A musical ensemble from Tuva, in southern Siberia, which emerged in the 1990s as the pre-eminent international representative of Tuva's musical culture. The name (Tuvan xün xürtü) means literally ‘sun propeller’ and refers to the vertical separation of light rays that in Tuva often occurs just after sunrise or just before sunset. For the members of Huun-Huur-Tu the refraction of light that produces these rays seems analogous to the ‘refraction’ of sound that produces articulated harmonics in Tuvan overtone singing.
Original members of Huun-Huur-Tu (founded in 1992) included Kaigal-ool Khovalyg (b 1960), Albert Kuvezin (b 1965), Sayan Bapa (b 1962) and Aleksandr Bapa (b 1958). Later, Kuvezin and Aleksandr Bapa formed their own ensembles and were replaced by Anatoli Kuular (b 1967) and Alexei Saryglar (b 1966). Huun-Huur-Tu's song arrangements and performance style were shaped by its members' experience in ensembles organized under the aegis of the Soviet Ministry of Culture to perform Tuvan ‘national’ music in pop-inspired forms. Huun-Huur-Tu, however, differs in important ways from its Soviet predecessors. Eschewing the standard Soviet template for ‘national’ music ensembles of electric guitars, bass and drum kit combined with amplified traditional instruments and pop-style vocals, Huun-Huur-Tu emerged as a folk music group much like revivalist folk groups in the West. While all of the members of Huun-Huur-Tu have direct experience of Tuva's pastoral way of life, they learnt most of their repertory from recordings, song collections and fieldwork expeditions rather than through oral transmission from family or neighbours. Huun-Huur-Tu's hallmark musical style is characterized by a seamless mixture of overtone-singing (xöömei), lyrical ‘long songs’ (uzun yry) and instrumental accompaniment on the igil, byzaanchi and doshpuluur, arranged for stage performance.
60 Horses in my Herd: Old Songs and Tunes of Tuva, Shanachie 64050 (1993)
Fly, Fly my Sadness, perf. The Bulgarian Voices ‘Angelite’, Huun-Huur-Tu, S. Starostin and M. Alperin, Jaro 4197–2 (1996)
If I'd been Born an Eagle, Shanachie 64080 (1997)
The Orphan's Lament, Jaro 4204–2 (1997)
Where Young Grass Grows, Shanachie 66018 (1999)
THEODORE LEVIN