dumchuktaar(鼻音卡基拉)、ezengileer（馬鐙式唱法）、borbangnadyr(流水滾動音)等。此次獲邀來台表演的兩位音樂家楚都拉．圖瑪特Choduraa Tumat與歐特昆．都斯泰Otkun Dostay精於傳統圖瓦曲調、樂器演奏與喉音的各種技巧。楚都拉善於低沉的卡基拉與高音的西奇哨音。歐特昆則習於以內斂有致的呼麥演唱。

除了精湛的喉音，二人也精通各種傳統樂器。歐特昆演奏的樂器包含馬頭琴、雙弦琵琶 、薩滿鼓（dunggur)。楚都拉彈箏（chadagan)、拉奏雙弦胡琴、也吹奏橫笛(shoor)和口簧琴(khomus)。他們的音樂表演類型涵蓋圖瓦草根音樂、現代實驗音樂、長敘事曲、快板小調、傳統搖籃曲、民謠及召喚草原的樂器演奏。

【音樂家介紹】

Choduraa Tumat 楚都拉．圖瑪特

《圖瓦的女兒》女子喉音團體的團長楚都拉，1974年生於圖瓦共和國的Lyme小鎮，自小聽兄長唱呼麥及西奇，耳濡目染下喜歡上喉音。 女性喉音在圖瓦被視為禁忌，身為女性喉音演唱家，楚都拉勇敢地推動女性喉音，成立《圖瓦的女兒》女子喉音團體打破女性不得學習喉音演唱的傳統禁忌 。楚都拉為圖瓦的全才型藝術家，精通喉音中的各種技巧如繞富韻致的呼麥、低沉的卡基拉、高繞的西奇哨音、和如騎馬般充滿節律性的馬鐙唱法 ，曾獲邀至法國、德國、日本、芬蘭、瑞典、西班牙等地演出。楚都拉亦著力傳承喉音，在圖瓦多所大學及兒童音樂學校執教，推廣女性喉音。

Otkun Dostay 歐特昆．都斯泰

1970年生於圖瓦Khandagaity小鎮，為知名喉音演唱與馬頭琴表演者，亦是著名圖瓦民族音樂團體《圖瓦樂團》Tuva Ensemble的一員，於音樂上有卓越的成就，不斷受邀至日本、土耳其及荷蘭等地演出。歐特昆一直以來致力於圖瓦傳統音樂的傳承與創新，舉辦圖瓦喉音國際音樂節《Övur之地—西奇與呼麥》（Sygyt and khoomei in the land of Övur)。他不僅擔任全女子喉音團體《圖瓦的女兒》的經紀人，同時也在電視台製作音樂節目，極力推廣傳統音樂。目前於圖瓦的聯合國教科文組織UNESCO部門擔任主席。

紫藤廬喉音茶會
喉音與茶色的相遇

圖瓦傳統曲調與樂器演奏。曲目含口簧琴、搖籃曲、家鄉的名字、牧民之歌、薩滿鼓之即興、卡基拉與呼麥演唱。聽茶和人聲於喉頭間悠轉。

時間：2015.4.11 （週六）19：30-21：00（19：00 開放觀眾入座）
地點：紫藤廬（台北市大安區新生南路三段16巷1號）
音樂會採登記報名：請電洽紫藤廬(02)2363-7375 留下您的姓名電話完成報名
*本場次名額有限請儘快報名！
現場每人酌收活動費用 500 元，贊助音樂家演出及當日茶點供應。

