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, and both loud and resounding songs fully show the simple, hearty, enthusiastic and bold character of Mongolian people. Mongolian folk songs are magnificent, vast, high in taste and huge in quantity, which amazes the world. Mongolian music not only has the same style of the whole nation, but also has the unique style of each region, which is 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.