3)
Joyful
(Jargalan)
Duut tatlaga, Hoton‑Mongolian. Horse‑head
fiddle and singing: Ganbold Muukhai, Bjambahishig Lhagva. Overtone singing and
horse‑head fiddle: Ganzorig Nergui. Toyshuur and singing: Palamjaw
Childee
a) Elegant beauty (Govolog khöörkhii)
A song to tease your lady beloved who is more
beautiful and elegant than the trees
More beautiful than the melted clear waters of
mountain springs
A
gentle melodic song incorporating light 'attacks', harmonized by Altai‑Hangai
and played in different octaves.
b) Sounds
of shaking (Shigshirgiin aya)
The steps of the brown fat horse sound like tovor
tovor
Three strings are shaking, shake, shake, shake
4) Magnificent Tatlaga (Ikh tattlaga)
Bii
tatlaga, Hoton‑ Mongolian. Horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai.
Considered
to be the father of all Hoton tatlagas. In the Magnificent tatlaga dance
generally abstract movements of daily work activities are depicted. For
example, animal husbandry, agricultural activities and the making of felt.
5) Baltsin's Horse (Baltsin kheer)
Domogtoi,
bii tatlaga, Hoton‑Mongolian. Horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai
'Baltsin's
father was an old man when he died. Baltsin, his only son, grieved deeply after
hearing the news of his father's death. Trying to forget his sorrow, drinking
became his daily activity. In need of money he sold his property to a Chinese
trader keeping nothing but his ambling horse. He became a legend, continuously
drunk while mounting his horse, riding day and night visiting families. He was
able to ride at a full gallop with a full cup of airag (fermented mare's milk)
placed on the back of the horse and did not spill any of it.' The sound of
Baltsin's horse is put to music using a few tones and extensive use of
appoggiaturas. Using quick leg and hand movements Baltsin's horse dance
reflects the cadence of Baltsin's gallop. It is customary in western Mongolia
that during competitions related to Baltsin's Legend, full cups of airag are placed
on the head, bended legs and open palms. Whenever any of the airag is spilt the
performer should drink all of the cups. Those who manage to stay sober are the
winners.
6) Let’s Dance/Come! (Naariits biilye)
Folk dance song, Baiad‑ and Dorvod‑Mongolian.
Accordion: Ganbold Muukhai. Horse‑head fiddle and singing: Ganzorig
Nergui, Bjambihishig Lhagva. Tovshuur and singing: Palamjaw Childee.
Palamjaw Childee orchestrated this song, which
contrasts two songs that are different in mood. Combining two totally different
songs is a common musical practice in his place of birth. Starting and ending
with a fast, uncontrolled drunkard's gallop, there is a contrast in the middle
part with a more tempered melody of the Baiad people, Elkendeg. It's a song by
which people are asked to come and join in the dancing, holding and waving
different coloured handkerchiefs. Dancing with eightcoloured dollis, fluttering arms and sleeves.
7) Five Kazaks (Tawan kazakh)
Damogtoi tatioga, Hoton‑Mongolian. Horse‑head
fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai.
'An eight‑year‑old restrained five
Kazakhs from plundering his village and family by playing in his ger (yurt) on
his highly valued horse‑head fiddle, The song he played and sang mirrored
the five Kazakhs who tried to plunder the Hoton village, wanting all five kinds
of animals. In his song the boy urged the Kazakhs to take all the animals
except the one fertile female of each breed.'
Ganbold, being a Hoton‑Mongolian, plays this
boys song because, who knows, maybe the Kazakhs are coming.
8) Handsome Smart Young Man (Seden zaluu)
Dan
khuuryn tatlaga, Hoton‑Mongolian. Horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold
Muukhai.
A
song to make people feel happy. In the early days it was accompanied by a
particular dance, which has now been forgotten. These days people start
improvising their dance on the melody, each in their own way. Dancing
beautifully, handsome, smart, as artists.