贊助單位：紫籐廬
網址：http://www.wistariateahouse.com

「呼麥」喉音與圖瓦音樂工作坊
直接向難得的喉音女聲楚都拉．圖瑪特與喉音教學經驗豐富的歐特昆．都斯泰兩位圖瓦喉音大師學習道地的喉音，並從此認識圖瓦音樂與文化！

【上課內容】

圖瓦文化影片放映。介紹圖瓦語言中影響喉音發音口形的低母音及高母音。喉嚨暖身。學習圖瓦傳統民謠。

《學習喉音的三種技巧》
呼麥(khöömei)—可說是喉音的基礎，內斂的技巧唱出涵雅有致的泛音旋律。
西奇(sygyt)—如鳥鳴般具有穿透力的高哨音。
卡基拉(kargyraa)—不可思議的低音創造出豐富的泛音合聲，一個人唱出廣闊的音場！

成果呈現及分享。

【師資】

《圖瓦的女兒》Tyva Kyzy 主唱楚都拉．圖瑪特 (Choduraa Tumat)
《圖瓦樂團》Tuva Ensemble 歐特昆．都斯泰(Otkun Dostay)

時間：2015.4.12（週日）10:00-17:00 （中間一小時休息）
地點：肯園香氣私塾教室（台北市復興南路二段151巷3號4樓）＊近捷運「科技大樓」站
報名請洽：0928-867-512 / wuwentsui@gmail.com　連絡人：吳小姐
工作坊採小班制，名額有限請搶先報名！

課程更多詳情及最新消息公佈請見：www.fusica.nl ; https://fusica.wordpress.com

來自圖瓦的呼喚
政大呼麥音樂會
國立政治大學民族學系與斯拉夫語文學系聯合邀請
於政大藝文活動中心共同諦聽來自西伯利亞的呼喚！

《表演者》
《圖瓦的女兒》Tyva Kyzy 主唱楚都拉．圖瑪特 (Choduraa Tumat)
《圖瓦樂團》Tuva Ensemble 歐特昆．都斯泰(Otkun Dostay)

《節目內容》
圖瓦傳統曲調與口簧琴、馬頭琴、琵琶、胡琴、橫笛等傳統樂器演奏、幾種喉音技巧示範、搖籃曲、對家鄉的召喚、「我不會放棄唱我的呼麥」、卡基拉與呼麥演唱、薩滿鼓與人聲即興。

＊本音樂會活動含圖瓦傳統音樂與文化短片介紹暨演後交流。由政大民族學系藍美華老師主持，現場邀請民族音樂學專家馬克．范．湯格鄰介紹圖瓦音樂傳統，將遙遠的草原音樂傳送到台灣！

時間： 2015.4.13 （週一）19:30-21:30（19:00開放入場）
地點：政大藝文活動中心3F視聽館
活動對外開放報名 現場採自由入座。
（備取或未報名者於現場排候補入座。）
報名網址： http://moltke.cc.nccu.edu.tw/Registration
政大首頁/點擊右上角「訪客」進入「聯合報名系統」/搜尋「來自圖瓦的呼喚」
活動於開演前三週開放報名。
洽詢電話： （02）2939-3091 分機 63394　張小姐

主辦單位：國立政治大學民族學系、斯拉夫語文學系
協辦單位：蒙藏委員會、政大藝文中心

About Voice Yoga

 

 

What is Voice Yoga?

Voice Yoga consists of a series of exercises that gives pride of place to the voice as a central, creative force in our lifes. Our existence depends in important ways on our speaking, listening, sounding and singing abilities. The class promotes awareness of the many roles of the voice in our daily lives. It expands our creative vocabulary, without necessarily talking about music, the singing voice or any musical style. The point is not so much to learn any specific new technique: we play with the voice in a lot of different ways and listen with fresh ears to the hidden potential of our voices.

In Voice Yoga, sound, silence and resonance become a mirror for the self. The sounds produced by ourselves,  allows us to ‘see’ ourselves more clearly, to hear what’s living deep inside us. In ever-growing cycles of creating and perceiving we learn about music and sound, about ourselves and about the environment.

