Mongolian folk songs are famous for their grand voices and melodious tunes. Its content is very rich, including descriptions of love and marriage, praises of horses, grasslands and mountains and rivers, and praises of grassland heroes. These folk songs vividly reflect the customs of Mongolian society.
Mongolian folk songs can be roughly divided into "long tune" and "short tune" according to their musical characteristics.
1. Long tune folk songs. Long-tune folk songs are an idyllic genre that reflects Mongolian nomadic life. They are long in length, free in rhythm, broad in breath, deep in feelings and unique and delicate in vibrato decoration. Long-tune folk songs are sung in Mongolian, with slow and free rhythm, few words and long cavity, and different styles due to different regions. The long-tune folk songs in Xilin Gol grassland are loud and long, with "Little Huang Ma" and "Walking Horse" circulating. Hulunbeier grassland long-tune folk songs are passionate, such as "the vast grassland" and "the girl who stole the horse". The rhythm of folk songs in Alashan area is slow, and popular songs include "Rich and Vast Alashan" and "Farewell". Horqin grassland folk songs are mainly lyrical, and the popular ones are "Homesickness Song" and "Magnificent Horse". Suirei and Yang Meng are popular folk songs in Zhaowuda grassland. Long-tune folk songs can be extended according to the emotional freedom of the singer in some long-tune singing methods, and have the characteristics of vast, bold and rough grassland folk songs in melody style and singing methods. The lining words of long-tune folk songs are "hit one", "yo" and "yo". The contrast of high notes is usually open or semi-open; The interlining of alto is elastic, and the interlining at the end is usually half-open or closed.
Songs such as Ode to the East, a large-scale music and dance epic that was popular in the 1960s, and Upper Daxing 'anling, with enduring artistic charm, were all created on the basis of long-tune folk songs. ?
2. Short-tune folk songs. Obviously different from long-tune folk songs, short-tune folk songs are short in length, compact in tune, neat and distinct in rhythm and relatively narrow in range. Short notes generally rhyme with two lines, two sentences or four sentences, and the beat is relatively fixed. The lyrics are simple, but not rigid, characterized by a large number of overlapping words in phonology. Short-tune folk songs are mainly popular in semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas where Mongolian and Chinese live together. Often improvise, very flexible. More popular are Lama Siba, two green horses of Genghis Khan, wine like honey, brothers pulling camels and so on. Short-tune folk songs are popular in Hetao Plain thousands of miles away from Woye. The folk songs in Tumochuan Plain and other agricultural, semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas in the autonomous region are short-tune folk songs. Short-tune folk songs, also known as climbing tunes and folk songs, are often sung in Chinese. Therefore, not only Mongolians in western Inner Mongolia like to sing, but also people of Han nationality and other nationalities like to sing this kind of folk song. ? Among Mongolian folk songs, there are many long narrative songs, such as the famous Gadamerin, which tells the story of the hero Gada fighting against the king and the reactionary warlord Zhang for the survival of the Mongolian people's pasture and herders.
In the treasure house of national folk art in China, Mongolian folk songs shine with their rich content and unique grassland style, and are deeply welcomed and loved by people. Many artists collect folk songs on the grassland to further organize, protect and spread Mongolian folk songs.
Mongolian is a nation that loves music and can sing and dance well. Known as "music nation" and "poetry nation". Mongolian folk songs have the unique style of national vocal music, which fully shows the simple, hearty, enthusiastic and bold character of the Mongolian people, whether it is loud singing or deep reverberating singing. Mongolian folk songs are magnificent, vast, high in taste and huge in quantity, which amazes the world. Mongolian music has both the common style of the whole nation and the unique style of each region, which can be called colorful. Mongolian folk songs mainly include hunting songs, pastoral songs, hymns, homesickness songs, folk songs, short songs, narrative songs and children's songs.
Hunting songs: Originated from primitive hunting songs and dances, most of them directly simulate the labor life of ancient hunters or imitate the movements of various birds and animals, and sometimes they are allegorical animal narrative songs. Representative works include Hulunbeier League folk songs "Little White Rabbit" and "360 Antelopes".
Pastoral: Pastoral mainly praises grassland, horses and life, and is full of yearning and pursuit for freedom and happiness. The lyrics of pastoral songs are not only good at expressing feelings, but also pay attention to writing and melting scenery, showing the harmonious relationship between man and nature. The formation of grassland pastoral, a unique folk genre and style, has had a great influence on various fields of Mongolian folk songs, such as carols, banquet songs, homesickness songs, wedding songs, love songs and even instrumental music. The grassland style of Mongolian music refers to the pastoral style. The tune of pastoral is loud, loud, broad and stretched. Long rhythm, commonly used dense-sparse-dense-sparse rhythm. Under normal circumstances, the rhythm of the ascending phrase of pastoral is long and slow, and the descending phrase often adopts an active triplet rhythm, forming a gorgeous cadenza.
