fusica01: Mark van Tongeren: Overtone Singing

For a comprehensive look inside the book, please visit the author’s site here.

In his book Overtone Singing, ethnomusicologist and singer Mark van Tongeren provides a fascinating insight into the timeless and universal aspects of sound and vibration. It is grounded in decades-long studies of music, and draws upon fieldwork experiences, interviews with eastern and western musicians and the work of numerous scholars. The book presents a multidisciplinary vision on sound that runs from World and contemporary music to the science of acoustics and perception, to music philosophy and the spiritual dimensions of music. Written in a non-technical style, this book and accompanying audio CD is an indispensable guide to musicians and music lovers seeking a deeper understanding of the nature of sound.

For the second edition many small improvements have been made. The last part of the book, Quintessence: The Great Realm, has been thoroughly rearranged and expanded and is now much more ‘quintessential’ than it was in the first edition. The bibliography contained only books quoted in the text, and now contains other relevant titles as well. CDs are now listed in a separate discography at the end of the book, and the index has been expanded.

With 31 photos, 4 maps and 46 illustrations (musical examples, line drawings, graphs), bibliography, discography, index, footnotes. The CD included in the book offers the most complete survey of traditional techniques of overtone singing from various regions of the world to date. Also featured are tracks with technical demonstrations by the author and excerpts of his 2001 CD Paraphony.

Title: Overtone Singing – Physics and Metaphysics of Harmonics in East and West
Format: XXVI + 284 page book plus 73 minute/33 tracks audio CD
Dimensions: 230 x 150 x 20 mm
Editions: paperback (ISBN 90-807163-2-4); hardcover (ISBN 90-807163-1-6)

Text design and lay-out: Sonja van Hamel
Typesetting: Roel Siebrands
Publisher: Fusica, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.