Page 11 - Final_Media Coverage Book, nonclassical Songbooks Vol. 1

On this CD he focuses on two sorts of “throat singing”, which is as far away from
Western notions of “beautiful singing” as you can imagine. It’s found in far-flung
parts of the Northern hemisphere, including the Tuva Republic near Mongolia, which
is the particular tradition Mason focuses on. The sound throat-singers make has a
skin-prickling strangeness because it’s rooted in something you’d think would be
impossible: singing two notes at once. The performers sing a note, hold it, and then
alter the shape of the throat and soft palette to “play” a melody in the harmonics or
“overtones” lurking within the main note.

The other tradition that seized Mason’s imagination is the so-called cantu a tenòre,
an equally riveting vocal tradition from Sardinia, made by a quartet of male voices.
Strictly speaking it’s not throat singing, but the four tenor voices create a close
harmony of such pungent intensity that phantom “overtones” are created. One feels a
similar sense of spirits being conjured through not-quite-believable sounds.

Mason has taken four songs from each tradition and translated them into the world
of the string quartet, with string instruments making the notes of the songs.

Some might accuse the composer of cultural appropriation. After all, there’s a clear
imbalance of economic cultural clout in this transaction. Mason is from a rich
Western country, the heart of the art establishment. Tuvan throat singers belong to a
nomadic people, many of whom still live in round tents made from animal skins, and
the Sardinian singers come from a folk tradition whose humble rural quality is
reflected in the music itself.

So is Mason’s work reprehensible? Trying to come to a balanced reasonable view of
cultural appropriation is hard because it’s become such an emotionally fraught topic,
especially since the upsurge of Black Lives Matter.