The Mongolian music group Tumen Ekh is a well-traveled ensemble comprised of singers, dancers and musicians. They perform traditional Mongolian songs and music as well as newer hybrid forms that include a synthesis of regional styles from related cultures. Tumen Ekh draws from many resources, and adds members from different performing disciplines, when needed, to display diverse performance styles and traditions. Western audiences have been especially enthusiastic about Tumen EkhÆs Tsaam dance performances that are traditionally a part of Buddhist annual religious celebrations. Tumen Ekh is one of the most popular performance groups in Mongolia and has traveled to Japan and Europe many times.
MongoliaÆs legendary singer, N. Norovbanzad, has been recognized as the greatest Mongolian singer of the century and is the pre-eminent exponent of the Mongolian long song form. The more-than-seventy-year-old Norovbanzad has rarely performed outside Mongolia and is making her Washington, D.C. debut.
The Mongolian folk song tradition has two principal forms: the urtyn duu (long song) and bogino duu (short song). The urtyn duu is one of the richest and most treasured of the ancient arts of the Mongols, and is characterized by certain patterns of ornamentation, such as portamento, trill-like yodels, and passages of great melismatic complexity. The tonal range of such songs is unusual û as much as three octaves. Hoomii, or overtone singing, is a unique Mongol vocal style using the throat. It is only performed by men because it needs much physical strength, although there is no particular taboo against its use by women.
Mongolian folk songs are usually accompanied by instruments, often the morin huur (ôhorse fiddleö). The name varies somewhat among different tribes: the instrument may sometimes be called shanagan huur or ôscoop violinö after the shape of the body. The morin huur came into being in the second century BC, during the rule of the Huns. There are many legends about its origins. One tradition has it that there once lived a man, Hohoo Namjil, who had an extraordinarily fast and winged horse. A jealous woman cut off the horseÆs wings, so that it died. To demonstrate his love for the beast, Hohoo Manjil made a morin huur, whose peg-box was carved in the shape of the horseÆs head and whose strings were made of the hair of the horseÆs head and tail. It is said that when Hohoo Namjil played the morin huur it gave a vivid impression of the neighing and hoof beats of his horse.
5/8/06: Tumen Ekh
6/11/01: Tumen Ekh
