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former political confederations, including the Western/Eastern Mongol division of the 17th to mid-18th Century, when the West Mongolian Jungar State embraced West Mongolia, Tuva and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region of China.
The Western and Eastern Mongols each had their own musical sound complexes. Biligbaatar, who is from Inner Mongolia’s UNESCO-protected central Hexitgen region, performs in an Eastern Mongol long-song style (Jitaliin Gurgol on Homeland). With its pronounced glottal stops and technical bril- liance, it taps into a performance landscape from the time when Eastern Mongols used to nomadise freely across current political borders. Tsetsegmaa, who is a Buryat Mon- gol (Buriat Song on Homeland), sings long- songs in a less ornamented and more restricted range, connecting with Buryat Mongols in both Inner Mongolia and Russia (where they have their own Republic of Buryatia). And the instrumental Lake Dance Saverden (on Homeland) is inspired by the music of the Hoshut Mongols in Bayingol in Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region in north-west China.
A
n example of the diversity and amalgamation of styles and ways in which Anda Union bring little known musical genres to our attention can be illustrated by my own fieldwork experi- ence as a social anthropologist and ethno - musicologist. In Inner Mongolia in 1987, there was no evidence of throat-singing, which I found in 1989 in its place of origin among the Oirat peoples of West Mongo- lia’s Altai Mountains. I was struck, though, by an equivalent sound performed by Abaga Mongols in a celebration held in a round felt tent (ger) in the grasslands of Xilingol region in Inner Mongolia. All pre- sent set up a vocal drone above which a single vocalist performed a long-song melody. They called this style of vocal per- formance chogur (pronounced chor).
How wonderful, then, to discover the
track Genghis Khan (on Windhorse), with Biligbaatar’s achingly beautiful long-song
soaring above the vocal drone of others in the group, then all coming together in the chorus, alive and well exactly as I’d record- ed in 1987 (you can hear this on the CD with my book Mongolian Music, Dance & Oral Narrative: Performing Diverse Identi- ties). In this type of performance, which seems to be a group version of throat- singing, Inner Mongolia and Anda Union are distinctive. Moreover, having assimilat- ed the solo styles of Mongolia and Tuva, Anda Union take throat-singing to new heights in their use of five-part harmonies – a technique I only heard once in the field in that 1989 Altai trip – producing a truly stunning mesmerising effect.
A quick outline of the two different Mongolian sound complexes might help to clarify a little. The Oirat Mongol (Western Mongols) and Tuvan peoples of the vast Altai Mountain range (stretching from southern Siberia through West Mongolia, dipping into Kygyzstan and Xinjiang, then back to Mongolia) have a timbre-centred musical sound complex based on drones and harmonics. The Eastern Mongols’ sound complex (which includes Khalkhas of eastern Mongolia) is more pitch-centred. Heroic epics (including guttural hailah, or kai vocal tone and tobshuur lute accompa- niment) are found among the Mongol peo- ples of the Altai Mountains (some of whom are Turko-Mongol), while Eastern Mongol ones are shorter and, in Inner Mongolia, epics are traditionally accompanied by the fiddle. The Jangar epic (on Homeland), although widespread, originated with Western Mongols. The chor end-blown flute (in classical Inner Mongolian script spelt ‘chogur’), with its breathy vocal drone and simultaneous harmonic melodies chan- nelled through the pipe, also belongs to this timbre-centred sound complex.
In 1987, a performer on this vertical flute, known to be rare, was rumoured among Mongolian academics in Beijing to have been found in the Altai Mountains of China’s north-west Xinjiang province but no mention was made of Inner Mongolia and I didn’t encounter it there. Even in the
West Mongolian Altai it was only played by one group, the Altai Urianghais. Narantsogt of the Altai Urianghais gave me a tsuur (this spelling of chor or chogur is from the Russian Cyrillic script used in Mongolia), which he had buried in the mountains during the Communist period because of its connection with a single Mongolian tribe that made it not eligible as a symbol of the Communist ideal of equality of all. So, when Anda Union sing
in this timbre-centred way, Chinggeltu plays chor flute on the fabulous Holy Mountain (on Windhorse) and Black Run- ning Bear (on Homeland), and Saikhan- nakhaa, Nars and Uni play the tobshur lute, they bring the Western Mongol and Altai Mountain peoples into their union of brother and sisterhood.
This timbre-centred sound complex may also be found in the western Alasha region of Inner Mongolia, where the Mon- gols speak an Oirat-related dialect, but since this region is closed to foreigners, I can’t be sure.
S
o, Anda Union is a band with serious intent but that’s not obvious in performance. Rather the opposite in fact, with their thrilling range of sounds and
energetic delivery offset by witty banter, anecdotes and tales, and inclusion of light-hearted short-songs, such as those accompanying drinking of fermented and distilled mare’s milk. They captivate audi- ences and engage with them, sometimes even by offering traditional scarves, lamb dumplings and Mongolian tea.
When the group arrives in May to pro-
mote their Homeland album, with its two new young members – Chinggeltu on the horse-headed double bass and vocals and Urgen on drums – they will come bearing the combined traditions of all Mongolian brother and sisters, a project worthy of Genghis Khan, and that other Mongolian quality instilled into them in their child- hoods, a huge amount of courage.
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