1.
Mongolian national music
Odes to nature , horses and the steppe
are popular themes of traditional Mongolian music .Long songs , as the name
suggest have lasted a long time and are loved by Mongolians. The original long
time and written about 800 years ago and there are special songs for weddings,
festivals and religious ceremonies,. Traditional Mongolian Instruments include
string and wind instruments through the ages using metal, stone , bamboo,
leather and wood.
The most popular instruments is the
´Morin khuur’ – Morin Khuur / horse geaded fiddle/. It is square fiddle with
long, straight handle curved at the tip and topped with the carving of a
horse’s head. It is said to represent the movement and sounds of a horse. Every
Mongolian family strives to have a morin khuur
in their ger even though they are hand made and fairly expensive
instrument. In the beginning it was simply a ladle for airag on which strings
were strung. At that time the instruments was called ‘shanagan khuur’ / shanaga
is ladle or dipper/. Later sounds and board took the form of a trapeze and the
master carvers who made these popular insrtumants began to decorate them with whimsical
figures. Then the head of horse , an animal greatly, loved by all Mongolians ,
appeared on the neck, and the name was changed to morin khuur. Twelve animals
are carved on the neck I accordance with twelve years cycle of the lunar
calendar. The Morin Khuur has two strings and bow made from the hair of horse’s
tail. At the top of the morin khuur’s neck is a horse head, but here too, there
are 5 other animals – horse, camel, cow, sheep and goat, Mongolian symbols of
wealth ad plenty. The morin khuur is most suitable to accompany the traditional
long and short songs and Mongolian classical dance bielgee. Last year our
president declared ‘Morin khuur is our state instrument ‘ so government founded
horse headed fiddle orchestra. In 13th century Mongolia had those
kind of famous orchestra. Usually Mongolians use the horse headed fiddle;
Naadam, Swhite Month, wedding and other big ceremony.
Legend about Morin khuur , national instrument
It has ancient origins and is purely
Mongolian musical instruments.
Once open time there was a pure man. He
had a wonderful steed. The horse was a special one: It was faster than bird and
could instantaneously cover great distances. But one day he pound his horse
died near his ger. So his heart broken, he began to make a fiddle from his
horses bones, tendons and hair. Then he fixed the horses head to the handle and
over come with grief lie his own head on it to unit him self spiritually to his
dead friend. So he started to playing the morin khuur describing he’s bellowed
steed’s steps, gallop hurdle, trotting and neighing. Thus goes the ancient
legend of the illians about the origin of the morin khuur.
1.what is the Morin Khuur?
2.who did make the Morin khuur?
3. Why does the people like Morin
Khuur?
4. How to make Morin Khuur?
Khuuchir /strings instrument/
Formerly, nomads mainly used the snake
skin and violin or horsetail violin. The Chinese call it “The Mongol
instrument” or “Huk’in”. It is tuned in the interval of a fifth and is small or
middle sized. The khuuchir has a small cylindrical, square or cup-like
resonator made of bamboo wood or copper, covered with a snake skin and open it
the bottom. The neck is inserted in the body of the instrument it usually has for
silk strings, of which the first and the third are accorded in a unison,
whereas the second and fourth are tuned in the upper fifth. The bow is coated
with a horsetail hair and inseparably interlaced with the strings pairs: in
Chinese this is called “sihu”, that is “four”, also meaning, “having four
ears”. The smaller instruments have only two strings and are called “erh’hu”,
that is “two” in Chinese.
Yatga /string instrument/
The yatga is half-tube zither with a
movable bridge. It is constructed as a box with a convex surface and an end
bent towards the ground. The strings are plucked and the sound is very smooth.
The instrument was considered to be sacrosanct and playing it was a rite, bound
to taboos. The instrument was mainly used at court and in monasteries, since
strings symbolized the twelve levels of the palace hierarchy. Shepherds were forbidden
to play the twelve-stringed zither, but they were allowed to play the ten-stringed
zither, which was also used for interludes during recitations of epics.
Mongolians traditionally play three types of this zither, differentiated by
their resonators or hollow bodies in which the sound is amplified. Designs
include the master yatga, ikh yatga, the national yatga, akhun ikh yatga and
the harp, called the bosoo yatga.
-
See following’ master yatga with 21
strings (ikh gariin yatga)
Yoochin /string instrument/
Box zither – dulcimer with 13 double –
wire strings. The strings are struck with two wooden sticks, so-called little
wooden hammers (comparable with the santur of the Persians). It has a black
wooden soundboard richly decorated with ornaments. The instrument was only
familiar to townspeople and first of all only they played it.
Shudraga / Shanz (string instrument)
-
With a sound comparable to that of a
banjo
The shudraga of shanz is a long-necked
spiked lute with an oval wooden frame with snake skin covering stretched over
both faces. The three strings are fixed to bar, which is inserted in the body.
The instruments is struck or plucked with a plectrum made of horn of with the
fingers. As the tones do not echo, every note is struck several times.
Khun tovshuur / tovshuur (string instrument)
The khun tovshuur is a two-stringed
instrument similar to the lutes of Tuva, Altai of Kazakhstan, The body and the
neck are carved from cedar wood and the body is often covered with the leather
of wild animals, camels of goats. The head of the neck is formed like a swan.
The Mongol legends say that they originate from a swan. The strings are wound
from horsetails hair and tuned in the interval of a fourth.
The West Mongols used this traditional
instruments to accompany the “tuuli” (heroic-epic myths) and “magtaal” (praise
songs).
1. Can you play instruments?
2. Which one is traditional instrument?
3. What kind of instruments do you like?
4. How to make instrument?
No comments:
Post a Comment