The Two Horses Of Genghis Khan
Presented as part of the Environmental Film Festival
March 18, 2010 Washington D.C.
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"By collecting the old songs, they will be saved from being forgotten forever."
- Byambasuren Davaa (Script, Director, Producer)
Unlike almost any other song, the verses of "The Two Horses of Genghis Khan" embody the history and paradigm change of the Mongolian people. For the singer Urna, too, who was born in Inner Mongolia, the song becomes the touchstone of her cultural identity after she promised her deceased grandmother to bring back the family's old horse head violin to the homeland, to give the destroyed violin, of which only the head and neck remain intact, a new body. The verses of the folk song were engraved on the neck. During the dark days of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Urna's grandmother was unable to save the horse head violin: only a fragment of the instrument and epic song could be rescued from destruction.
The Mongolian Horse Head Violin
The Mongolian Horse Head Violin (Morin Khuur) is a two-stringed instrument, which is played with a bow and decorated with a wooden horse's head at the upper end on the neck.
The morin khuur embodies the national identity of the Mongols like no other musical instrument and symbolises the culture of the nomads. Its gentle sound conveys the feeling of the original life and the dream of free living in the borderless expanse of the Mongolia steppe. By presidential decree, the morin khuur was declared to be the national musical instrument, which every household in the country should possess. And nonetheless the tradition is today endangered.
The long neck ends not with a curl above the sound box but a carved horse's head. The strings are made traditionally of hair taken from the manes of Mongolian horses, as are the strings of the bow. The sound of the horse head violin is soft. Its tonal range lies approximately between that of the European viola and violoncello. The sound reminds the Mongols of the wind across the steppe and the neighing of their horses.
The first recorded mention of the morin khuur dates from the 12th century. It is also one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity identified by UNESCO.
Director's Statement
I am often asked about the fascinating music of my homeland. In my new film, THE TWO HORSES OF GENGHIS KHAN, my protagonist, the singer URNA, leads the viewer on a journey of musical initiation through Outer Mongolia. She has come to have her grandmother's old horse head violin repaired and to find the verses of an old song - THE TWO HORSES OF GENGHIS KHAN. The horse head violin, the morin khuur, embodies like no other instrument the Mongols' national identity. Through the rapid pace of development today, which is causing the world to mutate into a large village, cultural identity and diversity have receded. In the same way Urna searches for the song believed lost, she is also searching vicariously for her people's lost customs and traditions. By collecting the old songs, they will be saved from being forgotten forever. Symbolically, the broken violin stands also for the broken, divided Mongolian land, the separated brothers of Inner and Outer Mongolia, which today are slowly drawing near to each other again.
BYAMBASUREN DAVAA
Byambasuren Davaa was born in 1971 in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
From 1989 to 1994 she worked as a presenter and assistant director at Mongolian state television while also studying law. In 1998, Davaa started to study at the High School for Film. In 2000, she moved to Germany to continue her studies at Munich's Hochschule fŸr Film und Fernsehen (HFF) in the documentary film department, graduating in 2005. Davaa's first feature-length film at the HFF was "The Story of the Weeping Camel", which she directed together with Luigi Falorni. The film won many accolades, among them the Bavarian Film Award, and was nominated in 2005 for an Oscar in the category of Best Documentary. The film was sold to more than 60 countries. That same year, Davaa's graduation film, "The Cave of the Yellow Dog", was released in cinemas in Germany and other countries. For this film, Davaa received numerous national (German Film Award, "Best Children's - Young Person's Film) and international awards.
In 2008, filming began on Byambasuren Davaa's new feature-length documentary, "The Two Horses of Genghis Khan" with the Mongolian singer Urna.
URNA CHAHAR TUGCHI
The internationally known Mongolian singer Urna Chahar Tugchi was born in 1968 in the Ordos region in the south west of Inner Mongolia, into a family of herders from whom she learned hundreds of traditional songs since she was a child.
From 1989-1993 she studied the Chinese dulcimer, the yangqin, at the Shanghai Conservatory. Since 1994 she has performed on stage as a singer. Concerts in China brought her and the Gaoshan Liashui musical ensemble onto the path of traditional projects and in 1994 to the Beijing jazz festival. In the meantime she has performed on many European stages and at festivals, impressing audiences with her strong, poetical voice. Her spectrum ranges from pianissimo passages of compelling intensity to melodic orgies in the Mongolian singing style of furioso volume.
Her special love is reserved for, alongside the for Europeans unimaginably expansive sky above the Mongolian grass land, the Mongolian language and music.
Content provided courtesy of Atrix Films