9) White Tooraan (Tooraan tsagaan)
Duu
tatlaga, Hoton‑ Mongolian. Horse‑head fiddle and singing: Ganbold
Muuukhai and Ganzorig Nergui. Singing: Palamjaw Childee.
White Tooraan, White Tooraan sands
Whiter
by far, whiter by far in the distance
Whew jet‑black, whew jet‑black, black
marble
Come this way, come this way, my lovely
A
tatlaga on a waltz rhythm continuously repeating the same melodic theme.
10)
Blue Black
Horse
(Jonon khariin yawdal)
Don
khuuryn tatlaga, Hoton‑Mongolian. Horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold
Muukhai.
An average quick tempo piece played with a delightful sound
colour in honour of the blue black horse, which was a good horse.
11)
Red Ox (Uyeiin ulaan tsar)
Domogtoi tatlaga, Hoton‑Mongolian. Horse‑head
fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai.
'Once
upon a time there was a family, known because of their talents in cattle husbandry.
Sometimes they exchanged animals and animal products for other necessary items
with passing traders at market places. One day they exchanged a red castrated
bull. However, the bull never got used to his new owners. Remembering his place
of birth he escaped and ran back to his old home, leaving the trader with a bad
deal.' This tatlaga depicts the bull's journey back home.
12)
An
Orchestration On Göölöö And Gem Gom (Göölöö, Gemgormiin tsomorlog)
Folk tune, Dorvod‑Mongolian.
Singing and horse head fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai, Bjambahishig Lhagva. Overtone
singing and horse‑head fiddle: Ganzorig Nergui. Tovshuur and singing:
Palamjaw Childee.
a) Göölöö
(Göölöö)
'On
a mountain near a mountain spring, a girl named Göölöö used to meet her lover.
Each time they met he gave her a coloured cloth, every time a different colour.
He was not the only one admiring the girl. Jooja, a young man, loved her too,
following her wherever she went. Göölöö never met or knew about him, but one
day suspected somebody was following her up the mountain. Knowing it could not
be her expected lover, she returned home in a hurry, troubled by the idea that
another man showed interest in her. At home she decided to sing a song to
remember her lover while pulling out of a bag the coloured cloths he had given
her, piece by piece. In this way she hoped that, Jooja Would get the message
and would not surprise her on the hills one day and take her away, an act that
would make her his.
b) It's no mistake so do
not blame (Geni goill)
To holdand plav the tovshuur
is not wrong so do not blame.
To live together
and start our life, is no mistake so do not blame.
13)
The Baby
Camel Is A Moon-White As The Mother Camel (Sarig tsagaan ingenii, yarig tsagaan botgo)
Don
khuuryn tatlaga, Hoton‑Mongolian. Horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold
Muukhai
'In the distant past there was it khan who
had to send 1000 camels as a tribute to China. Having only 999 camels he
decided he had no choice but to send a mother camel vith the caravan to
complete the tribute. Her baby camel, left without a mother, cried and looked
for her ever after, but never found her again.
'
Listen to the young baby crying oil the morin khuur!.
14)
Mongolian
Bull
(Mongoliin bukh)
Domogtoi tatlaga, Hoton‑Mongolian.
Horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai.
'Once
upon a time there was a poor person who had only one bull. Other people
desperately wanted to obtain this fertile and strongly built bull. As expected
the poor person had to sell his bull. Selling the bull to a Chinese trader he
lost his fast precious property (the Chinese have traded extensively in the
west of Mongolia bringing tea, silk and cotton with them.) Eventually things
turned out well for the poor man. The bull felt homesick (or didn't like the
grass in China) and escaped to find his way back home where his eventual return
was celebrated by the poor man. Ever since Mongolian people have loved fertile
male animals.' At first glance this story seems the same as that of the
castrated bull but there are differences. The castrated bull isn't considered
very useful and so in all probability he was eaten after his return home. The
journeys of these two bulls also sound different. The fertile bull makes a
lowing sound as soon as he sees a family gathering of gers on his way, the
castrated bull remaining quiet, leaving only the sound of his steps behind.
