Accompanied by Johanni Curtet
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CD available at the concert and in trade
Tserendavaa & Tsogtgerel, overtone singing from the Mongolian Altai
1 CD 16 audio tracks + bonus DVD 9 titles in concert at Les Orientales festival in 2006
ed. 2008 Buda Musique, coll. Music from the World, Paris
Production and Tour : Routes Nomades
Incredibly rich in vocal techniques, Mongolian traditional music is orally transmitted from generation to generation by nomadic peoples. This is what Tserendavaa did with his son Tsogtgerel to hand down the art of khöömii, perpetuated in Chandmani district, at the foot of Mount Jargalant Altai in Western Mongolia. Tserendavaa is one of the major current masters of this vocal technique. Accompanying their khöömii, Tserendavaa and Tsogtgerel performs long song urtyn duu, praise song magtaal, whistling isgeree, as well as horse head fiddle morin khuur, fiddle ekel and lute tovshuur and invites us on a journey through the musicality of their region. Johanni Curtet, student of Tserendavaa, accompanies them on overtone singing during the concert.
References :
Les Orientales Festival, Les Escales Festival, Le Rêve de l’Aborigène Festival, Week of Mongolia in Flanders Festival, Museum of Asian Arts of Nice, Palace of Congress and Culture of Le Mans, City of Arts of Chambéry, L’Espal…
Genesis of the project
In 2004, Johanni visited Mongolia for the first time to learn khöömii and begin its ethnomusicological research. His meeting with Tserendavaa, who soon becomes his teacher, was decisive. During the discussion, Tserendavaa expressed his wish that his son Tsogtgerel, back then a teenager, pursuit the stage career. Johanni then decided to create Roads Nomads Association to offer them a space to develop this desire. And this is how in 2006, Tsogtgerel made his first trip out of Mongolia with his father for a summer tour in France. Since that time, Johanni keeps inviting them, and Tsogtgerel realized his father’s dream, becoming a young khöömii virtuoso and soloist overtone singe.
Biographies
Born in 1954, year of the sheep in Chandmani district, Khovd province and still lives in his homeland, Tserendavaa is one of the rare overtone singers combining a nomadic pastoral lifestyle with the professional practice of khöömii. His apprenticeship of overtone singing began at the age of six, in the pastoral context by imitating the people around him. A number of people influenced him includes, Tsedee, Makhan Chuluun, Ulmiibat, Margad and Sundui. When he was 24, he started his professional career as overtone singer. Since the 1980s, he has performed all around the world (USA, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Russia and Japan). Among other overtone singers as Sengedorj and Odsüren, Tserendavaa is one of the main actors who accelerated the development of khöömii and its public dissemination during the Soviet period. A big contribution he made for the progress of khöömii art is the invention of combined khöömii style, in which the singer performs long song urtyn duu with overtone singing by pronouncing some of the lyrics.
He practices seven techniques of khöömii: uruulyn khöömii (labial khöömii), tagnain khöömii (palatal khöömii), bagalzuuryn khöömii (throat khöömii), khamryn khöömii (nasal khöömii), tseejnii khöndiin khöömii (chest khöömii), khargia khöömii (deep khöömii), and khosmoljin khöömii (combined khöömii). He also plays lute tovshuur, horse-head fiddle morin khuur and fiddle ekel. Like the other herders in Mongolia, he sings the traditional long song, widely performed in festive events. He transmitted khöömii tradition to two of his sons: Tsogtgerel and Khash-Erdene; both of them pursuit professional career by overtone singing. He also teaches khöömii to the children and nomads of his community, as well as many foreign visitors.
Discography
- Musique et chants de tradition populaire Mongolie (various artists) (Grem G7511, Saint Mandé : Grem, coll. Discovering the World Through Sounds, 1986)
- Mongolia. Living music of the steppes, instrumental music and song from Mongolia (MCM 3001, Multicultural Media, JVC, 1997)
- Jargalant Altai. Xoomii and other vocal and instrumental music from Mongolia (Pan 2050CD, Leiden : Pan Records, Ethnic Series, 1996)
- Chandman’Song « traditionnal Mongolian melodies sung in Khoomii (overtone singing) » (TS001, Londres : Amina Records, 2000)
- Music and song of Mongolia. Live at Cambridge, England (various artists) (cassette Global Arts GA1, 5 august 1988)
- Music from Mongolia, Live at the Asia Society, New York, USA (various artists) (cassette, 7 octobre 1987)
- Mongol Music (various artists), cassette of the Mongolian national public radio
- Tserendavaa et Tsogtgerel : Chant diphonique de l’Altaï mongol (RN01, Coulaines : Routes Nomades,limited edition of 400 copies, 2006)
- Tserendavaa & Tsogtgerel, chants diphoniques de l’Altaï mongol (3017742, Paris : Buda Musique, coll. Musiques du monde, 2008)
- Dörvön Berkh, Four Shagai Bones, Masters of Mongolian Overtone Singing (PAN 2100, Leiden : Pan Records, Ethnic Series, 2010)
Born in 1990, year of the horse in Chandmani district in Khovd province, Tsogtgerel lives in Ulaanbaatar. He started learning khöömii when he was 13 years old, from his father Tserendavaa in the pastoral life. Moving from 5 to 6 times a year between the Mount Jargalant Khairkhan and Khar-Us lake and keeping the family herd, Tsogtgerel listened and imitated his father and gradually mastered his overtone techniques. At the age of 16, Tsogtgerel was sent by his father to the University of Culture and Arts in Ulaanbaatar to learn khöömii with another master, Odsuren Baatar. Tserendavaa wanted his son to go beyond enriching what he learnt from him, but above all, to get a professional degree of overtone singer to ensure himself a good career.
