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IV. 20th-century political influences
1. The communist periods.
After the victory of the Soviet-inspired communist revolution in Mongolia in 1924,
music was increasingly used by the new regime as an ideological tool with which
to fashion a ‘socialist national identity’. Implementation of the formula ‘national in
form, socialist in content’ involved the elimination of diversity and the
neutralization (saarmagjih) of distinctive musical traditions. In Inner Mongolia,
Mongol music was changed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–76).
(i) Neutralization and folklorization.
In the Mongolian People's Republic of the 1920s and 30s, soldiers trained to play
‘national’ instruments disseminated ‘cultural enlightenment’ to scattered nomadic
groups. Anything representing past traditions or difference, or symbolizing ethnic
or group identities, was forbidden and destroyed. Although the forms of many
traditional genres were retained, such as long-songs or praise-songs, contents
were stripped of religious or ethnic references and replaced by approved lyrics
such as praise of secularized nature, the motherland, industrial workers, patriotic
heroes and the Party.
Epics survived in bowdlerised form by being mobilized as examples of creative
‘national’ genius (see BAATARYN AVIRMED). They were classified as ‘ancient
literature’ because they are rich in poetical devices such as vowel harmony,
formal parallelism and line-initial alliteration. The latter is the oldest technical
device in Mongolian literature, used, for example, in the 13th-century Secret
History of the Mongols. Epic studies concentrated on textual analysis rather than
context. The identification of a common ‘oral literary language’ in heroic epics
from different groups of Western Mongols was convenient for a regime intent on
eradicating difference.
As in other communist countries, traditional music was ‘folklorized’ and Western
art forms introduced. The Russian musicologist Boris Feodorovich Smirnov
organized the first folk ensemble orchestras in which European and Mongolian
national instruments played together, travelling to newly-built regional theatres to
train musicians. Under Smirnov's influence, tuning systems were standardized;
for instance, of the 12 traditional tuning systems for the huur, only tungalog hög
(‘bright’ or ‘clear’ tuning) was allowed (see HUUR, §1(I), Table 1). European
notation had to be learnt, instruments were ‘modernized’ and holding positions
changed.
Because the half-tube zither or YATGA was associated with the aristocracy and
with Buddhist practices, it was initially disapproved of by the new revolutionary
regime; it fell into disuse until reintroduced during the 1950s as a ‘national’
instrument to be played in folk ensemble orchestras. In both the Mongolian
People's Republic and in Inner Mongolia, instruments were modified to be able to
play alongside European instruments. Under Chinese communism in Inner
Mongolia, contexts of performance also had to change. Jamusu, a court musician
in the orchestra of Prince De, for example, won prizes in competitions after the
1949 revolution and from 1960 to 1964 taught at the Inner Mongolia Art School.
Most Buddhist instruments and tsam masks were destroyed; some were hidden
by herders until the 1990s when, with the introduction of democracy, they felt
able to acknowledge their existence (fig.5).
(ii) Opera, ballet, orchestral and chamber music.
Magsarjavyn Dugarjav (1893–1946) used the new European scale system in his
revolutionary song compositions, for example Ulaan Tug (‘The Red Flag’, 1921)
and Mongol Internatsional (‘Mongol International’, 1923), and became known as
the ‘father’ of the new music. In 1942 Belegiin Damdinsüren (1919–92), together
with B.F. Smirnov, composed the first Mongolian opera, Uchirtai Gurvan Tolgoi
(‘Among Three Mountains of Sorrow’); in 1947 Damdinsüren initiated chamber
music as a genre with his composition for solo violin Hentiin öndör uuland (‘In the
Tall Mountains of Hentii’). Damdinsüren twice received the state prize of the
Mongolian People's Republic (Bugd Nairamdah Mongol Ard Uls (BNMAU)-yn
Töriin Shagnal): in 1949 for his musical drama Iim Negen Haan Baijee (‘Such a
Khan there was’) and in 1951, together with Luvsnjambyn Mördörj, for joint
composition of the national anthem of the Mongolian People's Republic (BNMAUyn Töriin Duulal). Mördörj also received the award in 1946 for having used the
new European tonal system in his musical setting in 1944 of Sengee's poem Eh
Oron (‘Motherland’).
