The Mongolian Houmai is a world intangible cultural heritage.

Although Houmai and Xintianyou are both intangible cultural heritage, Mongolian Houmai is a world intangible cultural heritage, and Northern Shaanxi Xintianyou is an intangible cultural heritage of China. Khumai is one of the oldest art forms of the Mongolian nation. It conveys the Mongolian people's deep philosophical thinking and understanding of the natural universe and all things in the world, and expresses the Mongolian nation's pursuit of harmonious survival and development and its healthy and upward aesthetic taste. In 2008, it was selected into the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Mongolian Khumai is a unique single-person multi-part performance art of the Mongolian people. One person uses the overtones produced by the bass sustained part of the voice to form the sum of two or more parts with the bass sustained part. Voice. This singing method can produce transparent, clear and metallic high-pitched parts, achieving unparalleled sound effects. Khumai is mainly spread in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang in northern China. It has been sung since the 13th century and is a typical representative of Mongolian music and art.

Main style

Khumai is a singing art originating from the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia: a singer sings two songs at the same time purely using his own vocal organs. Voice. While emitting a sustained basic bass, the singer sings a harmonious melody.

Khumai, which literally means throat, is said to have been learned from birds, whose spirits are crucial to shamanic practices. There are many types of Mongolian Khumai, which can be divided into two main styles: deep Khumai and whistled Khumai. Shenhumai singers sing the basic bass with a normal voice, and at the same time highlight the bass below an octave to obtain sub-harmony.

In whistled humming, the emphasis is on the high notes above the basic bass, producing an effect similar to a sharp whistle. In both cases, the underlying bass sound is produced by tightening the vocal cords, and the tune is produced by adjusting the shape and size of the mouth, lip opening and closing, and tongue movement.

The above content refers to Baidu Encyclopedia-Khumai