Characteristics of Mongolian music

Mongolian folk music is basically composed of pentatonic scale, without semitones, and each tone in pentatonic scale can be used as the mode tonic. The modes with consonants and feathers as the main sounds are more common. The tune fluctuates greatly, often jumping six, seven, eight, nine and ten degrees; The vocal range is also very wide, and a song often contains 14 or 15 degrees, which gives people a feeling of being broad and unrestrained, and shows the uninhibited personality characteristics of Mongolian people.

Singing is the separation of true and false sounds. Because of its high pitch, it is more sonorous, loud and changeable. When singing long notes, singers often add some decorative tones or decorative vibrato to create a lively mood or euphemistic style, and often end the sentence with a short slide after the long notes to make the tune soft and mellow.

In addition, Mongolia also has a singing method called "Chaoer", namely "Humai". This method is to use the air in the mouth to vibrate the vocal cords to make * * * sounds, skillfully adjust the gap of the tip of the tongue, and choose different overtones from the pitch, thus forming a tune in the high-pitched area on the basis of bass continuity.

In this way, you can hear two kinds of sounds clearly at the same time, that is, the tune in the high-pitched area and the persistent sound in the low-pitched area. But this method is mostly two-part singing, that is, several people sing a continuous bass and one person sings a treble.

Extended data:

The Development Course of Mongolian Music

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the ancestors of Mongols lived in Ergon Valley, a virgin forest in Daxing 'anling, Inner Mongolia, and made a living by hunting and gathering. As a hunting nation, its basic style is "ancient short tune".

In 840 AD, great changes have taken place in the ethnic pattern of the Mongolian Plateau. The Uighur khanate was defeated by the Uighurs from the north, and left the center of the Mongolian Plateau and migrated to the west and south.

After liberation, the nobles living at the top of society and the monks in monasteries withdrew from the historical stage, and the rich herdsmen and ordinary herdsmen formed new social relations in a brand-new way. The establishment of new social system, ideology and new political and economic system has changed the social and cultural life structure on which Mongolian long tune depends.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the help of a more relaxed political and economic environment, the long tune was restored to a certain extent. The traditional way of life began to recover among the people, herdsmen began to sing long tunes, many literary and art groups introduced excellent folk singers to enrich the professional stage, and some art colleges also set up long tunes.

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