Mongolian horse head violin
| Mongolian name | |
|---|---|
| Mongolian script : | ᠮᠣᠷᠢᠨ ᠬᠤᠭᠤᠷ |
| Transliteration: | morin quɣur |
| Cyrillic script : | морин хуур |
| ISO transliteration : | morin huur |
| Transcription: | morin chuur |
| Chinese name | |
| Traditional : | 馬頭琴 |
| Simplified : | 马头琴 |
| Pinyin : | mǎtóuqín |
The Mongolian horse head violin ( Mongolian morin chuur, morin huur, morin khuur ; Chinese matouqin ) is a two-stringed box lute that is bowed and adorned with a wooden horse's head at the top of the neck. It is the most important musical instrument of the Mongols and is considered a national symbol of Mongolia .
In China, the matouqin is one of several instruments in the huqin family (胡琴, "foreign qin "), which also includes the erhu .
Design
The instrument resembles a bass viol in terms of its dimensions and playing posture and, like this, is held upright with the sound box between the knees of the musician. The rectangular or slightly trapezoidal sound box used to consist of a wooden frame covered with leather, with a small opening on the back. Today, however, wooden ceilings with carved F-holes based on the European pattern are common.
The long neck is closed by a carved horse's head instead of a snail above the pegbox. The two strings run from the lower end of the body to the head, where they are tuned with lateral vertebrae . In the middle of the body there is a bridge which transfers the vibrations to the resonance body.
The traditional bow does not have a mechanical tensioning device. It is held under grip and tensed with the fingers as required, which enables very fine control of the timbre. When rosin is resin of Siberian larch or Zirbelkiefer used. Today, however, arches that are held overhand and those with a jig are also used.
Traditionally, the strings as well as the covering of the bow consist of tail hairs from Mongolian horses , which are also used as symbols of dignity in the originally Mongolian horse tail . The hairs of the strings have no cohesion, ie they are neither spun together nor wrapped. The lower (“male”) string contains approx. 130 hairs, the higher (“female”) string approx. 100 hairs. The lower string is - seen from the player - on the left, the higher one on the right. The strings in modern instruments usually consist of around 500 nylon threads.
The nylon strings on modern instruments should be checked for kinks before being pulled and, if necessary, smoothed with a hair dryer under tension. Then the strings are combed until the threads are all parallel to each other. Too many threads make the strings difficult to vibrate. The high string should be about 1/4 thinner than the low string.
Horse hair is also possible, but it should be hair from a male horse, as the urine of mares decomposes the hair somewhat. Take 120 hairs for the low string and 105 for the high string. The bow is usually coated with black rosin.
Style of play
Traditionally, the two strings are tuned in a fifth , but often also in a fourth when performing modern music . The basic tuning is mostly Bb-F (Si Bemole Fa) or AE (fourth), but there is also an A-Bb tuning or GE ( sixth ). The sound of the horse head fiddle is usually soft in the approach and dynamic in color. The range (ambitus) is similar to that of a viola . Both nylon and horse hair strings last between two and six months (when in use).
There is no fingerboard to press the strings down on. The musician changes the pitch by pressing the strings to the side with the fingernails of the thumb, index finger and middle finger, as well as with the fingertips of the ring finger and little finger. When playing on the higher string, the little finger grips under the lower string.
Since most Mongolian melodies are pentatonic , the fingering technique is not too difficult. The first octave from F to F is played on the low string, the F 'is easy to play with the little finger. You then switch to the high string with your index finger and continue playing with the G '. Then the ring finger lands on the Bb ', which then settles in again relatively easily. The higher notes are then relatively difficult to play because the bow tension, the string tension and the pressure of the finger on the string must be precisely matched.
In Mongolia there are many pieces called tatlaga , which are mostly of historical origin, are played on both strings and very often natural sounds are simulated, such as a camel, a horse or a cow. The best-known pieces are called Jonon Khar , "black stallion" and Builgan Shariin Yavdal , "gait of the bleating camel". The sound reminds the Mongols of the wind of the steppe and the neighing of their horses. Many other sounds will also be audible on the instrument. In spring, families often hold a ceremony where a horsehead fiddle player chases away the winter ghosts.
At music high schools or further education schools in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia , you initially complete a classical musical education in six years. Since there are only two strings, the fingering technique is crucial. Between the C 'and the C' 'you can play a whole octave without moving your hand on the neck of the instrument and thus achieve more stable and precise tones than if you play higher and higher on a string in half-octave steps. In four-string instruments such as the violin or the cello, the strings are usually divided into basic notes so that you can play two octaves with the same hand position.
Internationally known ensembles that play horse head violin, among others, are Egschiglen , Violons Barbares , Huun-Huur-Tu and The Hu .
The music of the horse-head fiddle was approved by the UNESCO in the 2003 List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage added.
origin
The first evidence of musical practice in this region is the fragment of a musical instrument from a Scythian kurgan (burial mound) from the 5th century BC. In the Altai, which was reconstructed as a bow harp .
