Urtiin Duu, Traditional Folk Long Song
01 · Historical Records
The long song has a long history: more than a thousand years ago the ancestors of the Mongols migrated towards the Mongolian plateau and their way of production changed accordingly from hunting to animal husbandry, and it was in this process that the long-song folk song arose and developed.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The long song is a free rendering of the Mongolian “urtiin duu”. It is 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 long song occupies an important place in Mongolian social life, and it may be heard at such traditional social and religious festive activities as the Naadam assembly, weddings, house-warmings and celebrations of an infant's birth. This artistic form embodies in concentrated fashion the character of Mongolian pastoral culture; it is closely bound up with the Mongolian people's language, literature, history, religion, customs and habits and their view of the world, of ecology and of life, and runs through the whole of Mongolian social life. The long song's vocal line is expansive, 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 its florid manner of singing formed by the “nogolaa” (a Mongolian transliteration meaning a wavy or ornamental tone). Long-song folk songs are generally of two lines, upper and lower, the uneven long and short phrases maintaining a dynamic balance by their peculiar lilt and containing rich variation of pitch and rhythm. Divided by content, the basic types of the long song include the pastoral song, the homesickness song, the song of praise, the work song, the ceremonial song, the historical song, the topical song and the banquet song (also called the “wine song”).
Subjects such as the Pastoral Song, the Homesickness Song and the Song of Praise
The basic types of long-song folk songs divided by content, including the work song, the ceremonial song, the historical song, the topical song and the banquet song.
Singing at Naadam, Weddings and Religious Festivals
The occasions of singing at such traditional social and religious festive activities as the Naadam assembly, weddings, house-warmings and celebrations of an infant's birth.
The “Nogolaa” Florid Manner of Singing
The distinctive manner of singing formed by wavy ornamentation, in which the long song has plentiful sound, few words and drawn-out breath.
The Mongolian Long-Song Transmitting Group of Bayingolin
The folk artists transmitting long-song folk songs in the Bayingolin Mongol autonomous prefecture of Xinjiang and the pastoral occasions of singing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Mongolian long-song folk songs of the Xinjiang region are distributed mainly in the Bayingolin Mongol autonomous prefecture and the Hoboksar Mongol autonomous county.
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
Long-song folk songs have extremely high research value and are an important object of study in anthropology, ethnology and musicology. Protecting Mongolian long-song folk song is of great significance for transmitting Mongolian grassland civilization. The processes of modernization and urbanization have dealt Mongolian long-song folk song a severe blow; the artists capable of singing it are now few and far between and many of them are advanced in years, so the transmission and development of the long song faces a crisis and saving and protecting this cultural heritage has become a task of no delay. The Mongolian long songs of the Bayingolin and Hoboksar areas of Xinjiang are mostly used on such occasions as Naadam and weddings and preserve the singing style of the Oirat Mongols.
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
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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