Mongolia

Mongolia with its nomad tribes and customs, music was very important to Mongolia.
 * Mongolia:[[image:http://mongol-999.webs.com/photos/MONGOLIAN-CULTURE/mongolia_flag.gif width="296" height="190" align="right"]] **

The Long drawn song is a central element of the traditional music of Mongolia. This genre is called "Long song" not because the songs are long (even if some of them are), but because each syllable of text is extended for a long duration. A four-minute song may only consist of ten words. The lyrics could be diverse in its meaning, they can be philosophical, religious, romantic, or celebratory, and often use horses as a symbol or theme repeated throughout the song as horses are the lifelines to the Mongolians. The main features of the long song are the prolonged notes with deep vibrations on the vowels. These majestic vibrating notes ca lled //shuranhai// give the song high philosophical, meditational character and they often depict the spacious grassland of Mongolia and the deepness of the Mongolian spirit. UNESCO declared the Mongolian Long Song one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005.

Another of a known musical form of the Mongols is the throat singing tradition known as //hoomii//, known among all or most Mongols. Sung differently than traditional vocals, this unique type of singing involves thecombination of two distinctively audible pitches at the same time,

The horse-head fiddle, or //morin khuur//, is a distinctively Mongolian instrument and is seen as a symbol of the country. The instrument has two strings and kinda like a smalll guitar with a flute. There is some debate regarding the carving of a horse on the upper end of the instrument. Some scholars believe that this is proof that the instrument was originally a shamanistic instrument, as the staffs of shamans have a horse similarly carved on top. No matter whats, Mongolian music is still a testament of the nomadic Mongolian culture media type="file" key="beautiful Mongolian music.mp3" width="240" height="20" media type="file" key="Mongolian Song - Urtiin Duu.mp3" width="240" height="20" - by Viet