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Pomona
Senior Receives Fellowship to Study Throat-Singing in
Seven Countries
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Robert Beahrs, a Pomona College senior, has been awarded a
distinguished Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship. Beahrs
is one of 50 fellows selected from about 50 selective
private liberal arts colleges and universities. The
fellowship grants Beahrs $22,000 for one year of independent
exploration and travel outside the United States.
For his Watson project, “Throat-Singing: In Pursuit of
Overtones,” Beahrs will travel to Russia, Mongolia, India,
Quebec, Sardinia, Corsica and Norway. “Human beings are
remarkably inventive with their voices,” Beahrs says. “As a
Watson Fellow, I will be able focus on mastering one
specific singing technique which tests the limits of vocal
ingenuity: throat-singing. By manipulating vocal resonances
to create incredibly rich sounds, a skilled overtone singer
can produce two or more distinct pitches at the same time.
My goal is to understand why and how throat-singing is
traditionally practiced, to look at what role it plays in
different cultures, and then to see if there are any
physiological effects associated with its performance.”
Tuvan throat-singing is a traditional but little known
musical style originating from folk music in Tuva, a
constituent republic of the Russian Federation located in
southern Siberia. Beahrs first learned about Tuvan
throat-singing in an ethnomusicology class with Pomona
Professor of Music Katherine Hagedorn. The class was
Performance Traditions of the African Diaspora. “The idea of
pushing the limits of voice and singing more that one note
at a time really fascinates me,” he explains.
Beahrs, a music major at Pomona, decided to apply for a
Watson because of the fellowship’s focus on freedom, travel
and independence. The Watson Foundation stipulates that the
fellows may not return to the United States during the
twelve months of the fellowship, and the projects are
designed to be a truly independent experience where the
fellow’s agenda and research is self-motivated and pursued
individually.
In developing his project proposal, Beahrs met with many of
the music faculty at Pomona, including his voice teacher. “I
started out being interested in choral cathedral singing,”
Beahrs remarks, “and then I honed in on a topic that was
more about specific ways of singing—getting overtones, using
nasal/sinus resonance and singing with the vocal ventricular
folds, also known as the “false” vocal folds.” Beahrs found
that throat-singing involved most of these stranger vocal
techniques, and he wanted to learn more about the technique.
During his year of travel and research, he hopes to discover
why and how throat-singing is practiced traditionally, and
to compare its role across the cultures where it is found.
Beahrs says that his involvement in music at Pomona “has
made me feel completely prepared for this project.” Beahrs
is the musical director for the popular Shades a cappella
group. He sings in the Claremont Colleges Choir and Glee
Club. He was the musical director of the Claremont Colleges
production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Assassins, and he
has taken voice lessons throughout his time at Pomona. He
also found his participation in the sciences at Pomona for
his pre-medicine work useful in “understanding the physical
properties of overtones” and in developing the second part
of his project, examining blood pressure and heart rate
“before, during, and after throat-singing in order to study
their physiological effects and potential application to
music therapy.”
In the public announcement of the 2005-2006 Watson Fellows,
Beverly Larson, executive director of the Watson Fellowship
Program, noted that the Watson Foundation “looks for people
with passion, a feasible plan, leadership potential and
creativity…The awards are long-term investments in people
likely to lead or innovate.”
Pomona College, one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
institutions, offers a comprehensive program in the arts,
humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its
hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between
students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for
student research. Visit Pomona College on the Web at
www.pomona.edu. |
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