Structure of the classes

We usually start with silence, breath and body movements to turn away from our busy mind into the body and to the sensations we actually experience. We let the voice come out of a natural breath flow. We listen to and follow its natural resonances. We do not try to sing in an artful way, but to experience how body-mind-voice are intimately connected, and how voice and resonance can serve as a bridge to overcome the dualistic notion of body <> mind. From then on, all kinds of styles and genres of vocalising and musicking may happen, some structured, some wild, some giving insight in your voice, some therapeutic. Exercises are based on yoga, musical and theatrical techniques, vipassana meditation and our innate love to play like children.

The idea behind Voice Yoga is comparable to yoga and tai-chi: the effect of the exercises is gradual. We believe that only with repeated classes you can really learn to connect the energies of voice & sound with the whole of your body and mind. You slowly become more and more familiar with your voice and its powers; you will begin to hear and feel things you did not hear and feel before. That’s why we suggest you to sign up for four classes a time after your trial class.

The teacher

Voice Yoga is designed and taught by Mark van Tongeren, who brings with him 25 years of experience in working with sound, music and theatre and many different cultures.

In my Voice Yoga Review of 2014 you can read about some recent experiences:
https://fusica.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/voice-yoga-2014-re-view/

For whom
For those seeking to enrich their voices, let off steam and unlock their hidden creative potential. For singers and those who are afraid to sing. For actors, musicians and other artists and professionals who work with sound. Perhaps more than anyone else, people who want to experience and learn about the therapeutical effects of sound seem to benefit from Voice Yoga. The human voice is a tool that assists human beings to produce a mirror-like reflection of the world around them in their minds. By gaining a deeper understanding and experience of the mechanisms of making sounds, words and music, and of listening, we gradually deepen the connections within ourselves (our body-minds) and with others and the world around us.

Dates and time
please look here for current dates and times (voice yoga dates 2015).

Prices
Every class lasts two hours. The price is 400 NT$ for a single class, and 1500 NT$ for four classes (375 NT$ per class). You do not have to attend four classes in a row; we’ll just tick off your presence four times and then you can sign up again for four times. Students and others with limited financial resources can get a reduced price: just send a message.

How to register
Feel free to join the Voice Yoga class any time. It is best to send a message every time you want to come, then we prepare a place for you. Write to mark at fusica dot nl or send a text-message to 09 10 38 27 49.

Place
Canjune Training Centre, 4th Floor, number 3 , Lane 151, Fuxing South Road, Section 2, (this is about 20 meters from the corner of FuXing South Road, go up the stairs to the hairdresser and take the elevator to 4F; if you’re early the streetdoor may be closed). Nearest MRT: Technology Building (10 min. walk). Telephone training centre: 02 – 27 00 72 91.

Voice Yoga dates 2015

Here follow the dates of the Voice Yoga classes for the New Year. Changes may still occur: new dates or times will be replaced on this same page. If you plan to come, send an email to Mark van Tongeren (info at fusica dot nl) or a text message (09 10 38 27 49) half a day earlier (Thursday morning/Monday afternoon). You can always check this page if you are uncertain if there will be a class.

DATES FOR 2015

Afternoon class: Thursdays 2-4 PM

January 29

February 5, 12, 26

March  5, 12, 19, 26

April 2, 23   no classes on 9th and 16th due to Tuvans’ concerts and workshop.

May 7, 14, 21, 28

Summer break till August. Later dates t.b.a.

Evening class: Monday 7:30-9:30 PM

March 9, 16, 23, 30

April 6, 20, 27 no class on 30th due to workshop in Hong Kong

May 11, 18, 25 no class on 4th due to workshop in Hong Kong

June 1, 8

Summer break till August. Later dates t.b.a.

PLACE

Canjune Training Centre, 4th Floor, number 3 , Lane 151, Fuxing South Road, Section 2, (this is about 20 meters from the corner of FuXing South Road, go up the stairs to the hairdresser and take the elevator to 4F; if you’re early the streetdoor may be closed).

Nearest MRT: Technology Building (10 min. walk).

Telephone training centre: 02 – 27 00 72 91.

