VOICES OF THE WORLD: A Glimpse of Vocal Techniques in Traditional Music
Tran Quang Hai (Ethnomusicologist, CNRS, France)
The vocal expressions in traditional music are very rich and diversified. The classification of musical instruments (idiophone, chordophone, aerophone, membranophone) exists, but not a general typology of human singing. Criteria such as continents, countries, ethnic groups and functions have not been selected because of the similarities found in several traditions.
Awareness of these difficulties has led to a classification based on articulatory and acoustic functions. 
1.	Calls, cries, and clamours 
Under this heading are figured the « projected » voice, the cry expressing pain or joy, the ululations of the arabo-berber world, the « ole » of flamenco, the coranic call from the top of the minaret, funeral lamentations, the call to labour, the Pygmy hunting calls, the stylized cries of monkeys in the Balinese Kecak, etc…
SOUND : ALBANIA . Funeral Song by a group of men . Collective clamouring, organizing according to a strict strophic plan: regular alternance of the chant, properly speaking (homophonic) with its clamourous echoing” by the voices of the choir.Syllabic “text” without actual words.
SOUND :  BALI . Kecak chorus. Appearing in its present form at the beginning of the 1930s, this genre drew from older models, such as the trance dances as practiced in temples.
A chorus of men, some 40 performers, seated in concentric circles facing towards the centre, where a scene from the RAMAYANA is played, with the texts declaimed by actors. The chorus itself performs a polyphony of diverse cries and onomatopoeias, wherein the syllables (ke) and (cak) are stylized monkey calls . The result is a varied rhythmic counterpoint, mainly using techniques of hocket, ostinato and off beat. Synchronisation between the different parts is rigorously directed by one of the members in the chorus. There is no place for improvisation. All the parts, whose number vary during a performance, have been learnt by heart.
2.	Voice and Breath. 
The sound of the breath can express an aesthetic research (whispered voice of Burundi, voice of pearl divers of Bahrein or the Inuit throat games). 
SOUND. BURUNDI
Whispered song accompanied by a trough zither INANGA.
The whispered song “Song of praise to a benefactor” is for personal pleasure, or for a few people such as at the former royal courts. The subject matter is often historical, telling of pastoral themes in an epic, moralizing or humorous manner.
SOUND. CANADA 
Three throat game pieces KATAJJAQ . The Katajjaq is a singular vocal technique characterized by the alternation of audible inhalation and exhalation, by a nasal and guttural vocal emission, and of burst of sounds without fixed pitch. It is built upon repetitive motifs.
The 2 singers get face to face, almost mouth to mouth. The idea is to fatigue the adversary, and rhythmically destabilize her. A piece ends when one of the women runs out of breath and laughs.
3.	Spoken, delaimed , sung 
The spoken and the sung voice use all the sonorous elements (public speeches, prayers, incantations) based on a very small range (Tibetan Buddhist prayers, rhythmic sermons of the American Baptist church). 
SOUND. USA
A sermon by the Reverend Audry F. Bronson, pastor of the Church of the Open Door with accompaniment at the Hammond organ
Extract from a long sermon, sung / spoken/ cried out by a lady preacher. The congregation goes along with approving interjections. The organ punctuates the biblical stories of the preacher .
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4.	Range and Register 
In this category, one distinguishes the « chest voice », the « head voice », the « falsetto », the « strobass », and the « whistle ». The deep voice is characterized by the voices of Tibetan monks; the high pitched voice by the Chinese actors of the Peking Opera. Alternating two types of registers « chest/head » exists among the Pygmies in Africa and the Swiss and Austrians through the « yodel » technique. 
SOUND. TIBET
Buddhist psalmody by a dozen monks of the Tantric College of Gyütö. Ensemble of male voices, alternating syllabic recitation and the use of a specific vocal technique called “the roaring voice of the God of Death” or more commonly “the voice of mdzo – mdzo is a hybrid animal , the cross of a buffalo with a cow. The very low voices aid the emergence of harmonic 10 (3 octaves plus a third above the fundamental), an effect which is systematically sought by the monks
SOUND. CHINA
Peking Opera. Opera title: “Springtime in the Hall of Jade (Yutangchun)
The principal feminine role is traditionally performed by a man singing in falsetto
SOUND. SOLOMON ISLANDS
The 2 solo voices delivered with much energy and without vibrato, are characterized by periodical breaks into head voice, in the manner of yodeling. They make a counterpoint to a drone performed by the chorus. This kind of song is heard during mortuary commemorations, or in the evenings in the village.
5.	Colours and Timbres 
The timbre is an interesting aspect. One can talk about « deep », « high », « throat », « nasal », « chest », or « thorax » voices. 
SOUND. REPUBLIC OF CENTRAFRICA
Initiation Song by 2 girls. It is sung in a very high tessitura during which excision takes place.
SOUND. YAKUTIA
Song of glory TAYUK (literally Glory).
Semi improvised, melodic-poetic. The singer of the tayuk learns as from infancy, through a near relative, to use diverse vocal emissions such as the glottal stop and the laryngeal tremulation (kolerach) and rapid vibrato. The tayuk may celebrate a victory or concern itself with praising .
6.	Disguised Voice 
There are many techniques used to disguise the voice. The voice is transformed by falsetto voice (China), by a mask (Africa), by a mirliton (kazoo in Europe, or in Honduras)
SOUND. HONDURAS
Song with mirliton. Alternance of sung words with cries, of a relatively weak intensity. The voice is masked by means of a mirliton called klisang. This is a small tube closed at its lower end while the other end is fixed of a vibrating membrane – generally made of skin from a bat’s wing, of intestine of of paper – near which a hole is pierced where the singer places his lips .

7.	Ornamentation 
Ornamentation is a musical element whose role is to decorate a melodic line. It is represented in the form of vibrato (forced and concentrated in the high register among the Sioux in the United States, accompanied by trills among the Mongolians). Wide melismas are heard in Arabic music. 
SOUND. LEBANON
Strophic song , typically highland or Bedouin, this son gis accompanied by urban instruments : lute ud, zither qanun, and fiddle kamanja and drum ruqq. The voice, particularly stretched and high, is characteristic of older middle eastern Arab singing, but maintained for religious cantillation.
8.	The use of harmonics 
The technique of harmonic selection can be found in the musical bow or the overtone singing style from Mongolia and the Tuva Republic (production of two simultaneous sounds). 
SOUND. MONGOLIA
This song uses the Xoomij style .
SOUND. TUVA
Overtone song in the style Dag Kargyraa (kargyraa of the mountain). The fundamental (60 Hz) is used as a drone, while the melodic overtones are obtained by pronouncing different vowels (u, o , e, a )
9.	Polyphonies In traditional music, one discovers all types of vocal polyphony (heterophony, the drone in Albania, overlapping and echo in Papua New Guinea, parallel movements in Madagascar). Chordal polyphony is characteristic in Sardinia and Corsica. Complex polyphony can be found in the drone, ostinato, dissonant and consonant chords in Albania and hiccupping among the Pygmies. 
This panorama of vocal techniques in the world of traditional music shows the inexhaustible wealth of the human voice.