Mongolian Tuobuxiuer Music
01 · Historical Records
Mongolian tuobuxiuer music arose around the 12th century CE and has been passed down to the present through family and master-apprentice transmission, deeply shaping the cultural life of the Mongols in Xinjiang.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The tuobuxiuer is an ancient plucked string instrument. Mongolian tuobuxiuer music has lively tunes, beautiful melodies, a strong sense of rhythm and varied modes of expression. Twelve pieces are preserved intact today, namely "Sawurden", "Haiden Sawurden", "Sawurden Dingding", "Zaogesa Sawurden", "Xuewai Taleteng", "Tuoerlege", "Sohor Kushun", "Orgetek", "Baljin Kail", "Jorhal", "Yudanxia" and "Ailedu Daileidu". Some portray the traits of a character's personality, such as "Sohor Kushun"; some depict animal images, such as "Jorhal" and "Orgetek"; others describe legendary stories and ballads. The plucking techniques of the tuobuxiuer are closely bound to its principal function as dance accompaniment, forming a style that fuses music and dance. Different techniques produce different rhythms, and different rhythms call forth different dance movements. The pieces comprise twelve different rhythmic types, most of them in 2/4 metre, and they share one common feature — agility and strength. Highly skilled tuobuxiuer players can place the body of the instrument against the chest, the back, the shoulder, the hip and other positions, performing for the audience as they play; some fit wooden models of animals such as the field mouse, sheep, horse and camel over the fingers of the right hand, so that they swing to and fro with the rhythm of the piece, making different movements and producing different tunes.
Sawurden
One of the twelve tuobuxiuer pieces preserved intact today.
Haiden Sawurden
One of the twelve tuobuxiuer pieces preserved intact today.
Sohor Kushun
One of the twelve tuobuxiuer pieces, of the kind that portrays the traits of a character's personality.
Jorhal
One of the twelve tuobuxiuer pieces, of the kind that depicts animal images.
Orgetek
One of the twelve tuobuxiuer pieces, of the kind that depicts animal images.
Baljin Kail
One of the twelve tuobuxiuer pieces preserved intact today.
Multi-position playing
Highly skilled tuobuxiuer players can place the body of the instrument against the chest, the back, the shoulder, the hip and other positions, performing for the audience as they play.
Carved animal finger-caps
Some players fit wooden models of animals such as the field mouse, sheep, horse and camel over the fingers of the right hand, so that they swing to and fro with the rhythm of the piece, making different movements and producing different tunes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Mongolian tuobuxiuer music took shape in the long history of the Dzungar, the Chahar who migrated westward and the Torghut who returned east; it is a musical variety with a distinctive regional style, inseparable from the labour and life of the Mongols of Bortala, current mainly in the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture and the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and in other Mongol residential areas of Xinjiang.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Among the twelve transmitted pieces, many titles are named after horses or sheep or after people, and every title has a legendary story behind it. Mongolian tuobuxiuer music reflects the life customs, local human feelings and spiritual outlook of the Mongols of Xinjiang and their persistent pursuit of fine love and a happy life; it is an important carrier of ethnic culture and important material for studying the development history of their traditional music, dance, literature and narrative singing, and it has high historical, artistic, social and cultural value. Nai Dai Wuma (official archive entry of the associated inheritor): A woman of the Mongolian ethnicity, born in June 1938, native of Bole City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Her performing skills are accomplished and refined, and she enjoys wide renown and influence among the folk of the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. She has taken part many times in large and small cultural performances both inside and outside Xinjiang, and has recorded special programmes for the Xinjiang People's Broadcasting Station. She has taken part in the discussion, planning and arrangement of the tuobuxiuer music drama and similar activities. The tuobuxiuer suite she played was selected for the record "Bo Le Shen Yun: An Anthology of Xinjiang Mongol Short-Tune Folk Songs and Tuobuxiuer Music" issued by the Inner Mongolia Culture Audio-Visual Publishing House. Representative inheritor of the Mongolian tuobuxiuer music national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth national-level batch. She has taught at four tuobuxiuer learning bases in the urban area and the townships of Bole City, and has trained more than two hundred students.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Naidaiwuma 05-2181
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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