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Driving Change, Sparking Debate: Chi Bulag and the Morin Huur in Inner Mongolia, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2018

Charlotte D'evelyn
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On a typically humid afternoon in Beijing, China, my young Mongol friend brought me to his basement studio where his ensemble, Ih Tsetsn, was preparing to rehearse for an upcoming show. The group of young urban Mongols included six players of the morin huur (horse-head fiddle, matouqin in Mandarin), an upright bassist, and a drum kit player. The group played a collection of upbeat compositions and ended its rehearsal session with the rousing morin huur classic, “Ten Thousand Horses Galloping,” by the Inner Mongol composer-performer, Chi Bulag (b. 1944; see figure 4). Playing from memory, the fiddle players grinned at one another, drew their bows energetically across their nylon-stringed instruments, and rocked their heads vigorously to the beat of the drummer.

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Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 46 , 2014 , pp. 89 - 113
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Copyright © 2014 by the International Council for Traditional Music

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