The current state of playing the tsuur in Western Mongolia

Abstract

The report provides the author’s expeditionary records, made in the Mongol province Khovd and in Ulan-Bator in 2012 after the conversations with seven tsuur players. Some information about the origin of tsuur is given, the techniques of playing this musical instrument and the way it was constructed are described. The author analyzes some legends concerned with tsuur. All the tsuur players interviewed by the author are the pupils of the outstanding tsuur player Narantsogt (1920–2003). The article proposes some traditional tunes played by contemporary musicians and compares them with the tunes played by Narantsogt. It is argued that the problem of preserving the traditional tsuur music is actual for the contemporary Mongolian culture.