Mongolian songs are divided into two main varieties, one is Wuritingdao or "long tune", and the other is "boginoduu". As an expression related to grand celebrations and festival ceremonies, long tune enjoys a unique and respected position in Mongolian society. Long-tune singing can be heard at weddings, housewarming, baby birth, pony marking and other social activities and religious festivals of Mongolian nomads. Long tunes can be heard in Nadam, a carnival sports meeting that includes wrestling, archery and equestrian competitions.
Long tune is a lyric song, which consists of 32 melodies with a lot of decorative sounds. It praises beautiful grasslands, mountains and rivers, praises parents' love and close friendship, and expresses people's thinking about their fate. Its characteristics are: extensive use of decorative sounds and falsetto, long and continuous flowing melody containing rich rhythm changes, extremely wide range and improvisation forms.
The rhythm of the ascending melody is slow and steady, and the descending melody is often inserted with lively three-tone repetitive sentences, which comes from the imitation of the pace of grassland life. The singing and creation of long tunes are closely related to the pastoral lifestyle of herders, which is still widely continued by Mongolians.
The history of long tune can be traced back to 2 years ago and has been recorded in literary works since the 13th century. To this day, the long tune still retains rich styles of different regions. In the social and cultural life of herdsmen in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China, long tune plays a major role in performance and contemporary music creation.