Riverdance tells the story of Irish history and culture through
its thrilling tap dance. But on Saturday night, artists from
China's Inner Mongolia will perform their own culture's version,
Legends of Grasslands.
Featuring hundreds of folk performers, dazzling sets and
splendid costumes, Legends of the Grasslands kicks off the 2007
Meet In Beijing Arts Festival on Saturday night at the Great Hall
of the People.
Directed by Deng Lin in three scenes Sacrifices to Ancestors,
Glorify Khan and Laud the Grasslands the show features a variety of
Mongolian folk music, dance and storytelling. Many of these musical
forms, such as holboo, uliger and khoomei, are vanishing.
Uliger is the general term given to tales and popular myths of
the Mongol and Buryat peoples of Mongolia and northeast Asia. They
are an important part of the oral traditions of the Buryats and
other Siberian tribes.
Khoomei, called "throat singing" in English, is a mysterious
form of vocalism in which the singer sings with two voices
simultaneously. Performers resonate a low vibrato in their mouth,
which they keep going while emitting an additional overtone. They
change the quality of the sounds by opening and closing their
mouths.
Holboo is a variety of Mongolian storytelling in which the
narrator (huurch) recites a poem in a musical tone, usually while
also playing the sihu. It is especially popular in eastern Inner
Mongolia.
There are two kinds of holboo: monologue holboo and dialogue
holboo. Monologue holboo is performed by a huurch, who tells the
story and plays sihu as a solo performance.
Dialogue holboo is called "dairalchaa" in Mongolian, which means
"retort to each other with challenging questions". Two people
perform dairalchaa without instruments, drawing upon their common
knowledge to debate until one of them wins.
(China Daily April 28, 2007)?
