Mastering the Art of Sardinian "Throat-Singing"

What are the chances that watching a four-minute YouTube video featuring folksingers from Sardinia—the Mediterranean island best known for glitzy resorts—would transform the lives of four American aficionados of world choral traditions? That they would then master the art of Sardinian "throat-singing" and make a video that would go viral in Sardinia, turning them into local celebrities?

However unlikely the odds, that's what happened to Tenores de Aterúe (Singers from Elsewhere), the Vermont and New York-based vocal quartet that will be in residence at Dartmouth from April 28 – May 1, working with students in world music classes and performing a Hop concert on April 29. During the residency, the Tenores will lead group singing sessions with the aim of offering students a taste of community music-making—a vital source of social bonding across much of the world. 
 
"We all spent many years singing different kinds of traditional music," said Tenores member Carl Linich, an accomplished singer and teacher known for his mastery of vocal polyphony from the Republic of Georgia. Linich and fellow Tenores Avery Book, Gideon Crevoshay and Doug Paisley initially connected through their mutual interest in Georgian music. But after learning a Sardinian folksong in the four-part style known as cantu a tenore, in which the bass sings in a raspy, guttural timbre that resembles Tuvan and Mongolian throat-singing, Linich became interested in the tradition and persuaded Book, Crevoshay and Paisley to explore it further.

Despite the recognition afforded by UNESCO's inscription of cantu a tenore in its prestigious Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, resources for non-Sardinians who wanted to learn cantu a tenore were all but non-existent. A YouTube search led Linich to a video in which a quartet of village singers offered a demo—in Italian—on how to perform their individual parts and as a single harmonized sound. "The demo was like our Rosetta Stone," Linich recalled. 

After three years of rehearsing, Tenores de Aterue gave their first public performance, in 2011, and videoed it. By then, they'd established direct contact with singers in Sardinia, and Linich shared a link to the Tenores' concert video. It quickly went viral. That a group of Americans had learned to sing—expertly—the challenging cantu a tenore repertoire nourished Sardinians' pride in their unique culture and indigenous language, which UNESCO classifies as "definitely endangered," its use in decline as younger people switch to Italian.

In 2013, the Tenores de Aterue made their first visit to Sardinia, where they were welcomed as cultural heroes. "When Sardinians see people from across the ocean showing a real interest in their culture by singing their songs, it pushes a different button for them. What they may have thought of as just a tradition from their village takes on a larger meaning."

In their April 29 concert, along with music from Sardinia, Tenores de Aterue will perform a cappella songs from Corsica, which is geographically and culturally close to Sardinia, and from the Republic of Georgia, the long-ago starting point of the group's musical collaboration.