? Long tune is the free translation of the Mongolian "Uritingduo". "Wuriting" means "long-lasting" and "eternal", and "Duo" means "song". In related works and papers, it is also literally translated as "long song", "long tune song" or "prairie pastoral song".
? According to the historical origins of Mongolian music culture and the current status of music forms, long tunes can be defined as songs created by the nomadic people in the northern grasslands during animal husbandry production and sung during wild grazing and traditional festivals. A kind of folk song. The melody of a long key is long and soothing, with a broad artistic conception, many sounds and few words, and a long breath. The melody is highly decorative (such as front grace, back grace, portamento, echo, etc.), especially "Nogula" (Mongolian transliteration, The cadenza singing method formed by the way of singing is the most distinctive.
As early as more than a thousand years ago, the ancestors of the Mongolian people migrated out of the mountainous forest areas on both sides of the Ergun River to the Mongolian Plateau, and the mode of production also changed from hunting to animal husbandry. A new form of folk songs emerged and developed. Over a long historical period, it gradually replaced the neatly structured hunting songs and occupied the dominant position in Mongolian folk songs. It eventually formed the typical style of Mongolian music and had a profound impact on other forms of Mongolian music. .
? It can be said that long tune embodies the characteristics and characteristics of Mongolian nomadic culture, and is closely related to the language, literature, history, religion, psychology, world view, ecological outlook, outlook on life, customs and habits of the Mongolian nation, etc. They are closely linked and run through the entire history and social life of the Mongolian nation. The basic themes of long tunes include pastoral songs, homesick songs, hymns, wedding songs and banquet songs (also called drinking songs).
During the hunting music culture period, its music style was represented by short tunes. Folk songs had the characteristics of short structure, concise tones, clear rhythm, many words and few accents. The overall music style is narrative, song-and-dance, and weak in lyricism, which is also the unique characteristic of human music art in the primitive period. It can be seen from the existing data that some Mongolian folk songs with obvious musical and cultural characteristics of this period are still circulating among the people, such as "Hunting and Fighting Wisdom Song" and "White Sea Blue Dance".
With the transformation of hunting production methods to nomadic production methods, the music style of the second period also evolved from short-key folk songs to long-key folk songs, forming a unique style in the history of Mongolian music. The period of grassland nomadic music culture.
From the perspective of musical morphology, this period not only retained and developed the short-key music style of the hunting period, but also gradually innovated and formed the long-key music style. As far as the long-tune folk songs themselves are concerned, this period also experienced a long inheritance and development process from simple to complex, from low to high. Therefore, in the thousand-year history from the 7th century AD to the 17th century AD, the general trend of the development of Mongolian folk songs can be summarized as: taking short-key folk songs as the basis and long-key folk songs as the innovation.
? The grassland nomadic music culture period was a period when long-tuned folk songs gradually became dominant. It was also an important historical period in the formation of the Mongolian overall music culture style. Since about the 18th century AD (the middle and late Qing Dynasty), with the historical changes and development, the connection between the northern grasslands and the mainland of the Central Plains has been further strengthened, and the pace of integration and exchanges among various ethnic groups has accelerated. The agricultural-based production methods in the Central Plains have also penetrated into parts of the northern grasslands, and cultural exchanges have become more frequent.
? Under this historical background, short-key ballads and long rap songs have gained new development, forming a period of Mongolian music culture that combines farming and animal husbandry. The Mongolian long-melody folk songs of this period maintained their own characteristics and became more mature.
? The themes contained in long-tune folk songs are closely related to the social life of the Mongolian people. It is a song that must be sung in all Mongolian festivals, wedding banquets, gatherings of relatives and friends, "Nadam" and other activities. It is comprehensively It reflects the spiritual history and cultural taste of the Mongolian people. Representative repertoire includes "Walking Horse", "Little Yellow Horse", "Broad Grassland", "Broad and Rich Alxa", etc.
? The study of long-tune folk songs involves many branches of musicology. The research and protection of it is actually the most powerful inheritance and protection of the long-standing grassland civilization and grassland cultural types. In the 20th century, Mongolian long-melody folk songs carry the history of the Mongolian nation, and are also a symbolic display and ideological carrier of the Mongolian nation’s production, life and spiritual character.
In May 2021, the Mongolian Chang Tune Folk Song (Ujimqin Chang Tune) was selected into the "Fifth Batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative Project List".