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Mongolian
Arts and Culture > Music >
Traditional Song
 TRADITIONAL
SONG
Through the ages, music has spread around Mongolia
through home teaching and festivities. Any family or clan
event was a good chance for musicians and singers to gather
together. Coming from different areas, most often representing
different tribes, people had the opportunity to perform, to
learn from others and to take home a new melody or song. In
this way, the ancient patterns of various corners of Mongolia
have been preserved by local masters for the whole nation.
Some specific types of Mongolian song are:
Labor song. These are melodies
sung while working.
The hunter's call attracts the animal by imitating its call
in order to select a specific type of animal and to hunt
with certainty, without wounding.
Various herder's calls manage the flock by signaling to
go to pasture, return home, generate more milking, encourage
insemination, bring a mother back to her calf, and so on.
An example of such a call in the Central Khalkha region:
Jewel white my sheep
Do you mean to be that odd
Why should you leave your calf abandoned
When it smells like you
When it needs your milk
Khos! Khos! Khos!
The Oirat Mongols call a bit differently:
If once you rejected your calf
Chew your hay behind
Why should you look again
as if changing your mind. . .
Toigo! Toigo! Toigo!
Buuvey song. A buuvey song is
a lullaby, or any sweet melody expressing a mother's boundless
love for her baby. "Buuvey… buuvey… buuvey…"
is repeated while caressing a child to make him or her sleep.
The melody may come from the heart of mother and be improvised.
There are also lullaby songs with legends already composed,
learned by the family and distributed to other families and
generations.
"Uukhay" or "guiyngoon"
song. These are encouraging and provoking calls,
connected with seasonal events. As warm days arrive, mare's
milk flows and the horse race training reaches its peak,
the "guiyngoon" songs of little riders is heard
in every direction. It is followed by songs of victorious
winners, be it a rider, a wrestler or archery master. Fans
chant the "uukhay!" encouraging song, which roughly
means "go ahead".
Mongol Hoomii. Mongol hoomii
involves producing two simultaneous tones with the human voice.
It is a difficult skill requiring special ways of breathing.
One tone comes out as a whistle-like sound, the result of
locked breath in the chest being forced out through the throat
in a specific way, while a lower tone sounds as a base. Hoomii
is considered musical art - not exactly singing, but using
one's throat as an instrument.
Depending on the way air is exhaled from the lungs, there
are various ways of classifying hoomii, including Bagalzuuryn
(laryngeal) hoomii, Tagnainy (palatine) hoomii, Hooloin (guttural)
hoomii, Hamryn (nasal) hoomii, and Harhiraa hoomi: under strong
pressure in the throat, air is exhaled while a lower tone
is kept as the main sound.
Professional hoomi performers are found in only a few areas
with certain traditions. The Chainman district of Hovd aimag
(province) is one home of hoomii. Tuva, a part of Russia to
the north of Mongolia, is also a center of Hoomii.
Long song. Another unique
traditional singing style is known as Urtiin duu, or long
song. It's one of the oldest genres of Mongolian musical
art, dating to the 13th century. Urtiin duu involves extraordinarily
complicated, drawn-out vocal sounds. It is evocative of
vast, wide spaces and it demands great skill and talent
from the singers in their breathing abilities and guttural
singing techniques.
Long songs relate traditional stories about the beauty of
the native land and daily life, to which Mongolians offer
blessings. These feelings are formed into majestic, profound
songs, such as "The Pleasure Sharing Sun of Universe",
"The Old Man and the Bird", "The One and
Only Real Love", "Sunjidmaa, the Beloved".
Epics and legends. This ancient
genre, enriched by generations, combines poetry, songs, music
and the individuality of each performer. Singers may sing
with or without a musical instrument. These sung stories are
told from memory and may have thousands of quatrains. Such
long stories are usually performed on a long winter night.
By combining stories, music and drama, herders organize a
kind of home school. The children, while playing various collective
games with bone and wooden toys, listen to the songs and learn
about history, life and folklore.
"Geser", "Jangar", "Khan Kharakhui",
and "Bum Erdene" are classic legend and story songs.
Each is a library of folk wisdom and national heritage.
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