RESERVATION

Please notify Mark of your intention to join the class, by sending a text-message (SMS) with your name to 09 – 10  38 27 49 or an email to info at fusica dot nl.

For those unfamiliar with Voice Yoga, you can read more about it in this Fusica blog post.

Breath-performance @ Red Room Aside

 

Tonight I am going to do a short ‘breath performance’ at a special edition of Red Room, the monthly event in the Aveda kitchen hosted by Chu Ping and Roma and Manav Mehta. The breath is a central focus of my performances, sometimes in the foreground, always in the background. And I thought the news of the passing away, on August 20 2014, of Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja (or simply ‘B.K.S.’) Iyengar would be a fitting occasion to start and end the performance using special breathing techniques.

 

Iyengar was instrumental in bringing yoga to the west in the 1950s and began to adapt it to the different lifestyles of American practitioners. Though he received criticism for changing the one-to-one transmission to a group practice and using physical tools such as woodblocks and straps, there can be no doubt that his methods have been a great success and have benefited hundreds of thousands of people in the West. And one can certainly not say that he himself was not fully part of the tradition, as an early video of him with is his own guru Tirumalai Krishnamacharya demonstrated. This is the full version of the 1938 film, but you can find several shorter sequences on Youtube.

It was Tirumalai Krishnamacharya who traveled India to promote hatha yoga and its associated practices and philosophies and thus began the revival which then crossed over to other parts of the world.

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya shortly before his death in 1988, aged 100

One may certainly include me in the league of teachers who misinterpret yoga or use its name for purposes other than its original intentions. But I do not agree with those criticasters who deplore what Iyengar has done. I think yoga is a fantastic practice and profound philosophy that can benefit people in many different ways. Indians should be proud to see so many people around the world doing some form of yoga or yoga-derived practices today.

I am very often in favor of traditional practices above modern forms myself, for example when it comes to indigenous music. But the modernisation and adaption process is irreversible and in the case of yoga, even those not-so-dedicated practitioners like myself learn things and solve problems that you can not learn otherwise (I struggled with lower-backache for many years; physiotherapies did not solve it but hatha yoga did).

So to thank and honour Mr. Iyengar I will begin tonight’s performance with a very extended, silent inhale and finish with a very extended, resounding exhale.

If you are curious, read more about Iyengar in the Washington Post and on The Atlantic.

Voice Yoga dates 2014

VOICE YOGA

In this class we use the voice in its immense richness, not only as a musical instrument, but as our primary tool to communicate and exist through/with/for/from sound. In Voice Yoga, sound, silence and resonance become a mirror for the self. The sounds produced by ourselves,  allows us to ‘see’ ourselves more clearly, to hear what’s living deep inside us. In ever-growing cycles of creating and perceiving we learn about music and sound, about ourselves and about the environment. A ‘quintessence of science, sound and self’ as I  called it in my book Overtone Singing.

DATES AND TIME FOR 2014.

EVERY THURSDAY, 10-12 AM

JANUARY 9, 16, 23, 28

FEBRUARY     13, 20, 27

MARCH         6, 13, 27

APRIL         3, 10, 17, 24

MAY         1, 8, 15, 22, 29

JUNE     5, 12, 19

AUGUST     21, 28

SEPTEMBER      4, 11, 18, 25

OCTOBER     2, 9, 16, 23, 30

NOVEMBER     6, 13, 27  [no class on November 20]

DECEMBER     4, 11, 18, 25

PLACE

Canjune Training Centre, 4th Floor, number 3 , Lane 151, Fuxing South Road, Section 2, (this is about 20 meters from the corner of FuXing South Road, go up the stairs to the hairdresser and take the elevator to 4F; if you’re early the streetdoor may be closed). Nearest MRT: Technology Building (10 min. walk). Telephone training centre: 02 – 27 00 72 91.

RESERVATION

Please notify us of your intention to join the class, by sending a text-message (SMS) with your name to 09-10  38 27 49.