In 2008 a stringed instrument with a horse's head was discovered in a crevice grave at Jargalant Khairkhan in western Mongolia. It was on the 7th / 8th Dated 17th century AD. The scientific evaluation showed that this instrument must have been an angle harp.
Chinese historiography explains the origin of the matouqin as a further development of the xiqin (奚 琴), an instrument family that is native to the valley of the Xilamulun River in northwest China. Originally it is assigned to the people of the Northern Xi (奚). The first written mention is in the music encyclopedia Yue Shu written by Chen Yang in 1105 (during the Northern Song Dynasty ) , in which it is described as a strange two-stringed lute.
In the Secret History (13th century) a court musician named Argasun Khuurch (Argasun the violinist) is mentioned. What kind of string instrument he played remains in the dark.
In the 13th century the travelers Johannes de Plano Carpini , Wilhelm von Rubruk and Marco Polo described Mongolian musical instruments, including stringed instruments, which, however, cannot be taken as evidence of the early existence of the horse head violin, as they are too imprecise or their outstanding feature - the carved horse's head - don't mention it.
A. Nixon therefore comes to the conclusion that there was no mention of a horse's head on a bowed lute before the 20th century. The horse head violin is thus younger than commonly assumed and possibly an invented tradition .
But that doesn't mean that there weren't any string instruments with or without zoomorphic symbolism in Mongolia much earlier. For example, the names Arslan Khuur (lion violin), matarzögii chuur (crocodile bee violin ), zeebat tolgoitoi chuur (dragon-headed violin), or stringed instruments without a carved head such as chiil chuur, ikel ( igil ), tovshuur and dombra .
Legends of origin
There are several legends about the origin of this instrument. The Mongolian fairy tale "Хөхөө Намжил" ("Höhöö Namdschil") tells of a man with a wonderful singing voice who lived in eastern Mongolia. He was a famous singer, but one day he was called up for three year military service. He did this in western Mongolia. His officer quickly recognized his qualities and kept making him sing for the soldiers. One day he asked for leave. He spent this at a lake near the border, where he met a young woman and her family. After completing military service, he moved in with his girlfriend. He complained to him of his longing for home, and finally she gave him a magical horse.
“This horse runs like the wind,” she said, “but you have to stop the last mile and give it time to rest”. In the evening he rode home, in the morning he returned to his wife. But one day he forgot that he had to stop the horse a mile before reaching the destination. He reached his home earlier than usual, but the next day the horse was dead.
Full of mourning for his beloved horse, he made a musical instrument out of the horse's skull and tail hair, which like the beloved horse could neigh and was also a beautiful accompaniment to the singing of Höhöö Namjil.
Another legend tells of a shepherd who received a magic winged horse (see also wind horse ) as a gift. After that he mounted the horse every night and flew with it to his lover. Another woman, out of jealousy, had the horse's wings cut off, causing it to die. The shepherd made a violin from the bones and sang his mourning to the music.
Another legend names a boy named Süche (= ax) as the inventor . After an evil prince had killed his white horse, his spirit came to him in a dream and guided him to build a musical instrument out of his body. The violin was made from the bones, skin and hair of the horse, and received a carved horse's head in place of the snail. For this reason, a piece of horse bone is often incorporated into the carved horse's head.
literature
- Henning Haslund-Christensen, Ernst Emsheimer : The Music of the Mongols. Volume 1: Eastern Mongolia (= Reports from the Scientific Expedition to the Northwestern Provinces of China under the Leadership of Dr. Sven Hedin. The Sino-Swedish Expedition. 21 = Reports from the Scientific Expedition to the Northwestern Provinces of China under the Leadership of Dr. Sven Hedin. The Sino-Swedish Expedition. 8: Ethnography. 4, 1, ZDB -ID 2626635-0 ). Trycheri aktiebolaget Thule, Stockholm 1943.
- Peter K. Marsh: The Horse-head Fiddle and the Cosmopolitan Reimagination of Tradition in Mongolia (= Current Research in Ethnomusicology. 12). Routledge, New York NY et al. 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-97156-0 .
- Andrea Nixon: The Evolution of Mongolian Musical Terminology from the 13th to the 18th Century. Cambridge 1988, (University of Cambridge, Dissertation, 1988).
- Carole Pegg: Mongolian Music, Dance, & Oral Narrative. Performing diverse identities. University of Washington Press, Seattle WA et al. 2001, ISBN 0-295-98030-3 (with CD).
Web links
- Art and Myth (8/8): Mongolian horse head violin. ARTE , archived from the original on July 7, 2009 ; Retrieved February 25, 2016 .
- Traditional music and instruments from Mongolia. face-music.ch, February 2016, accessed on February 25, 2016 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ How the horse violin came about. mongolian-art.de, accessed on February 25, 2016 (translated and retold by Renate Bauwe, September 2000. According to: Mongol ardyn ülger domog II (5), Ulsyn chewlelijn gadsar, Ulaanbaatar 1982, 139–140).
- ↑ No more published.