• Ayalguu - Vol. I - Ensemble Tumbash - Mongolian Impressions - Traditional songs from Mongolia

Ensemble Tumbash, Mongolia
Enkhjargal, Selenge, Sarangerel, Batgerel

The ensemble was founded in June 1999. All its members have studied at the academy of music in Ulaanbaatar.

Tumbash is a symbol for four animals, which live peacefully and happily together. According to an Indian fairy-tale, a pigeon, a hare, a monkey and an elephant lived peacefully and happily together and respect the older. Thanks to their friendship and peaceful togetherness, they had been able to achieve a lot. These animals helped an oppressed people to free themselves from the authorities. By holding together with this people, they could overcome the evil prince and chase away. The word "tumbash" is also mentioned in the ancient Sutra "Subashid", the Treasure of Wisdom.

- Songs from Western Mongolia

5. Buligaar khuren tsunkh - brown leather bag (saddle-bag) - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- When riding you can hear the ice clink beneath the hoofs of your horse and the sweets rustle inside the saddle-bag made of leather. In the countryside, not everybody could afford such a saddle-bag, but only rich, elegant people.

12. Kheden ghilaan khoni - a few sheep - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This is a funny song about an unreliable shepherd, whose sheep get lost, because he forgets his duties.

20. Aranzadmaa - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This is a song about a diligent woman called Aranzadmaa. It describes her cheerful, jolly character.

29. Torguud bielghee - traditional dance - dance tune of the Torguud tribe - Batgerel: morin khuur

31. Jaavai khuu - the boy Jaavai - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This is a song about a very bright, cheerful and diligent young herdsman of horses.

- Songs from Central Mongolia

1. Ukherchin khuu - the young cowboy - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes the various orders of the day of a cowboy.

2. Serevger khadny zereglee - Fata Morgana of a rock - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel. shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- A woman yearns for her beloved one, who is far away from her. She is dreaming of being together with him, but in reality she is still alone.

3. Tsokhiuryn ai - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song was written for the string instrument yoochin. It describes the playing techniques for this instrument.

4. Agsal - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This is a song about a beautiful, strong and fast horse.

6. Naigal gol - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- In this song, the peacefulness and stability of older people and animals is compared with the calmly flowing river Naigal.

7. Ser ser salkhi - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- In this song, sentiments are compared with the wind.

8. Mogoi kheer - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- The song tells the story of a racehorse, which has already won many prizes. It is a real winning horse with an excellent pedigree.

9. Khoshingoo - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song is about a man called Khoshingoo.

10. Suman delt - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- A song about a horse, the mane of which had been cut in the stile of an arrow. This cut is usually applied for festivities and special events.

- The song also tells about a young girl and the character of the man she is in love with.

11. Tald unassan javar - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes the sufferings of an inexperienced boy, who had been accused. But there is also good advice in the song saying one should not feel too angry about inexperience.

13. Vanlii - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- A man adopts a little girl brings her up. The girl grows up and becomes a pretty young woman, whom every man could fall in love with. The man sings of her beauty.

14. Boroony üül - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- Boroony üül means rainy cloud. This is a song about a young woman in love, who is thinking of her neighbours' young guest whenever rainy clouds are passing over the sky.

15. Gan tömör - steel - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes the feelings of a faithful and quiet woman. She wants to live peacefully. The song also describes the feelings of lovers and that are formed by the fire of their love, which is compared with the forging of metal.

16. Torgony khee - silk-pattern - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song is about an offended woman. Her lover had hurt her and now she is thinking of how much she had been in love when she was young.

17. Samryn gurvan tolgoi - three nut peaks - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- A boy has to ride over three mountains in order to meet a young girl.

18. Garyn arvan khuruu - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song tells about the suffering of a woman, who lives separated from her lover.

19. Ai nan aa - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes, how a girl in love is longing for her beloved one. The girl's name is Ai nan aa. She is missing him very much and dreams of him.

21. Tsever okhin - pretty girl - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This is a song about a beautiful girl.

22. Khar mori - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This is a song about a Mongol, who has become impatient and is now riding in a great hurry, because he wants to meet his beloved wife. He is singing about the beautiful landscape, about his beloved one and about his horse.

23. Khandarmaa - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes the character of a beautiful woman called Khandarmaa.

24. Yanzgan zootoi sharga - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song tells the story of two lovers, who haven't seen each other for a long time. When the girl finally hears a horse neighing, she knows that her lover is arriving.

25. Zamagtai nuur - lake with algae - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes the suffering of a girl, who has to separate from the boy she has only just met.

