Urtiin Duu, Traditional Folk Long Song

01 · Historical Records

Since the thirteenth century the Mongol people of the Barga tribe have lived in the Hulunbuir region, through which the Greater Khingan range runs from north-east to south-west; the dense forests and the gentle hilly grasslands, rich in products and with fine water and grass, preserved the typical features of a hunting economy.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Mongolian long song is the traditional folk song of the Mongolian people, and the Barga long song is one of its typical representatives, circulating mainly in the New Barga Left Banner, the New Barga Right Banner and the Old Barga Banner of Hulunbuir city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Since ancient times this has been a region where the long song circulated, with high pitch and simple form, representative pieces being The Vast Grassland, The Winding Handegai River and Uhertu and Huiten. The Barga long song depicts grassland life with exceptional richness. Its content is the praising of horses, of parents, the remembering and praising of the native place, the praising of heroes, love songs, soldiers' songs, the praising of the holy mountain and the obo, the doting on children and the love of nature. The mentality shown in the Barga long song truthfully reflects the spiritual world of the Barga—uprightness, plainness and a love of nature and of life, positive striving and a wealth of reflection. The Barga long-song folk songs are ancient, vigorous, broad and far-reaching, simple in structure, their overall musical tone noted for pursuing a bold and unrestrained quality; their melody is rough and hard, and their distinctive melodic style is formed through the prolongation of the high register, the extension of the skeleton tones, wide downward turns and the use of the “holoi nogolaa” singing technique. The long songs are mostly in the yu mode, with a soft lyrical colour, well suited to expressing warm and gentle feeling. The structure is relatively short, the lyrics of two-line form, the upper and lower phrases making up a period. On the whole, the singing of Barga long-song folk songs is marked by the pursuit of full volume, strong high register and large angles, with a bold and powerful quality. The Barga long-song folk songs have a deep popular base, with numerous long-song folk singers in all age and occupational groups. According to incomplete statistics, more than three hundred Barga folk songs have come down in the New Barga Left Banner alone, and more than eighty per cent of the banner's herders can sing Barga long-song folk songs. Whether at weddings, on festivals, at gatherings or while herding, people like to use long-song folk songs to express their thoughts and tell their feelings.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Barga long song circulates mainly in the New Barga Left Banner, the New Barga Right Banner and the Old Barga Banner of Hulunbuir city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and extends with the pastoral life of the Barga Mongols to all parts of the Hulunbuir grasslands.

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

Its tonal features are shown mainly in the emphasis on the “subdominant” relation: most tones take the tonic as their centre, leap up a fourth or fifth, and then move down by step in seconds and thirds, with a warm, open and bright, expansive feeling. The Barga long-song folk songs are a singing form with a striking pastoral-cultural and regional-cultural character; they tell, in the peculiar language of the grassland people, the Barga Mongols' understanding of history and culture, human custom, morality, philosophy and art. They are an important component of Mongolian long-song folk song, with both relatively high research value in anthropology, ethnology and musicology and relatively high social-cultural value. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Dugursurong, male, Mongol, born April 1949, a native of the New Barga Left Banner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. He came from an ordinary herding family, and his grandmother Butude was good at singing Barga long-song folk songs. He learned Barga long songs with his grandmother from childhood, and as he grew up had the good fortune to be guided by the Mongolian long-song masters Boyindeligeer and Badma and by his brother-in-law Dorji and others. In many years of accumulation he has transmitted a great many Barga long songs on the verge of being lost, and his singing technique gradually matured and formed his own distinctive style. He was once a music teacher at the middle school of Wubur Baolige sumu. His representative piece is The Night Watchman of Bayan Barga. He is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, Mongolian long-song folk song (Barga long song). Since becoming chairman of the New Barga Left Banner long-song association in 2010 he has devoted himself to transmitting and disseminating the Barga long song, many times organizing related training in Barga long song and training more than ten bearers of Barga long 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 (Xinbaerhuzuoqi, Inner Mongolia) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Douguersurong · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