Mongolian folk songs are divided into two genres: long tunes and short tunes. Long tunes are popular in pastoral areas, while short tunes are popular in semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas.
1. Characteristics of short-key folk songs:
Generally, the tunes are short and fast-paced, which are different from long-key folk songs. They are collectively called short-key folk songs. Its music has the characteristics of concise tunes, strong decoration, small fluctuations in melody lines, and strong narrative. The rhythm specifications mostly adopt a single rhythm, and the tunes mostly have a symmetrical rectangular structure. In addition to a large number of upper and lower phrases, there are also three, four, five or even more complex musical forms.
The lyrics are mostly four sentences per paragraph, forming a segmented song form, repeated in different rhymes and steps. It is simple and easy to learn, suitable for all ages, and has broad mass appeal. The themes are very wide, covering almost all areas of Mongolian social life, including love songs, drinking songs, wedding songs, birthday songs, narrative songs, lullabies and other types of songs.
2. Characteristics of long tunes:
The characteristics of music are high pitch, wide range, graceful and smooth tunes, smooth melody, free and long rhythm, and compound rhythms are often used. Paragraphs composed of upper and lower sentences are more common, as well as conjunctions composed of multiple and even multiple paragraphs. Most of them are non-rectangular structures. The lyrics are often repeated in two different rhythms.
The combination of lyrics and music is "more tunes and fewer words", often using the sloshing tune and the colorful drawl, and embellishing the melody with various decorative sounds (nogulla). In addition to solo singing, there are also singing forms such as chorus singing, duet singing, accompaniment singing, and even "Chaoer" chorus.
Extended information:
Short-key songs grew up with the Mongolian nation. During the hunting period in the mountains and forests, the Mongolian people created simple tones, distinctive rhythms, easy-to-carry songs and dances, and short-key songs with strong original colors: there are primitive hunting songs "Hunting and Fighting Wisdom Song", shamanistic songs and dances "White Sea Blue Dance", The sacred song "Ji Yaqi" and various collective step songs.
These songs are simple and primitive and can be called the earliest form of short-key songs. After the Mongolian people changed from a hunting life to a nomadic life, the themes and contents of short-key songs have undergone tremendous changes. However, the early short-key songs have not yet shed the simple and naive style of the mountain hunting period.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Short Tune
Baidu Encyclopedia-Long Tune