15)
Shuvtardag (Shuvtardag)
Duu bii tatlaga, Bayad‑Mongolian. Horse‑head
fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai.
Shuvtardag, translated as 'to stroke', refers to a playing
technique. Shuvtardag involves light caressing strokes over the strings using
the left hand, creating flageolets. This is not like the playing of glissandi
notes to move from one specific tone to another tone. These are arbitrary
strokes, which ornament the music and soften the sound. The Shuvtardag dancer
dances with the palms of the hands held upwards, back straightened and legs
bent up to an angle of 55 degrees.
16)
A Suite Or
Medley Of Tatlagas And Folk Songs (Hoton archin tatlagarim tsomorlog)
Bii
duu domogtoi tatlaga, Hoton, Dörvöd, Bayad
Mongolian. Singing and
horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai, Biambahishig Lhagva. Overtone singing
and horse‑head fiddle: Ganzorig Nergui. Tobshuur and singing: Palamjaw
Childee
a)
Dance of worship (Mörgöl bii) A Hoton group dance in which only the upper
part of the body is moved, while the knees are bent and legs spread. The
standing position does not change.
b) Dancing
sun white (Naaraan tsaaraan duut bii)
'Who is this dancer, I can't tell.
He dances with such quick movements, faster than the
wind,
his body melting away, disappearing in the air.'
c) Magnificent
tatlaga dance (Ikh tatlaga bii) 'Long, long ago there was a Dörvöd igil musician visiting a Hoton family where he spent one night. The
whole night he amused the people by playing tatlagas on his instruments, while
the Hoton family members danced. Since this igil tatlaga music was new to them
they improvised a dance that they later named Magnificent tatlaga dance.
Western Mongolian music and dance unites in this Magnificent tatlaga dance and
its music, so some Dörvöd people say.'
d) Blessed
Zhuuraa (Zhuuraa gelden duut bii)
'She was born out of corn and her name is Zhuuraa,
the most beautiful of beauties.
When she dances she is like a gold coloured camel.
When she dances and plays igil (a kind of fiddle)
she's like a female camel.
When she belly dances she's like the walk of a baby
camel.'.
17)
The Ridges
Of Khan Khökhug Mouni Ain (Khan khökhiig nuruu)
Improvisation on nature
sounds. Horse head fiddle: Biambahishig Llhagva (horse neighs and bird whistles), Ganbold Muukhai
and Ganzorig Nergui (overtone singing). Tovshuur and animal sounds: Palamjaw Childee.
Saaral,
a legendary horse‑head fiddle player, was capable of telling a story on
his instrument from beginning to end, without using words. He could produce the
sound of a horse coming from a far, arriving at a family settlement where dogs
bark in warning and horses neigh in surprise, and the hosts bring their ritual
greetings to the guest. The ridges of Khan Kökh Mountain is a song improvised
by Altai‑Hangai and comparable with Saaral’s music, leading the listener
in sound as if on horseback over the mountain pass of Kökh Mountain in Western
Mongolia. Listen carefully and see if you can recognise the clanging sound of
iron stirrups.
18) Lullaby (Buuwein
Duu)
Overtone singing Ganzong Nergui.
Now you little toddler stay
fine,
So that you grow up and
become a hero
Buuwei,buuwei
Buuwei, buuwei, buuwei
Lullaby from Hovd province
19) A Dance Together (Tsotgaan Biilye)
Bii tatiaga, Oirat‑ Mongolian, Horse‑head
fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai. Tovsshuur and dancing: Palamjaw Childee
This musical melody has no
legend attached to it. Accordingly the melody is danced to freely, without
restrictions on the body movements or dance figures.
20)
Among Real
Friends (Bögöödjei yackaw)
Folk
Tune, Dörvöd-Mongolian, Singing and horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai,
Biambahishig Lhagva. Overtone singing and horse‑head fiddle: Ganzorig
Nergui. Tovshuur and singing: Palamjaw Childee
A
song about how the love for life blossoms among friends.