For those unfamiliar with Voice Yoga, the information about Voice of Dao posted earlier still stands.

Coming-up in Taipei: Shadow-Sound-Performance

Last Friday evening was the opening of a solo exhibition of visual artist Serge Onnen at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Studio Underground, Taipei.

 

Cloacinae opening at MOCA Taipei

CLOACINAE – Goddess of the Sewers offers a selection of works by Onnen from the last ten years, including animation videos, phenakistiscopes, wallpaper, and a large shadow/sound installation made for the MOCA exhibition.

On March 15 we will do a shadow/sound performance at Taipei Artist Village. For this we will use a video compiled by Serge from inspection videos of sewers around the world. Nowadays everywhere cameras are led through sewer systems and other inaccessible places to look for obstacles or solve problems. Some of these videos have a certain kind of beauty of their own, and Serge made a good selection of those. Add to that live shadow play by Onnen and Erika Sprey, and sounds by Chao-Ming Tung and myself… and you have an unexpected visual-auditory-hallucinatory tour in the underground, there where the metro does not go. (get a preview on Serge’s blog)

We do the show two times, starting at 19:30 and 21:30 (not 22:30 as stated before), duration is one hour.

Free entrance!

Please take note! The exhibition is taking place in the underground (Zhongshan Metro Mall, Near R9 exit), the performance is not. It is in Taipei Artist Village, No. 7, Beiping East Road, 10 minutes walk from Taipei Main Station.

Weekly Voice Yoga classes 2014

VOICE YOGA

will be the name for what was called Voice of Dao for a little more than one year. Somehow ‘Voice of Dao’ never fully resonated. And yoga is part of our practice, more than any kind of daoist practice.

For those unfamiliar with Voice Yoga, the information about Voice of Dao posted earlier still stands. We continue to use the voice in its immense richness, not only as a musical instrument, but as our primary tool to communicate and exist through/with/for/from sound . In Voice Yoga, sound, silence and resonance become a mirror for the self. The sounds produced by ourselves,  allows us to ‘see’ ourselves more clearly, to hear what’s living deep inside us. In ever-growing cycles of creating and perceiving we learn about music and sound, about ourselves and about the environment. A ‘quintessence of science, sound and self’ as I  called it in my book Overtone Singing.

Here are the new dates for 2014.

EVERY THURSDAY, 10-12 AM

JANUARY 9, 16, 23, 28 (note: 28 is a tuesday)

FEBRUARY     (6 = holiday), 13, 20, 27

MARCH         6, 13, 27
On the 20th the class will be in the afternoon, from 14-16 ‘o clock.

APRIL         3, 10, 17, 24.

The last class of April (on the 24th) and the first class of May (1st) will be changed to another date.

MAY         1, 8, 15, 22, 29

JUNE     5, 12, 19

AUGUST     21, 28

SEPTEMBER      4, 11, 18, 25

OCTOBER     2, 9, 16, 23, 30

NOVEMBER     6, 13, 20, 27

DECEMBER     4, 11, 18, 25

Place: Canjune Training Centre, 4th Floor, number 3 , Lane 151, Fuxing South Road, Section 2, (this is about 20 meters from the corner of FuXing South Road, go up the stairs to the hairdresser and take the elevator to 4F; if you’re early the streetdoor may be closed). Nearest MRT: Technology Building (10 min. walk). Telephone training centre: 02 – 27 00 72 91.

For FEBRUARY please take note! the training centre is not available this month. Weather permitting, we do our class in Da’an park. Meeting point is the park, opposite the Taipei Public Library, halfway Heping and XinYi.

