Mongolian traditional music comprises a wide range of instruments and manipulation of the human voice found almost nowhere else. Mongol Khuumii is a unique singing technique found in Mongolia and uses the guttural voice and a specific way of breathing. One tone comes out as a whistle-like sound, the result of locked breath in the chest being forced out through the throat in a specific way, while a lower tone sound is the base. The style of khuumii can be distinguished by the direction of air breathed out from deep in the lungs. Another unique traditional singing style is known as Urtiin duu or long songs. It is one of the most ancient genres of Mongolian musical art from the 13th century.
Urtiin duu involves extraordinarily complicated, drawn-out vocal sounds. It has a style evocative of the vast wide spaces of Mongolia and it demands great skill and talent from the singers in their breathing and guttural singing techniques. Mongolian long songs are classified into "lesser long songs", "long songs" and "majestic long songs". The sounds made in the Urtiin duu songs narrate traditional stories about the beauty of the land, and daily life, to which Mongolians offer their best wishes in popular long songs such as "Cool Beautiful Mountains", "Sun of melodious universe" and "Four seasons". It is difficult to find a person in Mongolia, who does not know of N.Norovbanzad, the People's Actress of the country and State Prize winner. Her voice sounds full and clear.
The solemn free-flowing melody calls to mind the boundless steppes, meadow flowers, majestic Khangai and Altai mountain ridges, bright green forests and the fathomless blue sky of Mongolia. She toured many countries, cities and participated in national and international contests, popularising the wonders of the Mongolian Long song. In some traditional music, the small and large drums (damar) are used. The main instruments, played alone or when accompanying singers, are the horse head fiddle (morin khuur), several kinds of lute (tovshuur), a trumpet (buree), three kinds of flute (bishguur, tsuur, limbe), three and four stringed instruments (shanz, khuuchir) and others.
The songs and dances of Mongolian, especially of the Burial and Durvud ethnic groups, which are performed with the accompaniment of the morin khuur and tovshuur, are highly distinctive. While dancing the "Biyelgee " dance, particularly in western Mongolia, mostly the upper part of their bodies is used to express their identity in respect of their sex, tribe or ethnic group. Originally, this dance was performed at festivals in herders' tents, in ceremonies by local dignitaries and in monasteries. The ancient religious mask dance "Tsam" is one of the most significant religious rituals refleeting Buddhist teaching. The custom of celebrating Tsam was introduced into Mongolia in the 16th century from Tibet.
In Mongolia Tsam was enriched with elements of witchcraft and the pagan traditions of the nomads. The Mongolian Tsam costumes and masks, as well as stage sets, differ considerably from those used in other Buddhist countries. They contrast sharply in colour in accordance with local tastes; Mongolian masks were in bold primary colours - red, black, yellow, white and blue - and therefore looked more expressive. Dances imitating the gait of a horse, such as the Jonon Khar and JamalKhar are in general very popular among the Western Mongols - the Durvuds, the Bayads, the Torguuds, the Khotons and the Zakhchins. Each group, however, performs them in its own way.
The ability to dance without using one's feet at all is the mark of the skill in the art. Another popular Mongolian dance is performed with cups. While dancing, people balance cups full of water on their heads without spilling a single drop. The dance varies whether the cups are balanced on the head, on the hand or on the knees. Each dance is distinguished by extraordinary flexibility, composition and colour. In comparing the dances, it would be well to remember that the traditional manner of performing "Biyelgee" and other dances derives from the handing down of techniques and styles from generation to generation reaching us in a somewhat modified form.
