Question on vocal music

[Wren Elhai]

Hello all,

I'm working on a fellowship application and was hoping someone might be able
to point me in a useful direction on my topic. I'm looking for
styles/traditions of vocal music that use the voice in interesting ways. My
original idea was to look at 'imitative' vocal styles-- where voices are
used to approximate instruments, animal sounds, or other naturally occuring
sounds. Traditions of purely rhythmic vocalization and vocal percussion
could count as well. I've found examples of such traditions in India (vocal
percussion traditions in the south and in the north), Scotland (mouth music
/ puirt a beul), Indonesia (vocal gamelan), and Tuva (to the extent that
khoomei is rooted in imitation of natural sounds).

If you know any vocal styles that could fall under this category (especially
in Russian speaking areas of the world) or could point me towards someone
who might know more about such styles, I'd greatly appreciate it. As a point
of reference, I'm a senior at Swarthmore, majoring in political science and
Russian.

Thanks,

Wren

-- 
Wren Elhai '08
Swarthmore College

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