Tsogtgerel also plays horse head fiddle morin khuur, flute tsuur, lute tovshuur and mouth harp tumur khuur. He first learnt the fiddle with his father, and then with Duvchin, one of the last teachers kept the Western style of play of this instrument in Mongolia. Tsogtgerel currently works as an overtone singer at Mongolian National Song and Dance Academic Ensemble in Ulaanbaatar. Despite his intense soloist activity, he is regularly invited in Inner Mongolia (China) to teach khöömii.
Discography
- Tserendavaa et Tsogtgerel : Chant diphonique de l’Altaï mongol (RN01, Coulaines: Routes Nomades, exhausted, limited to 400 copies, 2006)
- Tserendavaa & Tsogtgerel, chants diphoniques de l’Altaï mongol (3017742, Paris: Buda Musique, coll. Musiques du monde, 2008)
- Ts. Tsogtgerel, Mongolian Throat Singing (Ulaanbaatar: Self-production, 2010)
Born in 1981, year of cock in Décines-Charpieu, and resides in Rennes, Johanni Curtet is a musician, overtone singer and ethnomusicologist. He learnt classical guitar with Jean-Loup Gautret (La Flèche Music School) and Hervé Merlin (Conservatoire of Rennes) while training himself in the chamber music with the guitar quartet Merienda. Following this, he turned into the musical practices of orality, influencing his play from Asia and Africa.
For 10 years, Johanni immersed himself in studying musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Rennes 2, and specialized in the khöömii (Mongolian overtone singing). Since 2004, he has won several scholarships such as Aegis, International Foundation Nadia & Lili Boulanger, Cultural Aires International Doctoral College in Brittany, American Center for Mongolian Studies and Assistance for Fieldwork of the French Society for Ethnomusicology that allowed him to conduct his research in Mongolia and learn the Mongolian language and culture.
First initiated by Tran Quang Hai, he learnt khöömii from Tserendavaa Dashdorj in the mountainous steppes of the Altai and then Odsuren Baatar at the University of Culture and Arts in Ulaanbaatar.
Artistic director of Routes Nomads Association, Johanni organizes and produces the concert tours of Mongolian overtone singing, and accompanies his master Tserendavaa and his son Tsogtgerel on stage at many festivals.
The African influence in his music comes from his long stay in Cameroon. By participating as a trainer and organizer of the first two editions of Voice of Sahel Festival in Garoua, Cameroon and N’Djamena, Chad (Trans-Saharan Azalaï program initiated by CulturesFrance), Johanni shared music stage with Camel Zekri, Yacouba Moumouni, Alpha Barry, Mounira Mitchala, and also many local musicians from Cameroon (South Team, Douala, bards of North Cameroon) and Chad.
This crossroad of culture he experienced is synthesized in the compositions of Meïkhâneh, a trio in which he plays and continues training himself. Johanni’s play has a major influence of Thierry Robin, with whom he attended two master classes organized by DROM in 2013 and 2014.
Johanni teaches khöömii at the cultural and educational institutions as University of Rennes 2, Théâtre de la Ville, Kreiz Breizh Akademi (DROM), The Philharmonie de Paris and Centre for the Heritage of Instrument-Making; for festivals as Les Orientales or Les Suds à Arles; and for various associations and groups of amateur overtone singers (Tortue Écarlate) or runs individual courses in Rennes.
In the study of khöömii, Johanni focuses on the origin, history, spectacularization, heritagization and transmission of this vocal technique in Mongolia. His researches are accessible through his PhD dissertation entitled The transmission of höömij, an art of vocal timber: the ethnomusicology and history of Mongolian overtone singing (2013, University of Rennes 2), and several academic articles he wrote.
In 2009, at the request of the Mongolian National Commission for UNESCO, he participated in the elaboration of the khöömii nomination for its inscription on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In 2014, he taught Mongolian language grammar, Mongolian culture and civilization at INALCO, the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris.