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”).

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. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Jia Dorji was thoroughly versed in singing long songs on such subjects as wedding songs, the wedding opening song, the closing song and praise of his native place, and could not only sing songs of historical figures and historical songs of the Torghut tribe but also recount the historical origins of the songs. The series Mongolian Folk Long Songs of Hoboksar and the Mongolian volume of the Xinjiang volume of the Compendium of Chinese Ballads include twenty-one and ten long-song folk songs sung by him respectively. Male, Mongol, born October 1942, died October 2013, a native of the Hoboksar Mongol autonomous county of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. He was a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, Mongolian long-song folk song. Dao Utunasan, male, Mongol, born October 1968, a native of the Hoboksar Mongol autonomous county of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Kobchi Undur was the first long song he learned. He afterwards studied with Dacaoribujiafu and Ninamujiafu and others, learning by singing along face to face and by listening to recordings, and mastered with skill the various techniques of long-song singing. He can sing more than fifty pieces. He has published a personal album and helped other artists publish discs. He has collected eleven long-song folk songs among the folk and holds handwritten copies of Mongolian long-song folk songs. He is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, Mongolian long-song folk song. Since 2006 he has set up seven sessions of long-song folk-song interest classes in the county's primary and middle schools, training more than three hundred students, of whom more than ten have successively taken part in long-song contests at various levels and won prizes.

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 (Hebukesaiermengguzizhi, Xinjiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Jia Daoerji · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Dao Wutunasheng · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