Mongolian Singing

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region in northern China and is known for its distinctive musical traditions, which often tell stories of Mongolian life or religion. One of the most ancient Mongolian traditions is throat singing in which the singer is able to hit multiple notes at the same time. Because each syllable is greatly extended, a four-minute song may have only ten words and is called a Long Song. Singing is typically accompanied by the morin khuur, a horsehead fiddle, or the topshuur, a two-stringed plucked instrument. This video features the members of Ih Tsetsn (音和思琴樂團), a Mongolian music group that appeared at the 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program China: Traditiona practice, skill, or talent that is passed down from generation to generation. and the Art of Living. One member of the group explains that their parents are either singers or instrumentalists who use music to interpret their lives in Mongolia. “You cannot get away from nature, and the grasslands [of Mongolia] are closest to nature,” he explains. “No matter how the world develops, the music of the grasslands should spread across the world.”