12. Listen to “Urtïn duu (Long song) with khöömei” (CD 2.

1) of Mongolia to answer the

following questions:
a. What is this kind of vocal tradition? “Urtïn duu (Long song) with khöömei” is a
type of vocal tradition called throat singing plus long song tradition and an import
cultural symbol of the Mongolian ethnic group in China. After listening to the
song, I can say that the drone pitches create different timbres by changing the
shape of your mouth and the tongue movements. This vocal tradition comes from
Mongolia’s music and has spiritual and religious significance, because they
believe that this tradition allows for the communication between the worlds of
humans and spirits.

b. What are harmonics/ “overtone singing?” This is called “overtone singing” and
this type of harmonics is khöömei (also romanized as höömii), also called throat-
singing. What makes this form of singing so unique is the way the singer
manipulates what are called “overtones”. A series of harmonics, called overtones
have a timbre and tone that is different. It has a lower overtone that sounds
“warm,” whereas one in which the upper overtones are “bright” or “harsh. In
addition, the mouth cavity brings out different patterns of overtones by the
performer. In addition, the series of well-controlled overtones produces a melody
over a drone.

c. What stringed instrument often accompanies this style of music and how is its
construction emblematic of Mongolian cultural history? The instruments used are
Mongolian morinhuur (two-stringed, “horse-head” fiddle) which is a trapezoid-
bodied, long-necked bowed lute that has a carved horse-head. I think it is a very
interesting type of music. It sounds very traditional, and I enjoyed the vocals and
fiddle sound. Horse carving is commonly used in traditional Mongolian life
because these people live in rural areas and lived with the horses in their nomadic
communities. In the Mongolian communities the horse is mobile and represent
strength. It is important to mention that were nomadic herders, riding horses over
the country’s vast grasslands, thus horses have always been a big part of their
history.