Among more than sixty thousand friends,
Certainly there is the red fire of love,
Among more than a hundred thousand young people
Certainly there, is love at first
sight
21) Horse from Khotgoid (Khotgoidiin unaga)
Folk Tune, Dörvöd-Mongolian, Singing and
horse‑head fiddle: Ganbold Muukhai, Biambahishig Lhagva. Overtone singing
and horse‑head fiddle: Ganzorig Nergui. Tovshuur and singing: Palamjaw
Childee
In Zanabazar’s era (Mongolia’s religious
leader and artist from 1639 until 1723), the khotgoid people, known as hard
working people, worked as frontier guards, since they were also known as people
who like to keep sheep within the fence. Once one of the peace keepers brought
with him a big shanaga (saucepan) which he used to feed the army of people. On
a dull day he carved out of this shanaga an instrument like a horse head
fiddle, but with a deep bass sound and a dragons head on top. The song Horse
from Khotgoid, which is about the Khotgoid horses that were undefeated in horse
races, was most likely played on a shanaga fiddle.
22) Song in Praise of the Hangai Mountains
(Hangain Magtaal)
Magtaal, Singing and horse‑head fiddle:
Ganbold Muukhai, Biambahishig Lhagva. Overtone singing and horse‑head
fiddle: Ganzorig Nergui. Tovshuur and singing: Palamjaw Childee
A song refecting on the natural surroundings
of the Hangai mountain range. Hangai is located in Arhangai province, central
Mongolia.
Tatlaga
Mongolia
can roughly be divided into three main areas of musical practice, representing
western, eastern and central Mongolia. Tatlagas are most popular in Western
Mongolia alongside magtaals (praise songs). The Gobi area of Central Mongolia
is particularly famous for its long songs, but tatlagas, mostly unaccompanied
by dancing, are practiced as well. In the east of Mongolia magtaals are
generally played. The Western and Gobi styles of playing tatlagas differ from
each other. In the Gobi the sound is more melodic. The musicians use fewer of
the double‑string bowing techniques that characterize tatlagas and
instead make more use of single strings, enabling them to move smoothly up to
higher pitches. In the Western Mongolian style it is uncommon to use such an
extended diapason, and relatively small intervals in one octave are employed.
The differences and variations in style complicate the true definition of a
tatlaga. More accurate than the extensive use of double‑string techniques
as a way of describing tatlagas is the definition hidden in the name 'tatlaga',
meaning 'strong pull', which refers to the strong accents made while bowing,
creating a strong cadence. This cadence is intensified by the frequent and
cyclical repetition of rhythmic and melodic phrases, and by the repetition of
song text lines. In the Dance of worship (song #16a) cadence creates the
impression of a mantra recitation.
Tatlaga dancing of Western
Mongolia
A
fine tatlaga dancer is able to express the same rhythmical accents that are found
in the music, requiring a completely different muscular control than, for
example, is needed in classical ballet dancing. Imagine yourself trying to
catch a fly. First you are watching, concentrating without any tension in the
arm muscles, but then ... all of a sudden you need to tighten the muscles in a
grasping movement. The same sudden tension and use of energy is applied in
tatlaga dance movements. The dancer performs, using these 'attacks', repeating
phrases like the musicians, catching a strong cadence. Historically tatlaga is
not a religious or cult music, like magtaals or long songs for example. It’s
music is designed for entertainment, relaxation and social purposes. Here,
entertainment does not imply a constant flow of happiness and fun, but something
more sensitive than that. While performing the dancer communicates his or her
own feelings and emotions. A dancer's performance is considered beautiful if
the dancer is able to dance in a modest and honest way. Everyone can join the
circle of tatlaga dance and music, and one may be a dancer, musician, singer
and listener all in the same evening. At the end of the evening everybody is
supposed to feel better thanks to the divergent range of emotions that have
been celebrated, both happy and sad. And some will say with a wink, 'without
the horse‑head fiddle the evening wouldn't have been as good'. In Western
Mongolian dancing the performers mainly dance with the shoulders, upper arm,
under arm, wrist, fingers, head and eyes. The legs are relatively unimportant.