4 concerts this week (NL/PL)

dear listeners,

I’d like to announce a couple of concerts in The Netherlands and in Poland in the coming week:

Monday 18 november, AMSTERDAM, Het Poortgebouw, 1st Floor, Tolhuisweg 2: Oorsprong Curator Series, start at 20 o’ clock. Free-improvisation with flutist Mark Alban Lotz and guitarist Bram Stadhouders and vocalist Mark van Tongeren, and several other exciting music/dance impro-combinations in two other sets that same night.
Link: http://oorsprong.wordpress.com/

Thursday 21 November, AMSTERDAM, Mediamatic/Fabriek – Echokamer, 20:30, Superstringtrio (Rollin Rachele, Mark van Tongeren) and Daphne van Tongeren (light/performance).
Echokamer is a series of events during which composers, musicians and other sound-makers experiment with sound at, and with the sound of, Mediamatic Fabriek. The giant industrial hall reverberates and erodes, and produces quite a bit of sound all by itself. The perfect place for noisy experiments. Read more details about Superstringtrio’s sonic excursion next Thursday on this link: http://www.mediamatic.net/357851/en/echokamer-12-superstringtrio

Sunday 24 November, KRAKOW (Poland), Audio Art Festival/Bunkier Sztuki, 19 o’clock, Superstringtrio. We have been invited by Marek Choloniewski, founder of Audio Art Festival, one of the most long-standing festivals dedicated to Sound Art in all its beautiful, radical and weird manifestations, to join the ranks of many artists who have performed there in past decades. Superstringtrio will present an updated version of its performance Incognito Ergo Sum, premiered in Amsterdam earlier this year at the occasion of the PhD-defense of Mark van Tongeren’s Thresholds of the Audible- thesis at Leiden University. See a short clips of it on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/64866998. For the full program of the festival, which has already started yesterday and continues next week, check this link: http://www.audio.art.pl/
(with our thanks to Horst Rickels, who gives a workshop and concert in Krakow tomorrow with his Lesley-speakersystem, together with Robert Pravda).

In a couple of hours I am leaving Taiwan. If all goes well I might join Oorbeek tomorrow, Saturday 16 November at the opening of The New Institute in ROTTERDAM. Set 1 at 17 o’ clock, set 2 at 17:45. 6th floor, Museumpark 25, 3015 CB Rotterdam,
Link: http://www.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/nieuwnew

Hope to see you somewhere!

Best wishes,

mark van tongeren

How to survive hospitalisation?

I posted this on Facebook but thought it was worthwhile for the blog too.

I / fate decided to have an alternative birthday celebration event: a visit to the hospital! An enduring problem with a certain outgrowth of my body (I’ll spare you the details) needed treatment. So my first hospitalisation happened to take place on my 45th birthday. An extraordinary gift, of course! I took it has a holiday (about two days off duty), but it wasn’t a vacation without pain of course. Fortunately I was well taken care off by the nurses, doctor and my dear wife.

As always, I paid attention to the sounds. First in the operation room. A deadly silence it wasn’t. I heard many Chinese voices, making jokes, talking busily, one conversation in that corner of my ear (and eye) and another behind me, invisible, or even three simultaneous, animated conversations that I could hardly understand or not at all. Perhaps it’s better that way… My limited sight did not prevent me to eye a short piece of translucent tube which stuck out above the sheets and towels covering me (in the operation room it was freezing about 5 degrees I estimate). After a while parts of my body and blood were started to be washed away through the tube 10 centimeters away from my eyes, giving me some kind of indication of the goings on.

Back in my room, many hours were spent lying flat. I could not move my head unless I wanted to have a really bad headache, that special one you get from a spinal injection  – no thanks. So what do you do? You listen. In my case, most of all to myself. Particularly during the dark hours when the anaesthesia stopped working, humming to myself at different pitches helped me to give a more positive focus on painful and other parts of the body. I have been doing this for twenty-five years, in good and bad times, and it remains a very interesting, comforting and highly effective experience to massage yourself inside out. Using different vowels and harmonics you can also give yourself a pleasant brain/skull massage.

