First of all, there are narrative folk songs. Such folk songs include narrative songs, ancient hunting songs, pastoral songs, feast songs, etc. This kind of folk songs not only describe things, but also express the emotional color of folk songs, including praise or blame, joy or sorrow. The music melody is mostly based on the content of the song or the singing environment, which can be plain, exciting and cheerful, or depressive and deep.
1. Narrative song. Narrative songs are a large-scale folk song genre with complex plots and numerous characters that first emerged and developed in the semi-agricultural, semi-pastoral and agricultural areas where Mongols and Han people lived together in the past hundred years. Its formation process has its profound reasons in terms of politics, economy, thought and lifestyle. From the perspective of national art, Mongolians have always been good at using huge, epic art forms to reflect their own lives and create the image of tall heroes in their minds. For example, as early as the 14th century, there were ancient narrative folk songs in Mongolian folk songs, the main content of which was singing legendary stories about Genghis Khan. It should be said that this fine tradition of national art undoubtedly provided rich nutritional value to the emergence and development of modern long narrative songs. At the beginning of this century, the Qing government implemented the policy of "immigration to solid borders" in Inner Mongolia, wantonly reclaiming grasslands and plundering land. In order to defend their hometown, the Mongolian people took up arms and staged an armed uprising, which violently shocked the reactionary rule of the Qing government. At the same time, the Mongolian people used long narrative folk songs to vividly praise and reproduce these epic uprising struggles. The long narrative song "Gada Merlin" can be regarded as an excellent representative of this type of song. Gada Meilin's long narrative folk songs are flexible in form, vivid in language, and full of life flavor. Its musical characteristics are that the tunes are short and neat, closely integrated with the language, and have a strong rap character.
During the Qing Dynasty, due to brutal exploitation by the landlord class and frequent famines, many Han farmers left their hometowns and poured into Mongolia from some rural areas in neighboring Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi to reclaim wasteland to make a living. In the same productive labor, the Mongolian and Han people forged a profound friendship. With the large influx of Han farmers, the politics, economy, and culture of the Han people also followed, and affected the development of the Mongolian grassland area. The rapidly developing trend of the times also impacts people's thinking. It is under this background of social change that narrative songs are a mass folk song genre developed in agricultural and semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas where the Mongolian people live. This kind of folk song has a square structure, neat syntax, cheerful rhythm, and the tune is much shorter than the pastoral song. Therefore, from a formal point of view, people call it short song or short-key folk song.
The social life reflected in narrative folk songs is extremely diverse. First of all, songs with strong popular characteristics that reflect the rise of the Mongolian people in modern history to resist imperialist aggression and expose the criminal acts of the feudal ruling class, as well as revolutionary historical folk songs produced during the revolutionary struggle under the leadership of the Communist Party, are the heritage of Mongolian folk songs. of essence. The revolutionary historical folk song "Li Hongzhang Who Led the Wolf into the House" with strong popular character was produced under this social background:
2. Ancient hunting songs. Hunting songs are a genre of folk songs sung by hunters when hunting in deep mountains and forests. Before the 13th century, the Mongolian ancestors living in the Ergun River Basin on the current Sino-Russian border used hunting as their main mode of production and labor. The emergence of hunting songs is closely related to the hunting and production labor of the Mongolians in primitive society. In order to catch more prey, they must issue a concerted call and shout to boost morale and unify hunting operations. This kind of calling and shouting is the most primitive art of the Mongolian nation - hunting songs. A lot of singing is combined with dancing. Hunters sing and dance to vividly imitate the movements and expressions of the various birds and animals they capture. For example, the hunting song and dance "Hunting and Fighting Wisdom Song" that has been circulated in the Horqin area of ??Inner Mongolia belongs to such primitive hunting songs and dances. It usually consists of two people dressed up as hunters and animals respectively. There are songs and dances in the performance, which is very lively and interesting.
3. Pastoral. As early as more than 700 years ago, due to the unification of the Yuan Dynasty, disasters caused by wars were reduced across the country. With the prosperity of the economy across the country and the implementation of economic measures by the Yuan Dynasty government to support the development of animal husbandry, the Mongolians scattered on the west bank of the Ergun River walked out of the mountainous forest areas and migrated and nomadically across the vast grasslands. In the long years, as the hunting industry transformed into animal husbandry and production labor, they expressed their emotions with their long and slow rhythms and free and rough singing voices in response to the various changes in society, the magnificent natural landscape and the surrounding living environment. . The new genre of prairie pastoral songs was born and developed under this background of life.
For a long historical period, pastoral songs occupied a dominant position in Mongolian folk songs, and also formed the typical style of Mongolian music.
As a folk song genre, pastoral songs are a mirror of the nomadic life of the Mongolian people. The social life it reflects is multifaceted. Singing about the grasslands and praising horses are common themes in pastoral songs. Therefore, it is natural for the Mongolian people to focus on singing about grasslands and horses in their pastoral songs. For example: "The Vast Grassland", "Pastoral", etc. From the above song, we can see that the characteristics of pastoral songs are generally high pitch, free rhythm, ups and downs of melody, strong color and lyricism, and it is a representative grassland pastoral song.
4. Banquet song. Banquet songs are also called drinking songs. Banquet songs are a singing genre with strong life customs that Mongolian people sing on occasions of drinking or feasting. Especially when the Naadam event or grassland wedding is held on the grassland, it is very lively with singing and dancing. For example, the song "Golden Cup" has a beautiful and moving melody and is rich in the local flavor of Ordos. This popular drinking song can be sung by almost every Mongolian. Its melody is simple, concise and extended, and its musical image is outstanding. The first phrase sang smoothly, "The aroma of the wine in the golden cup overflows", and then the second phrase came with the warm and cheerful liner notes of "Selal White Dong Race", which advanced the mood of the song. The third phrase sings "Let me be together...", the melody reaches a climax, and then the warm and cheerful liner notes appear again, bringing the joyful atmosphere to the highest point.