Palainjaw, the dancer of Altai‑Hangai, thinks this is due to dancing a
lot inside the ger (yurt) which reduces free movement. Western Mongolian dances
start slow and end with faster movements, or they start with faster movements,
have a slow middle part and then end with faster movements once again.
Legends, stories and dancing
The different ethnic groups in Mongolia treasure different legends and
interpretations of these connected to tatlagas. A tatlaga dance expresses these
stories with a kind of pantomime. The dancer makes abstract movements recalling
work activities (making felt, grinding grain, harvesting or making tea) or by
imitating nature (the movements of trees, water and the wind).
Mongolian song texts
Traditional
Mongolian music is seldom purely instrumental, song texts being a basic musical
component. Even when music is purely instrumental as in some tatlagas, words
are connected to it through legends or ideas, and these will be expressed in
musical sound. In long songs, texts poetically praise the beauty of nature.
These words are fixed and will not be replaced by others during the
performance. The text and general melodic lines are the toys with which the
performer may improvise. Each musician introduces variations and ornaments the
text‑based melody in their own preferred tune and rhythm by extending the
duration of the words. In magtaals and yarig tuuls (speech like epic singing)
words are also central to the creative process. The poetic qualities of a
musician should be shown by the spontaneous uttering of words and the ability
to vary the melody and text, as well as the contents of the story. Long songs
are sometimes sung without instrumental accompaniment, sung tatlagas never so.
This is because tatlaga is primarily a string music genre, the use of song
texts having a different application than in long songs, magtaals or yarig
tuuls. The tatlaga song texts are neither improvised nor tools for
improvisation, and their poetic quality is not so important. The tatlaga song
texts are chosen for their sound rather than their content, to match the
melodic cadence played by the horse‑head fiddle player, In tatlaga, it is
the thematic idea or legend that matters above all, creatively expressed in
instrumental music and if possible accompanied by dance.
Rhyme
Mongolian
rhyme is alliterative, and stanzas are built up of two, three or four lines.
Sentences are built up of adjectives, all having nearly the same meaning, and
often lack verbs, which makes them hard to translate. The content of tatlaga
songs is both serious and playful. As in other traditional Mongolian songs the
texts appear to be joyful and sentimental, never giving direct expression to
death, illness or pain. Mentioning bad things in songs is avoided. This springs
from a deep cultural belief that uttering words of pain attracts the latter to
you. At the same time repetition of synonymous good and joyful words is seen as
a kind of magic formula. Care is taken in the use of numbers in song texts too.
Certain numbers being a bad omen ‑ like seven ‑ are banned from the
texts, while lucky numbers like three and nine and other less important uneven
numbers are used in abundance. Bad subjects are sung about, covered in more
pleasant ironic terms, as in political songs dating from the times of Chinese
rule.
Horse‑head fiddle
The
horse‑head fiddle is decorated with a horse's head carved from wood, and
has two strings made of horsehair. The instrument has a hoarse voice, combined
with an unexpectedly clear tone. While resonating the independent hairs in each
string create a diffuse sound of overtones through interference. In Mongolia
these secondary tones are admired. In tatlagas this diffuse sound is strongly
emphasized by the simultaneous playing of natural flageolets, ' broken flageolets
and double‑string techniques and by making light strokes with the left
hand over the strings while bowing. Listen carefully and you will be surprised
to hear so many tones seemingly unintentionally jumping around the general
melody. The clearness in sound produced by the instrument is a recent
achievement,' having come about in the 1960s. Influenced by the European cello
the look and the sound of the horse‑head fiddle have changed. In former
days the sonorous sound was mainly produced through the small high‑pitched
flageolets and the sound did not reach far. Nowadays sounds approaching those
of a cello can be obtained. Replacing the skin cover on the sound-box with wood
is one example of change. The change in sound is not only due to changes in the
instrument itself. European string‑playing techniques have acquired
growing popularity alongside traditional techniques throughout the country
since the 1960’s.
1) Ambling Horse (joroo mori)