Even better were the rhythmic jazzy bass lines I am practising with my voice: moderate to high speed, low pitched, melodic staccato pulses with mouth closed; jumping from place to place through the body’s organs and awakening motoric senses that are not stimulated otherwise. Each tone of these basslines reverberates at a specific spot along the skeleton (through a process called bone conduction) so that I am really ‘punching’ my body from left to right and high to low. At the same time, this is a great exercise for an upcoming gig at the Oorsprong Curator Series in Amsterdam that I am very excited about (I’ll play with Mark Alban Lotz and Bram Stadhouders, Monday 18 November, details t.b.a.).

We did not forget about distraction number one: the TV. I rarely watch TV, and now I did not watch at all. I just overheard the films while June was watching. What you may notice already when you pay attention carefully to the sound while watching a movie, becomes all the more striking when you don’t see a thing. The abrupt reduction of the volume of the soundtrack when voices come in, and its reappearance when the voices stop – even for a short moment. The result is like a drunk DJ playing a senseless game with his faders to annoy his audience. I pity the composer who creates some of his best melodies and finds it cut up into more or less random blurps erupting out from speech – but no, most composers who earn a living with film scoring keep their most inspiring ideas for other occasions, thus accepting a much smaller audience for the stuff they put their soul into. And a good movie director will let the composer have his way to score the film after the final edits.

I almost forget to mention the majestic tree, hidden from outside view on three sides by the 5-story hospital. The walls form a narrow, echoing bulwark where hundreds, no, I think more than a thousand birds retreat for the night. At 16 o’ clock they come and sit on the edges of the roof, at 17 the gigantic tree is shaking when the birds start taking their seats with happy twittering, and by dusk the swarm produces a screeching, ehmmm, noise.

Lastly, I took to my headphones to listen to a fascinating Coursera course (History of Humankind by professor Harari from Hebrew University in Jeruzalem, highly recommended and you can still join!). For falling asleep, having to endure increasing pain and uneasiness, I listened to incredible stories that Michael Vetter told me some years ago. And that’s where the hospital-sound journey of my birthday ended: I fell asleep!

Thanks for listening!

Voice of Dao (up)dates

For those seeking to enrich their voices, let off steam and unlock their hidden creative potential, I organise a bi-weekly (as of 2014: weekly) voice session called Voice of Dao at the training centre of Canjune in Daan district, Taipei. We usually start with silence, breath and body movements to turn away from our busy mind into the body and to the sensations we actually experience. We let the voice come out of a natural breath flow. We listen to and follow its natural resonances. We do not try to sing in an artful way, but to experience how body-mind-voice are intimately connected, and how voice and resonance can serve as a bridge to overcome the dualistic notion of body <> mind. From then on, all kinds of styles and genres of vocalising and musicking may happen, some structured, some wild, some giving insight in your voice, some therapeutic. Exercises are based on yoga, musical and theatrical techniques, and vipassana meditation.

The human voice is a tool that assists human beings to produce a mirror-like reflection of the world around them in their minds. By gaining a deeper understanding and experience of the mechanisms of making sounds, words and music, and of listening, we gradually deepen the connections within ourselves (our body-minds) and with others and the world around us.

When and where:

The normal schedule for Voice of Dao is every two weeks on Thursday, but 10/10  will be changed to 10/9 and 12/26 to 12/24 (2013).

So these are all the dates for the Voice of Dao classes in Taipei up to Januari 2014:
October: Wednesday 9, Tuesday 22. (NOTE: CHANGED FROM THURSDAY 24: that day there will be no class).

November: Thursdays 7, 14.

(November 28 there will be NO class, despite earlier announcement).

December: Thursday 12 and Tuesday 24.

The Training Centre of Canjune is at 4F, number 3 , Lane 151, Fuxing South Road, Section 2, just 20 meters from the corner of FuXing South Road. The nearest MRT station is Technology Building. We start at 10. If you cannot find it, call the training centre: 02 – 27 00 72 91.

Get more details here.