Hymn: Its content is mainly to praise the famous heroes in Mongolian history and the mountains and lakes in his hometown. Singing in Nadam convention or other gatherings, celebrations and other specific occasions. Such as Ode to Genghis Khan, Vast and Beautiful Hometown, Ode to West Liaohe River, etc. The melody of the hymn is concise and powerful, with clear rhythm and few colorful decorative sounds. Melody ups and downs are not as big as "Prairie Pastoral". Singing forms include solo, chorus, duet and chorus. There are some old hymns and simple harmony. This folk chorus is called "Chaoer" by Mongols, and it is sung by two male singers, with the bass singing a coarse fixed bass and the tenor singing a long tune.
Homesickness song: a very common form of Mongolian folk songs, which plays an important role in Mongolian life. The famous Mongolian songs "Song of Mother and Child" and "Song of Aleqinbo" are homesick songs in Guan Tai-han period. There are two kinds of homesick songs. One kind is the homesickness song of samurai, which refers to the songs sung by Mongolian warriors who joined the army and fought outside. Such as Xilin Gol League folk song "Lotus Pine in the Wilderness". The other is the homesick songs of women, that is, songs sung by young women who are far away from home and miss their relatives in their hometown. Such as Horqin folk song "Nongjiale" and so on. Nostalgia songs are very artistic, with beautiful and smooth tunes, stretched rhythm, rigorous structure, rich and bold use of modes and many methods of modulation.
Etiquette songs: folk songs that are sung on specific occasions and have the characteristics of life customs and practicality, such as banquet songs, wedding songs, requiem and so on. Banquet songs are mainly sung at holiday parties and catering occasions to entertain guests. Singing wedding songs at the wedding, the tune is warm and cheerful. This kind of songs are numerous, difficult and diverse in style, and the host is willing to hire those famous singers to sing at the wedding. Requiem was sung at the funeral. The tune is sad and solemn. Most of them are chorus or chorus. People sang wrestling songs in the wrestling competition of Nadam convention. Whenever the wrestlers from both sides jump out, the tenor will lead the singing, and others will accompany them with fixed bass harmony.
Short song: also known as short-tune folk song, it is the earliest developed folk song. Mainly popular in the eastern Mongols. Love songs occupy a large proportion in short-tune folk songs. Such as Senjidema, Dagula, Little Lovers, etc. It profoundly reflects the good wishes of Mongolian young men and women to pursue freedom and happiness. Secondly, reflecting the Mongolian people's resistance to aggression and exposing the evil behavior of the feudal ruling class, revolutionary folk songs produced in the revolutionary struggle, such as "Dugui Long", "Li Hongzhang who led the wolf into the room" and "Anti-Japanese Song", are all representative works of this kind of short songs.
Ballad: The ballad is short in melody, square in structure and strong in rap. Their singing forms are all self-playing and self-singing, with instruments such as Hu Si or Ma Touqin. Singers can also insert critical dialogues at any time according to the needs of plot and characterization. Originated and developed in the eastern agricultural area of Inner Mongolia. The main theme reflected is to praise the people's uprising and heroes, such as Gadamer's song and the hero Taoketu's song. Tragic stories that show love, such as Noriegema and Dana Barra. Those who oppose religious bondage and yearn for secular life, such as Lama Tanggula and Lama Yin Bao Hoxige.
Haolaibao: Also known as "Haolibao". Mongolian traditional rap art is developed from oral literature. Popular in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, it has been said for more than 700 years. Singing at festivals, weddings and festive occasions. "Haolibao" is a Mongolian transliteration, which means "connection". There are fixed tunes, and the singing forms are single, double and multi-person, but most of them are single. Generally, there are homesickness, praise for horses, folklore, adaptation of classical novels, improvisation and improvisation. It can be either narrative or lyrical, with both praise and irony. There are long and short trajectories. The lyrics are four sentences in one section, alliteration. Or four rhymes, or two rhymes, and dozens of lyrics rhyme to the end. The accompaniment instruments are mostly Ma Touqin and Hu Si. The tune is bold and simple, with more recitation elements and strong grassland flavor. Famous songs include Princess yan dan, Rich Lake Chagan, Better Be an Artist and so on. There are also historical stories of the Han nationality, such as the story of Wang Zhaojun, The Water Margin and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
★ The perfect unity of nature and heart.
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 music" by many musicians and singers, while aestheticians call it "the perfect unity of high freedom between man and nature". This unique artistic conception and charm of blending scenes, learning from nature, and integrating heaven and man highlights the extremely high aesthetic value of Mongolian long-tune folk songs today when human beings enter the era of big industry and the natural ecological environment is seriously damaged.
It is understood that Mongolian polyphonic music is booming. As long as one person leads the long melody and three or five people continue the bass, it will produce 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, cattle, sheep and horses, migratory birds and geese, clear clouds and haze, bright moon and stars, mountains and seascapes, blooming flowers, clear running water, plucked strings, loud songs, parents' kindness, brothers' brotherhood, the guidance of the elderly and world peace ... This song is simply a wonderful teaching material for ideological and moral education.
