February 13, 2008 - 1:00am
By Elliot Singer
Last Friday, the first day of the new month, three incredible Tuvan throat singers performed at Barnes Hall. Following a demonstration and informal concert the night before, the three young men of Alash performed a single breath-taking set, and at the end of just over an hour, left the astounded crowd staggering out the door.
The reason why the concert was so astounding is because the performers seemed to demonstrate superhuman powers using their vocal chords. Think of throat singing a little bit like a bagpipe: While the bagpipe player holds one low note on drone the entire song he can also float a melodic line over that drone.
