What is the Mongolian long tune?

On June 25th, 2005,165438+1October 25th, "Mongolian long-tune folk songs" and "Muqam art in Xinjiang, China" were both declared as the third batch of "representative works of oral and intangible heritage of mankind" by UNESCO, among which "Mongolian long-tune folk songs" was the first project jointly declared and passed by China and foreign countries on the same intangible heritage. Long-tune folk songs are closely related to grassland and Mongolian nomadic life, bearing the history of Mongolian people. Their high-pitched and distant style is suitable for narration and longer than lyric, which is a symbolic display of Mongolian people's production, life and spiritual character.

Mongolian long-tune folk songs are a form of Mongolian folk songs, which are divided into long-tune and short-tune. Long-tune folk songs have existed since the formation of Mongolians, and one of its major characteristics is that the words are few and the tune is long. A long tune is generally composed of two lyrics. Singers play according to their own life accumulation and understanding of nature, and the rhythm of singing is different. Most of the lyrics of long tunes describe grasslands, horses, camels, cattle and sheep, blue sky, white clouds and rivers and lakes. At the same time, Mongolian long-tune folk songs are also a cross-border culture, and China Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Mongolia are the most important cultural distribution areas of Mongolian long-tune folk songs. The success of China-Mongolia joint application for heritage shows the inestimable artistry and worldwide value of Mongolian long-tune folk songs as cultural heritage.

Mongolian long tune belongs to Mongolian music, which can be divided into three historical development periods, namely, mountain hunting music culture period, grassland nomadic music culture period and farming and animal husbandry music culture period.

During the period of hunting music culture, its musical style is represented by short tune, and folk songs have the characteristics of short structure, concise tone, clear rhythm and few words. The overall musical style is narrative, singing and dancing, lyrical, which is also the same feature of human music art in primitive times. From the available data, we can see that some Mongolian folk songs with obvious musical and cultural characteristics of this period are still circulating among the people, such as Hunting for Wisdom and White Sea Dance.

With the transformation of hunting production mode to nomadic production mode, the music style of the second phase also evolved from short-tune folk songs to long-tune folk songs, forming a period of grassland nomadic music culture in the history of Mongolian music. From the perspective of music morphology, this period not only preserved and developed the short-tune music style of hunting period, but also gradually innovated and formed the long-tune music style. As far as long-tune folk songs are concerned, this period has also experienced a long process of inheritance and development from simple to complex and from low to high. Therefore, in the thousand-year history from the 7th century to17th century, the general trend of Mongolian folk songs development can be summarized as follows: based on short-tune folk songs, with long-tune folk songs as innovation, long-tune folk songs gradually occupy a dominant position, which is also an important historical period for the formation of Mongolia's overall musical culture style.

From the18th century (the middle and late Qing Dynasty), with the historical changes and development, the contact between the northern grassland and the Central Plains was further strengthened, and the pace of integration and communication among ethnic groups was accelerated. The mode of production dominated by agriculture in the Central Plains has also penetrated into some northern grasslands, and cultural exchanges have become more frequent. Under this historical background, short-tune ballads and long-tune rap songs have been further developed, forming the musical and cultural period of Mongolian farmers and herdsmen. The characteristics of music style in this period can be summarized as follows: short-tune folk songs were thoroughly remoulded and developed rapidly, while long-tune folk songs maintained their mature characteristics.

Listening to a long-tune pastoral is like standing on the vast grassland and telling the experience to nature. This artistic realm is called "the perfect unity of nature and heart" by many musicians and singers. It is understood that as long as one person leads the long tune and three or five people continue the bass tide, there will be a solemn, grand and magnificent momentum; And a Ma Touqin folk song solo "Zou Ma" will have an overriding spirit. Both can make people have a magnificent and lofty experience.

The long-tune pastoral "The Vast Grassland" is a typical work, which is concise in music language and music structure. The whole song has only two antithetical phrases, but it is passionate, which achieves the perfect unity of image and artistic conception, man and nature, and also gives people a vast and unrestrained masculine beauty. The ancient banquet song "Sixty Beauty" sang sixty beautiful things in a simple song. The song lists grassland land, youth life, cattle, sheep and horses, migratory birds and geese, clear clouds and haze, bright moon and stars, mountain scenery and seascape, blooming flowers, clear running water, plucked strings, loud songs, parents' kindness, brothers' brotherhood, elders' guidance, world peace ... This scene is integrated with nature, and people live in harmony with nature.