Sembiin Gonchigsumla (1915–91), composer of opera, ballet, symphonic and
film music, was awarded the state prize in 1961 for the ballet Ganhuyag (‘Steel
Armour’). Jamiyangiin Chuluun (1928–96), whose ballet Uran Has (‘Artisan Has’,
1973) founded the Mongolian School of Ballet, received the state prize in 1966,
the People's Artist of the Mongolian People's Republic award (BNMAU-yn Ardyn
Jüjigchin Tsol) in 1971 and the Order of Sükhbaatar (Sühbaataryn Odon) in 1988
for his contribution to the development of classical music and ballet. Davyn
Luvsansharav (b 1926) was honoured with the state prize in 1963 for his
composition of the song Herlen (‘Herlen’).
Recent recipients of state prizes include Byambasürengiin Sharav (b 1952), who
received it in 1992 for his choral work Zambuu Tiviin Naran (‘Sun of Zambuu Tiv’,
1981), Symphony no.2 (1987) and orchestral prelude Sersen Tal (‘Awoken
Steppe’, 1984); Tsogzolyn Natsagdorj (b 1951) in 1993 for his opera Üülen Zaya
(‘Cloudy Fate’, 1988) and Symphony no.4 Hödöögiin Saihan (‘Beauties of the
Countryside’, 1990); and Natsagiin Jantsannorov (b 1949), who combines
traditional arts such as the long-song, overtone-singing and the horse-head fiddle
with European instruments in his orchestral compositions, for example Mongol
Ayalguu (‘Mongolian Melody’, 1993).
(iii) Pop and rock music.
Although the communist regime tried to guard against influences from the world
outside the communist block, pop and rock music influences began to creep in
during the late 1960s. Two state bands were formed: Soyol Erdene (Precious
Culture) in 1967 and Bayan Mongol (Rich Mongolia) in the late 1970s. Both
played a genre known as estrad (from the Fr. estrade, meaning ‘stage’), found in
all countries of the former Soviet Union. Translated into English as ‘variety’, it
consisted of a mixture of popular and traditional songs. Song lyrics that glorified
the homeland and praised parents were arranged in regular rhythm for brass,
electric organ, bass and drums to produce middle-of-the-road sounds. The bands
were affiliated with the state-sponsored Philharmonia, which acted as manager,
booking agent and censor and played in the auditoria of ‘houses of culture’.
Uhnaa, founder of Soyol Erdene, spent six years training in the conservatory in
Bulgaria. He is a gavyat (state-merited artist), ‘Conductor of Variety’ and director
of the Mongolian PO. Soyol Erdene became influenced by different kinds of
music as it changed personnel. Initially drawing on the Beatles and Queen, the
band became more rock-influenced in the late 1970s under the leadership of
Zundar’, then jazz orientated under G. Jargalsaihan in the early 80s; it
metamorphosed into a pop-rock group during the early 1990s.
2. Recent trends.
In post-communist Mongolia, musics of various provenances are being
performed. On the one hand, diverse traditional vocal styles are being promoted
(by a long-song association inaugurated in 1991), the validity of reducing
Mongolian tonality to the European scale system is being questioned, and
instruments confiscated during the hardline revolutionary years are being played
and taught again. On the other hand, the Soviet-constructed traditional music
continues to develop, as professional ‘traditional’ musicians make recordings for
global consumption and are invited to perform in the West, and as traditional
instruments are used in orchestral compositions. Gavyat Tsendiin Batchuluun (b
1952), for instance, created in 1989 the Morin Huuryn Chuulga (Horse-Head
Fiddle Ensemble), which plays classical music and ‘national’ compositions.
The revival of religious practices such as the Buddhist tsam and shaman music
has been complicated by their performance by professional actors and dancers
in secular contexts. Rock groups are no longer sponsored by the state and in
name connect with their historical heroes and belief systems (e.g. Chinggis
Khan). Female pop singers are beginning to contest traditional gender roles and
relations. For instance, in 1996 Oyunaa promoted her own concert in
Ulaanbaatar to raise money for the vicitms of spring fires and floods; Saara had a
hit record with the feminist song Chi Heregüi (‘I Don't Need You’); and Soyol
Erdene's vocalist Ariunaa declared, ‘I am the Mongolian Madonna’.
Finally, there are disjunctures, tensions, flows and accommodations taking place
between local and global soundscapes as Mongols participate musically on the
world stage. Overtone-singing, for instance, has become a sonic icon of the
exotic and spiritual ‘other’ for Westerners: while some Mongols continue to use it
in traditional ways, others are shifting their ideoscapes to accommodate Western
expectations.