27-12-14 4:45:32 Traditional version
The origin of Ma Touqin
Ma Touqin is a representative musical instrument of Mongolian nationality, which not only occupies a place in the family in China and the world, but also is a favorite musical instrument of folk artists and herders. The music played by Ma Touqin is profound, rough and passionate.
It's difficult to look up historical materials about the emergence and development of Ma Touqin. However, it has a beautiful and touching story, which is a very distant legend. Bater, a young shepherd, herded horses for the Prince. In a cold early spring, Bater ran hundreds of miles away, and after finding the lost horses, he found a whining white pony near a Naoer, facing an ice hole in the uncivilized Naoer. Looking at the foal with tears in his eyes and listening to the sad neigh, Bater understood everything, so Bater took it home and lived alone. In the future, no matter where Bater goes, it will follow; When Bater sleeps at night, he stands outside the yurt on the side where Bater sleeps. A few years later, the little white horse is very human, with vigorous hooves, long flying mane and symmetrical skeleton, which has become a rare good horse.
Bater rode it to the racetrack for the first time at a large Nadam convention. It is far ahead of all the horse races carefully raised by the sovereign. When Bater received the first prize, his heart was filled with joy. However, he didn't know that disaster was coming at the same time.
It turns out that after seeing this horse, Wang Ye was filled with joy, so he sent someone to snatch Bater's white horse by force, but it was difficult to subdue it. At that time, the report sent four strong men to hold the white horse with big ropes, prepare saddles, and forcibly mount it themselves. The white horse raised its hoof, knocked down the strong man, rushed out of the racecourse, and threw the report off his horse. The report was so angry that he sent a large number of people to encircle the white horse and ordered to shoot it with a strong bow. The white horse was finally shot by a strong bow, but it still struggled to break through. Late at night, sad Bater missed the white horse and couldn't fall asleep. Suddenly, he heard the rapid hoofbeat accompanied by the mournful neigh, from far to near. Hearing the familiar hoofbeat, Bater jumped up and ran out of the yurt. I saw the white horse galloping to the front of the yurt, but suddenly it fell down, slightly raised its head, shed tears in its eyes, looked at Bater kindly, lifted its hind legs, and shook its tail, revealing the expected eyes. Bater mused, as if he understood the meaning of a white horse. The white horse finally closed her eyes in Bater's arms.
I don't know how long it took before the sun rose from the distant horizon. Bater waited for the white horse for three days and nights. On this day, he took off the tail of the white horse's hind leg bone, hung it in the yurt, and then buried the white horse. Facing the hind leg bone and ponytail of the white horse, Bater pondered for 99 days, and the image of the white horse always came to mind. A novel idea has finally taken shape. So, he made the hind legs into a piano body, carved the white horse's head on the top, and made strings and bows with ponytails. Ma Touqin was finally born. Maybe Bater misses the white horse too deeply, and maybe the white horse has spirituality. Therefore, Ma Touqin's melody shows the industriousness and courage of the Mongolian people, and it also reproduces the deep, rough and passionate, and there are still thousands of Ma Benteng.
Origin
From the period of hunting culture in the mountains to the early period of nomadic culture in the grasslands, the musical instruments used by Mongols were not Ma Touqin, but plucked musical instruments such as Huo Bi Si and Tu Bu Shuo Er, which were mostly used to accompany recreational songs and dances. According to the records in the Secret History of Mongolia and the History of the Yuan Dynasty, from Genghis Khan to Kublai Khan, the Mongolian national musical instruments were mainly plucked instruments, and the Mongolian soldiers and herdsmen in the Yuan Dynasty were good at playing fire and thinking, and liked to dance and step on songs collectively. After the rapid development of grassland nomadic music, Ma Touqin, a stringed instrument, was born out and widely popularized, and eventually replaced the plucked instrument and became the most grassland-featured folk instrument of Mongolian people. Obviously, when stringed instruments replace plucked instruments, the fire will gradually decline, and Ma Touqin will naturally become the protagonist of Mongolian instruments.
Ma Touqin, an ancient stringed instrument, is named after its head is carved with horseheads. "The Draft of the History of the Qing Dynasty" contains: "Hu Qin, with a smooth texture, two strings, a dragon head and a square handle. The groove is oval and sharp, with leather, and the wood outside the groove is like a hairpin, and the dragon head is a mountain pass. The string is hollowed out, with two axes, one on the left and one on the right, and 81 stems tied with wooden ponytails. " Therefore, Ma Touqin originally had a dragon head. As early as in the History of Yuan Dynasty, Volume 71, Records of Rites and Music, it was recorded: "The huqin system is like a fire without thinking, and the neck is curled, and the dragon head has two strings, and the bow string is a ponytail." According to rock paintings and some historical data, the ancient Mongols began to process yogurt spoons, covered them with cowhide, and pulled up two ponytail strings to play them as musical instruments, which were called "spoon-shaped huqin". At present, many experts believe that this is the predecessor of Ma Touqin. At that time, the longest spoon-shaped huqin was about two feet, and the sound box was smaller, so the sound was much smaller. Up to now, some people in the west of Mongolia have called Ma Touqin "spoon-shaped huqin". At that time, the head of the piano was not necessarily a horse's head, but a human head, a skull, a crocodile head, a turtle shell or a faucet. In addition, it was said that the head of this kind of piano was in the shape of a monkey head or a Martel head. Martel looks like a dragon and looks like a monkey, symbolizing a sacred object to suppress evil spirits. According to relevant scholars' research, Ma Touqin was born in the late 19th century and early 2th century, and the piano head was changed from a dragon head or a martel head to a horse's head. Besides, there are many kinds of pianos, such as Pihu, Spade Hu, Sihu, Xiqin and Jiqin, which were all popular musical instruments at that time. During the Yuan Dynasty, with the gradual prosperity of court life, there were specialized personnel playing, singing and dancing in the court, and Ma Touqin gradually became one of the main contents of court music.
Ma Touqin is the best musical instrument suitable for playing Mongolian ancient tune, which can accurately express Mongolian life, such as: vast grassland, roaring wind, sad mood, galloping horseshoe, happy pastoral, etc. Related to this, the overall status of Mongolian national musical instruments in Yuan Dynasty has been obviously improved, not only for dancing and song accompaniment, but also for pure instrumental music, such as "The Swan in the Sea" and "bai ling Sparrow", which has really made great progress.
By the early 18th century, the appearance and structure of Ma Touqin had changed a lot. The * * * sounding box was trapezoidal and much larger than the original one. The length of the piano body was increased by about two times, which made the sound louder and gave out a louder vibrato. Most of the piano heads were horseheads or a faucet was added under the horseheads. Ma Touqin's two strings, the thick string is the yang string, consisting of 15 horsetails, the thin string is the yin string, consisting of 12 horsetails, and the bowstring is composed of 9 horsetails, all of which add up to 36, which is exactly 36 degrees of a circle. With the innovation of Ma Touqin's piano, Ma Touqin's playing skills have also been created and developed, and many folk rappers have emerged.