The second is lyrical folk songs. Such folk songs include bitter songs, hymns and love songs. The vast majority of the Mongolian people have experienced hardships and sufferings in life in different historical periods. In addition, due to different living environments, special occupations, customs and habits, everyone's psychological feelings are different. These different psychological feelings are expressed or vented through the form of folk songs, which are lyrical folk songs that express various real feelings and true feelings. Because they are related to the region and climate where the Mongolian people live, these songs mostly use long tunes to express various emotions. The melody is melodious, long and soothing, the singing is loud, exciting and sweet, and the various emotions are expressed vividly.
(1).Bitter song. Over the centuries, the Mongolian nation has experienced countless sufferings, continuous wars, and endless hard labor, which have led to the suffering of conscription; the primitive and feudal marriage customs have led to the suffering of girls who marry far away and miss their hometown and relatives. ; The pain of migration caused by the selling of pastures and fields by princes and nobles, etc. In this social background, a large number of bitter songs were produced. Its classification is as follows:
1) A bitter song for conquering people. This type mainly manifests itself as conscripted soldiers and people serving labor complaining about the suffering caused by war and labor, expressing their weariness of war, unbearable slavery and homesickness. There are also some songs about parents, wives and children who miss their relatives far away. The most precious among them are many ancient soldier songs, such as "Noli Germa", "Dinkelzabu" and so on.
2) The bitter song of marrying far away. In the clan society period, the Mongolian nation strictly implemented the exogamy system in order to maintain the purity of their bloodline, forming the custom of distant marriage. For many years, this marriage custom has continued. In modern times, the reason for marrying far away is no longer for "pure blood", but has strong economic and political overtones. Girls who marry far away bring endless suffering. They marry alone in a strange place, struggle to become wives, and miss their hometown relatives endlessly in extreme depression. So they sang songs about the sorrow of marrying far away, with blood and tears flowing deep in their hearts.
The artistic quality of the bitter song of Marrying Far Away is very high. It is characterized by beautiful and smooth tunes, stretched rhythm, delicate and euphemistic expression of emotions, and sincere and touching artistic characteristics. Bitter songs in the genre of homesickness and marriage far away have a rigorous musical structure, rich and bold use of modes, and often develop tunes with a touch of touch. Therefore, it is full of inner driving force. Works such as "Derge Rima", "Novingiya", etc.
(2). Hymn. Hymns are a genre of folk songs sung by the Mongolian people at the Naadam Conference or other public gatherings, celebrations and other special occasions. Hymns are roughly divided into the following categories according to their content:
1) Hymns to heroes. This type of folk songs has been accompanying the development of the Mongolian nation from ancient times to the present, and fully embodies the Mongolian nation's tradition of advocating heroes, such as "Ode to Genghis Khan". This hymn enthusiastically praises Genghis Khan with its solemn emotions and high-pitched tone. He spoke highly of Genghis Khan's great achievements in unifying all Mongolian tribes. This famous song popular in Xilin Gol area can be regarded as a typical representative of hymns in terms of content and form.
2) Hymn to the horse. Horses occupy an important position in the life of the Mongolian people. They go far beyond the meaning of livestock and tools in people's minds. Therefore, horses have long been worshiped and praised like gods by the Mongolian people. These songs are not only numerous in number, but also rich in words and beautiful in tune, reaching a level that is difficult to translate accurately into other national languages. The widely circulated "Xiao Zao Liang Horse", "Long Mane Horse", "Little Yellow Horse" and so on.
(3) Hometown hymn. It is an ode sung from deep within people's hearts to express their love for life and hometown. This type can be divided into songs written by people who have lived in their hometowns for a long time to praise their hometown; songs written by wanderers who have left their hometown and wandered around the world missing their hometown and expressing their sorrow in a foreign land. The former such as "Eight Banners of Chahar", "My Hometown", etc., and the latter such as "High Xing'an Mountains" and so on.
(4) The girl’s hymn. The purity and beauty of girls are often regarded as a symbol of beauty in the minds of the Mongolian people. Such songs are full of moving verses and have beautiful melodies. Works such as "Qibqehiri", "Uyoday", etc.
(5) Hymn to the Four Seasons. This is a folk song genre created by people to praise the scenery of the four seasons of nature. The songs mostly describe the alternation of the four seasons and people's production and life scenes, and are full of love for nature and life. Folk songs of this type can be found everywhere. Almost every Mongolian inhabited area has a unique style of "Song of the Four Seasons".
3. Love songs. Songs of this type are the most numerous in Mongolian folk songs, and their expression techniques are also extremely rich. Its main content is to express the emotions of men and women missing each other, as well as people's unfortunate experiences in love life. For example, being bound by feudal ideas for a long time, many young men and women cannot achieve a happy marriage, and it is difficult to get together in love. Many love tragedies like Senjidma have appeared. In addition to the above-mentioned sad and tragic types, love songs also include love, longing and other types of songs. They focus on expressing the passionate love between both parties. Generally, the first person method is used to sing the admiration and love for the other party with vivid words and phrases. The language is gorgeous and simple, reflecting the sincere feelings, accompanied by a relaxing melody. Its representatives include "Fifteenth Moon", "Lilac Bol" and so on.
Mongolian folk songs are a huge artistic treasure house. It is not only a precious wealth of the Mongolian nation, but also a rare treasure in the cultural treasure house of all mankind. Therefore, no matter from any angle, it is of great research value.