26. Nugar shuvuu - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This is a song about a woman and her hopes that she would not have to separate anymore from her lover.

27. Ödtei bichig - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song speaks of a soldier of past times. He had written a letter to his beloved one and was waiting for her answer.

30. Dund golyn nogoo - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song is the story of a beautiful woman, who gave her lover her richly ornamented scarf, hoping he would always carry it with him and thus never forget her.

32. Tsookhor mori - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song expresses a woman's wish to meet her lover.

34. Ekhiin ach - mother's love - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes motherly love.

35. Buural mori - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- A woman in love is looking forward to meeting her lover and so she hurries up choosing her fastest horse to ride to him.

36. Yan taivan göögöö - love song - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- Thoughts of a woman in love: My thoughts go in the same direction as yours. I am faithful to you and my feelings are only for you.

37. Dörvön uul - four mountains - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes the four mountains that surround the capital Ulaanbaatar. It also speaks of Ulaanbaatar's wonderful environment and the nature as well as about happiness and love in man's life.

38. Böjin tuulai - hare - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This is a song about an anxious woman (she is as easily frightened like a hare), who fears to be given one day to a man she doesn't love.

- Songs from Inner Mongolia

28. Ulgeriin kholboo - fabulous connection - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song was written for the string instrument shanz and it means fabulous connection.

33. Zandan khuren - short song - bogino duu - Batgerel: morin khuur, Sarangerel: shudraga / shanz, Selenge: yoochin, Enkhjargal: limbe

- This song describes the happy live in Inner Mongolia.

- Bogino duu is a short song that is strophic, syllabic and rhythmically tied, and it is 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 every day's life and about animals, especially horses.

Instruments:

	- Morin khuur (string instrument - horse-head-violin)
	The morin khuur is a typical Mongolian two-stringed instrument. The body and the neck are carved from wood. The end of the neck has the form of a horse-head and the sound is similar to that of a violin or a cello. The strings are made of dried deer or mountain sheep sinews. It is played with a bow made of willow, stringed with horsetail hair and coated with larch or cedar wood resin.
	This instrument is used to play polyphonic melodies, because with one stroke of the bow the melody and drone-strings can be played at the same time. The morin khuur is the most widespread instrument in Mongolia, and is played during celebrations, rituals and many other occasions, as well as an accompaniment for dances or songs. Even the sound and noises of a horse herd are imitated on the morin khuur.
	People say that it is connected with a handsome man. It is also played when a ewe doesn't want to suckle her lamb. There is a legend about the origin of this instrument. A Mongol missed his dead horse so much that he used its head, its bones and its hair to build an instrument on which he started to play the familiar noises of his beloved horse.
	- Shudraga / Shanz (string instrument)
	The shudraga or shanz is a long-necked spiked lute with an oval wooden frame with snakeskin covering stretched over both faces. The three strings are fixed to a bar, which is inserted in the body. The instrument is struck or plucked with a plectrum made of horn or with the fingers. As the tones do not echo, every note is struck several times.
	- Yoochin (string instrument)
	The yoochin is a box zither, a dulcimer with 13 double-wire strings. The strings are struck with two wooden sticks, so-called little wooden hammers (it is comparable with the santur of the Persians). It has a black wooden soundboard richly decorated with ornaments.
	The instrument was only familiar to townspeople and in the beginning of all only they played it.
	- Limbe (wind instrument)
	This instrument is frequently used in accompaniment, occasionally also as a solo instrument. In former times it was made of bamboo or wood, nowadays mostly of plastic, particularly the instruments that are imported from China. These flutes (transverse flutes) are closely bound up with the nomads of Central Asia.
	The length of the flutes is approx. 64 cm, with nine holes, whereof one is the blowhole and two others are reserved for the tuning. It is often played with circular breathing*. The sound reflects what is heard in the nature or the sounds of the natural and social environment.
	- *Circular breathing: one note is blown, while the musician inhales through his nose. The air is collected inside the cheeks and exhaled by the pressure of the cheeks' muscles (same principle as for the bagpipe). The base of the tongue is used as a valve.

More information on the history of the Mongols and traditional songs from Mongolia see:
- Duo Temuzhin, "Altai-Khangain-Ayalguu", FM 50023
- Ensemble Temuzhin, "Altai-Khangain-Ayalguu 2", FM 50026
- Ensemble Ardiin Ayalguu, Solongo, FM 50024.

Many thanks to Enkhjargal Chuluunbaatar, Selenge Zangad, Batgerel Tsegmed , Sarangerel
Shagdarsuren, Oyuntuya Saldan and Silvia Delorenzi-Schenkel for helping with the translation

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