• Altai-Khangain-Ayalguu 2 - Ensemble Temuzhin - Traditional Songs of Mongolia

	- Urtyin duu - long song,
	melismatic and richly ornamented, with a slow tempo, long melodic lines, wide intervals and no fixed rhythm.
	It is sung in verses, without a regular refrain and with a full voice in the highest register. The melody has a coat which covers over three octaves. This requires a strict observance of the breathing rules. The breathing is actually free, but the singer has to keep to the strict rules of performance, making only the abolutely necessary breathing breaks without interrupting the melodic ornaments. The richer the voice is and the longer the singer can hold it, the more internsive is the attention paid by the auditors and the more his performance is appreciated.
	People usually practise these long songs while being alone in the open steppe and riding along slowly. The repertory is an expression of the liberty and the vastness of the Mongolian steppe and is used to accompany the rites of the seasonal cycles and the ceremonies of everyday life. Long songs are an integral part of the celebrations held in the round tents and they must be sung after the strict rules of performance.

	There are three categories of long songs:
	- The shortened ones have short verses, refrains and melodic courses full of leaps and bounds.
	- The extended ones with uninterrupted flowing melodies, richly ornamented, containing long passages in falsetto.
	- The usual ones are shorter, less ornamented and without falsetto.

	- Bogino duu - short song
	strophic, syllabic, rhythmically tied, sung without ornaments.
	Short songs are never used at celebrations, since they are spontaneously improvised and rather satirical. They are often lyrical tales about love, about the everyday life and about animals, especially horses.
	- Tuuli - heroic-epic myths
	Mongolian epics report about fierce fights between the good and evil powers in a highly qualified literary poetry. The recital of epics was always bound to rituals and it was believed to have magical power. The recitation should have a favourable influence on natural spirits as well as the power to expulse evil spirits. Generally, the epics were sung inside the round felt tents of the shepherds, during the period of their search for the winter quarters, before the hunt or a battle, and against infertility or disease.
	- Magtaal - praising songs
	Magtaal are sung in honour of the gods of Lamaism and the nature spirits, heralds or particular animals. Epic texts also contain praise songs for the mountains, the rivers and nature in general. This is an ancient tradition still practised up to date by the tribes in the region of Mongol-Altai in Western Mongolia.
	- Khöömij - overtone singing
	The performance of overtone singing takes usually place during social events such as eating or drinking parties.

	The Mongols call their overtone singing höömij (= throat, pharynx). The singer creates a constant pitched fundamental considered as a drone, and at the same time modulates the selected overtones to create a formantic melody from harmonics.
	Several techniques are known, depending on the vocal source and the place of resonance: kharkhiraa = lung, khamriin = nose, tövönkhiin = throat and bagalzuuriin = pharynx. Overtone singers form and vary sound and timbre with their mouth, teeth, tongue, throat, nose and lips. They always form two distinct tones simultaneously sustaining the fundamental pitch.
	Overtone singing can also be heard from Turkic-speaking tribes in disparate parts of central Asia. The Bashkir musicians from the Ural Mountains call their style of overtone singing uzlyau; the Khakass call it khai, the Altai call it koomoi and the Tuvinians khoomei.
	Up to date, overtone singing is a common feature of Siberian peoples as well as the Kazakhs and Mongolian tribes. Overtone or throat singing is a special technique in which a single vocalist produces two distinct tones simultaneously. One tone is a low, sustained fundamental pitch (a kind of drone) and the second is a series of flutelike harmonics, which resonate high above this drone. Who masters this singing technique may even make the overtone sound louder then the fundamental pitch, so the drone is not audible anymore. A different technique often used by overtone singers combines a normal glottal pitch with the low frequency, pulse-like vibration known as vocal fry. The Turkic tribes in the Altai use to sing their texts in such a low vocal fry register of about 25-20 Hz).

Yavgaan, höömij, khun tovshuur

The folk and song ensemble Temuzhin was established in 1990 by the "Khan-Altai" Foundation.
Temuzhin was the boyhood name of the great "Genghis Khan", who was not only a warrior and conqueror, but also a lover of the fine arts which he furthered a great deal at his court.

- More songs and information about Mongolia see:
Duo Temuzhin - "Altai-Khangain-Ayalguu" FM 50023
and Ensemble Ardiin Ayalguu - "Solongo" FM 50024

Review:
- published by Green Man Review
- published by Ethnotempos
- published by Main-Echo - 1998
- published by Magazine i Fiati - Italy - 1999
- published by neue musikzeitung 2002

Selenge - yoochin

Amarjargal, morin khuur - Yavgaan, höömij, khun tovshuur - Ensemble Temuzhin

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