Haleizhen

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Born into a family of musicians, she learned to sing Ordos short-tune folk songs from childhood under her grandfather Tamuzhabu and her mother Gandema. At the age of eight she began studying the Mongolian sanxian, the four-stringed sihu and other traditional Ordos instruments under her father Renqingdaoerji. Within the regional tradition and school record of Mongolian Folk Songs in Eerduosi, Inner Mongolia: Ordos short-tune folk songs are current in Ordos city in the south-west of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the formation of their style can be traced back to the Yuan dynasty. Unlike long-tune songs, short-tune songs have a short and pithy structure, orderly phrasing, a lively rhythm, a cheerful and animated mood, a vivid musical image and a beautiful and agreeable tune, and they are strongly dance-like; their melodies are built mostly on the pentatonic scale, there are also not a few six-note songs, and there are in addition seven-note songs, in which the two degrees “4” and “7” mostly appear as passing notes. Ordos short-tune folk songs are current in Ordos city in the south-west of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; the formation of their style can be traced back to the Yuan dynasty.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, of Mongolian ethnicity, born in November 1950 in Otog Front Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. By the age of thirty-four she had mastered more than one hundred Ordos short-tune folk songs and the playing of six traditional instruments, and was recognised by the local people as an Ordos short-tune folk singer who accompanies herself on instruments while singing. Over the years she recorded more than ten cassettes, including the Ordos Folk Song Medley (Eerduosi Minge Lianchang). She sings chiefly in the mezzo range; her timbre is melodious and bold, with a mellow and restrained colouring that is full of nuance. Her signature pieces include the Ordos short-tune folk songs The Round-topped Hat (Yuanding Maozi) and West of Otog (Etuoke de Xibian). Within the documented technical tradition of Mongolian Folk Songs in Eerduosi, Inner Mongolia: Mongolian folk songs are rich in content, free in rhythm, delicate in feeling, high and resonant in melody, extended and winding, and leave a long lingering aftertaste. They fall into two kinds, the long-tune folk song and the short-tune folk song. Long-tune songs are generally sung in Mongolian; they are of great length, draw the breath out long and are deep in feeling, their use of the shake ornament is subtle and distinctive and their melodies far-ranging, and both melody and vocal style show the breadth and vigour of grassland folk song. Short-tune songs are current mainly in the half-farming, half-pastoral districts where Mongols and Han live in mixed settlement, are mostly sung in Chinese, are short in length, have an even rhythm and a fixed metre, readily use reduplicated syllables, and have simple lyrics and a free, flexible manner. Unlike long-tune songs, short-tune songs have a short and pithy structure, orderly phrasing, a lively rhythm, a cheerful and animated mood, a vivid musical image and a beautiful and agreeable tune, and they are strongly dance-like. Their melodies are built mostly on the pentatonic scale, but there are also works in which a hidden “shang” degree leaves four scale degrees to form the melody, such as Xie Bu Ren La Ma and Yinshan; there are also not a few six-note songs, such as Sen Ji De Ma, Shantou and Xizhao; and there are in addition seven-note songs, such as Bayin Hanggai. In songs built on six-note and seven-note scales, the two degrees “4” and “7” mostly appear in the melody in the form of passing notes. The modes of Ordos folk music are chiefly the yu mode, peculiar to Mongolian music, with other modes as well, and especially many in the gong and zhi modes. Gong-mode songs include The Golden Lark and Chang'e; shang-mode songs include The Lookout and Wuda Gaole; jue-mode songs include Mu Hai Tan and Ha Di Wen Duo Er; zhi-mode songs include Bayin Hanggai and My Wealthy Younger Brother. In addition, Ordos Mongolian music introduces into folk songs in the traditional five-note mode preludes and interludes in the seven-note mode, which gives it a style quite of its own. Ordos short-tune folk songs use rhymed two-line or four-line forms, with comparatively fixed metre. They are mostly sung improvisationally, accompanied by such instruments as the four-string fiddle, yangqin, flute, sanxian, zheng and morin khuur. The lyrics are simple but not stiff, and reduplicated syllables are widely used for their sound and rhyme. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Xie Bu Ren La Ma": One of the Ordos short-tune works in which a hidden “shang” degree leaves four scale degrees to form the melody. "Sen Ji De Ma": One of the six-note Ordos short-tune folk songs. "Jin Se De Bai Ling Niao": One of the Ordos short-tune songs in the gong mode. "Yuan Ding Mao Zi": One of the representative pieces sung by the inheritor Haleizhen.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Mongolian Folk Songs (Ordos Short-tune Folk Songs), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Haleizhen · National Representative Bearer Archive