Ke Fuqin, a famous musician in our region, believes that because of this, Mongolian music is more and more loved by people of all ethnic groups in China, and attracts music students and experts from all ethnic groups to enter the grassland and approach the Mongols with amazing artistic charm. Many famous musicians, such as Xin Huguang, Du Fu, Lu Fu and so on, are like this. They learned Mongolian and Mongolian, even gave Mongolian names, found Mongolian life partners, ate Mongolian milk ... wholeheartedly integrated into Mongolian music culture and even the Mongolian nation, and selflessly dedicated their beautiful youth, life energy and intelligence to grassland and Mongolian music.
★ Historical origin of long-tune folk songs
"Chilechuan, Yinshan, the sky is like a vault, and the cage covers the fields. The sky is wild, and the wind blows grass and sees cattle and sheep. " This well-known Chilean song originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China and vividly outlined the magnificent picture of the northern grassland. When intoxicated with the beautiful scenery described in this poem, we will naturally think of the "song" that accompanies this poem in this "vault".
What is the origin of Mongolian long-tune folk songs? Li Shixiang, director of the Music Department of Art College of Inner Mongolia University, is the first researcher in our region to publish a monograph on Mongolian long tune. As for the historical origin of long-tune folk songs, Li Shixiang thinks that from the historical data and the research results of Mongolian studies, the development history of Mongolian music can be divided into three historical periods, namely, the musical culture period of hunting in deep mountains, the musical culture period of nomadic grassland and the musical culture period of combining agriculture and animal husbandry.
Li Shixiang told reporters that before the 7th century, Mongolian ancestors had been living in Daxing 'anling and Ergon Valley, and the mode of production was mainly hunting. In the long life years, Mongolians have created their own music culture with hunting characteristics, such as hunting songs and dances, shamanism songs and dances, etc. Generally speaking, the musical style of this period is represented by short tone, 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 common 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.
Since the 7th century AD, the Mongolians along the coast of Ergon in the northeast of China, who lived by hunting, began to walk out of the mountains and gradually moved westward to the Mongolian Plateau, becoming stronger while forming a nomadic mode of production. In A.D. 1206, when Genghis Khan, a great historical figure of Mongolia, unified the Mongolian ministries in the northern grassland, he declared that the Mongolian nation officially entered the historical stage of the northern grassland, and naturally became a master of the northern grassland culture along with the historical trend. After receiving the baton of the northern grassland culture, the Mongols injected fresh blood into it in their own way, adding new impetus and making the northern grassland music culture develop rapidly. With the change of hunting production mode to nomadic production mode, the musical style has also evolved from short-tune folk songs to long-tune folk songs, forming a nomadic music culture in the history of Mongolian music.
Li Shixiang believes that the musical and cultural phenomena in the nomadic period of grassland are extremely complicated. From the musical form, this period not only preserved and developed the short-tune musical style of hunting period, but also gradually innovated and formed the long-tune musical 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.
Li Shixiang said that from the18th century (the middle and late Qing Dynasty), with the changes and development of history, the connection between the northern grassland and the Central Plains was further strengthened, and the pace of ethnic integration and exchange was accelerated. The mode of production dominated by agriculture in the Central Plains has also penetrated into some northern grasslands for cultural exchanges.
More frequently. 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.
★ The tune is long, emotional and lyrical.
People who are not familiar with the nomadic people in the northern grassland often think that Mongolian music (folk songs) should be as vigorous and fierce as its external character. In this regard, Li Shixiang, director of the Music Department of the Art College of Inner Mongolia University, believes that this is indeed a misunderstanding.
Li Shixiang told reporters that there are many such proverbs among Mongolians: "A tooth falls into the stomach and a broken arm is hidden in the sleeve." This introversion is reflected in Mongolian folk songs and even the whole artistic aesthetic concept.
"Generally, we have an understanding of the character of nomadic people in the northern grasslands, that is,' brave and good at fighting, rough and bold', but we rarely know the other side of their' delicate feelings, kindness and worries'. If rough and bold is an external character, then kindness and hardship are internal characters, and this kind of yin and yang just complement each other. This inner character is more manifested in Mongolian music art, so it is not difficult to understand the face of Mongolian folk songs "how slow and fast, how sad and happy", and the formation of the inner lyric expression of long-tune songs is inevitable.
★ Love is the fundamental theme of long tune.
In a sense, without love, there would be no human world, let alone art, but because of the different living habits, religious beliefs and living environment of different nationalities, the expression of love will naturally be inconsistent.
Li Shixiang believes that the living environment of Mongolians has always been vast and sparsely populated, and the unique nomadic lifestyle makes them have their own thoughts on love and unique ways to express love. Long-tune folk songs are produced and developed under the impetus of this kind of love. Therefore, the essence and connotation of this kind of love are reflected in long-tune folk songs all the time.