Urtiin Duu, Traditional Folk Long Song

01 · Historical Records

As early as more than a thousand years ago the ancestors of the Mongols walked out of the forested country on both banks of the Argun river and migrated towards the Mongolian plateau, and their way of production changed accordingly from hunting to animal husbandry; it was then that the long song, a new form of folk song, arose and developed.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The long song is a free rendering of the Mongolian “urtiin duu”. “Urtiin” means “long” or “eternal” and “duu” means “song”; in the relevant works and papers it is also literally translated as “long song”, “long-song song” or “grassland pastoral song”. The long song's melody is drawn out and unhurried, its mood broad, its sound plentiful and its words few, its breath drawn out long, and its melody extremely rich in ornament (such as the front appoggiatura, the back appoggiatura, the glide and the turn), and it is especially distinctive for the florid manner of singing formed by the “nogolaa” (a Mongolian transliteration meaning a wavy or ornamental tone). Over a fairly long historical period it gradually replaced the squarely structured hunting songs, took the dominant place in Mongolian folk song and finally formed the typical style of Mongolian music, exercising a deep influence on all other forms of Mongolian music. It may be said that the long song concentrates the character and features of Mongolian pastoral culture and is closely bound up with the Mongolian people's language, literature, history, religion, psychology, view of the world, view of ecology, view of life and customs, running through the whole of Mongolian history and social life. The basic subjects of the long song include the pastoral song, the homesickness song, the song of praise, the wedding song and the banquet song (also called the wine song). The subjects contained in long-song folk songs are closely linked to Mongolian social life; they are songs that must be sung at all Mongolian festival celebrations, wedding banquets, gatherings of relatives and friends and the “Naadam”, and they comprehensively reflect the spiritual history and cultural taste of the Mongolian people. Representative pieces include The Trotting Horse, The Little Yellow Horse, The Vast Grassland and The Vast and Fertile Alashan.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Long-song folk songs circulate mainly in the pastoral areas of the Inner Mongolian grasslands and spread far to Mongolia and the Tuva region of Russia.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Urtiin Duu, Traditional Folk Long Song · Urtiin Duu, Traditional Folk Long Song · Urtiin Duu, Traditional Folk Long Song · Urtiin Duu, Traditional Folk Long Song.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Judging from the historical origins of Mongolian musical culture and the present state of its musical forms, the long song may be defined as a folk song created by the pastoral peoples of the northern grasslands in their animal-husbandry labour and sung when herding in the open and at traditional festivals. The study of long-song folk songs involves many branches of musicology, and to study and protect them is in effect the most powerful transmission and protection of the age-old grassland civilization and the grassland cultural type. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Badma, female, Tibetan, born 1940, a native of the Alashan league of Inner Mongolia. She was born in the household of Lubusang Dongdebu, a Tibetan living Buddha of Alashan Right Banner, and from the age of seven learned long-song folk songs with her parents and her mother's younger sister, being the fourth generation to transmit the family's folk-song art. At nine she took the folk artist Jialadu as her master to learn the horse-head fiddle. She is now president of the Alashan folk-song association. She is skilled in the singing styles of the four schools of Mongolian long-song folk song of the Alashan region; her timbre is bright and high and her singing style plain and bold. Her representative works include The Camel Herder and The Beijing Lama. In 2004 she became a “specially engaged folk singer” of the Ethnic and Folk Literature and Art Development Centre of the Ministry of Culture, and she is at present preparing to publish A Compendium of Mongolian Long-Song Folk Songs of the Alashan League. She is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, Mongolian long-song folk song. In her youth she was already a folk singer famed for a hundred li around, has taken part many times in folk-song contests within and beyond the region and won first and second prizes, and has been awarded the titles of “famous folk singer” and “folk artist” by the autonomous region. Erigejidema, female, Mongol, born 1932, a native of Alashan Left Banner, Inner Mongolia. She is at present executive director of the Alashan league folk-song association and honorary chairman of the Alashan Left Banner folk-song association. She is not only thoroughly versed in the original-style long-song folk singing but also devoted to transmitting Mongolian long-song folk song, and is known as a “home of folk artists” and an “honoured folk artist”. She is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, Mongolian long-song folk song.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Badema 02-0229
• Erigejidema 02-0230
• Modege 02-0231
• Baoyindeligeer 02-0232
• Zhagedasurong 03-0805
• Alatanqiqige 03-0806
• Naoerjima 03-0807
• Saiyinbilige 03-0808
• Jia Daoerji 03-0809
• Dawasangbu 05-2033
• Douguersurong 05-2034
• Dao Wutunasheng 05-2035
• Siqingerile
• Naoerzai

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Urtiin Duu, Traditional Folk Long Song (Inner Mongolia) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Badema · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Erigejidema · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