Music
I have always been a music lover. From piano lessons at age five to bassoon, flute, and guitar in my teenage years, I like to make music as much as I like to hear it. In Mongolia, every day is a new opportunity to hear a new style of music; or better yet, a new spin put on an old style. From pop music to traditional instruments, this tiny country definitely has musical gusto.
We turn on the radio in South Dakota, USA, and the music we hear is usually one of three styles: pop, rock, or country. All three genres most likely have lyrics involving some kind of relationship between a man and a woman: they’re just seeing each other, they’ve just fallen in love, they’re madly in love, they’re falling out of love, they hate each others’ guts. If you doubt me, listen to the radio and decide which category the song falls into. Unless things have really changed in the six months I have been gone, I would venture to guess that 75% of the time my theory will hold true.
My theory doesn’t hold here in Mongolia. They have the same genres of music, minus the country (which really could be replaced by the traditional or folk music, as there are dozens of songs about life in the countryside). Mongolians listen to the same pop music that is hot in the USA, but they also have their own spin of each type. It all sounds the same to my ears, Mongolian or American pop or rock music. I can’t understand the lyrics, but my students, friends, and my husband will explain what the songs mean if I ask them. I’m always impressed.
Many times the song has a hard-core rock feeling to it, but it’s actually a nice song about how special the singer’s mother is. The songs may also have an intense sound, like gangsta rap, but it’s a song about Mongolia’s beautiful scenery. One song that Amaraa really enjoys has a pop-ish sound but its lyrics tell about how much the singer misses his home country, Mongolia. Of course there are the stereotypical love songs, but rather than singing about how hot a girl’s ass is, they will sing about her beautiful hair or eyes. Another popular kind of song is the traditional folk music that has been given a pop spin. It would be like taking The Battle Hymn of the Republic and making it into a song that the Backstreet Boys could pop’n’lock to. The traditional music of Mongolia is beautiful.
Traditional Mongolian music also involves a few different instruments developed and played specifically in Mongolia. Perhaps the most famous, or most popular, is the marin khuur. This ornate instrument is believed to bring good luck to the family who keeps it in their ger (or home, as we received one as a wedding gift).This instrument is also called the horse-head fiddle for good reason. The top of the two-stringed instrument has a horse-head, but it is more the size of a guitar than a fiddle. The neck and box are made of wood, though I’m not sure what type. You play it with a bow of horsehair as it sits between your knees. There isn’t another musical instrument in the west that I could compare it with. The sound is haunting.
To add to the mysterious sound of the marin khuur is not an instrument but a voice, most typically a male. Many westerners have heard the throat singers, or have heard the sound; it comes from the back of the mouth or even down into the throat. Some singers have a baritone sound, while others are in the upper range of the scales. Amaraa’s little brother can do some basic throat singing in the upper scales. It always reminded me of the singing cicadas at twilight back in South Dakota – the sound they make as they are warming up for the evening’s songs. It’s a beautiful noise, especially when you hear a trained professional sing in the long songs.
The Mongolian long song isn’t a “long” song so to speak – it’s your average length song, but the lyrics within it are drawn out sounds. Rather than being short words, they hang onto one sound and “play” with it, giving it vibrato, raising or lowering the pitch, joining sounds with the other instruments. When you hear it in the small confines of a ger along with the horse-head fiddle, it’s enough to give me goosebumps.
I have always been a music lover and performer. I can appreciate the effort they have put forth to learn such difficult techniques, whether it is bowing the marin khuur or pulling the strange sounds of throat singing from somewhere within.
We turn on the radio in South Dakota, USA, and the music we hear is usually one of three styles: pop, rock, or country. All three genres most likely have lyrics involving some kind of relationship between a man and a woman: they’re just seeing each other, they’ve just fallen in love, they’re madly in love, they’re falling out of love, they hate each others’ guts. If you doubt me, listen to the radio and decide which category the song falls into. Unless things have really changed in the six months I have been gone, I would venture to guess that 75% of the time my theory will hold true.
My theory doesn’t hold here in Mongolia. They have the same genres of music, minus the country (which really could be replaced by the traditional or folk music, as there are dozens of songs about life in the countryside). Mongolians listen to the same pop music that is hot in the USA, but they also have their own spin of each type. It all sounds the same to my ears, Mongolian or American pop or rock music. I can’t understand the lyrics, but my students, friends, and my husband will explain what the songs mean if I ask them. I’m always impressed.
Many times the song has a hard-core rock feeling to it, but it’s actually a nice song about how special the singer’s mother is. The songs may also have an intense sound, like gangsta rap, but it’s a song about Mongolia’s beautiful scenery. One song that Amaraa really enjoys has a pop-ish sound but its lyrics tell about how much the singer misses his home country, Mongolia. Of course there are the stereotypical love songs, but rather than singing about how hot a girl’s ass is, they will sing about her beautiful hair or eyes. Another popular kind of song is the traditional folk music that has been given a pop spin. It would be like taking The Battle Hymn of the Republic and making it into a song that the Backstreet Boys could pop’n’lock to. The traditional music of Mongolia is beautiful.
Traditional Mongolian music also involves a few different instruments developed and played specifically in Mongolia. Perhaps the most famous, or most popular, is the marin khuur. This ornate instrument is believed to bring good luck to the family who keeps it in their ger (or home, as we received one as a wedding gift).This instrument is also called the horse-head fiddle for good reason. The top of the two-stringed instrument has a horse-head, but it is more the size of a guitar than a fiddle. The neck and box are made of wood, though I’m not sure what type. You play it with a bow of horsehair as it sits between your knees. There isn’t another musical instrument in the west that I could compare it with. The sound is haunting.
To add to the mysterious sound of the marin khuur is not an instrument but a voice, most typically a male. Many westerners have heard the throat singers, or have heard the sound; it comes from the back of the mouth or even down into the throat. Some singers have a baritone sound, while others are in the upper range of the scales. Amaraa’s little brother can do some basic throat singing in the upper scales. It always reminded me of the singing cicadas at twilight back in South Dakota – the sound they make as they are warming up for the evening’s songs. It’s a beautiful noise, especially when you hear a trained professional sing in the long songs.
The Mongolian long song isn’t a “long” song so to speak – it’s your average length song, but the lyrics within it are drawn out sounds. Rather than being short words, they hang onto one sound and “play” with it, giving it vibrato, raising or lowering the pitch, joining sounds with the other instruments. When you hear it in the small confines of a ger along with the horse-head fiddle, it’s enough to give me goosebumps.
I have always been a music lover and performer. I can appreciate the effort they have put forth to learn such difficult techniques, whether it is bowing the marin khuur or pulling the strange sounds of throat singing from somewhere within.
posted by sheridan | 4:27 PM
1 Comments:
Teacher, it's nice to read yor blogs and it's really interesting to hear what you write about mongolians and its lifestyle.hope you'r enjoying mongolia!!!:)
~one of ur students~
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