Ivar Frounberg - Urtiin Duu

This is about a classically European trained composer meeting the Urtiin Duu singing-tradition in Mongolia. I attended the Roaring Hooves Festival in 2007 and fell in love with the Urtiin Duu, as well as the Khoimi-singing, in love with the people, the shamans and the rituals, in love with the desert, the camels, motorbikes and old busses. I myself migrated from Denmark to Norway, my ancestors migrated north from Germany. I searched for, and found, resonance in the nomadic culture still prevalent in Mongolia. The music is a traditional Urtiin Duu-song heterophonically distributed in three voices, repeated in a cyclic transformation between the four instruments of the quartet. Beside the song, small 'comments' from European contemporary music are injected. The music should be performed without a strict coordination between the players, the fermatas do indicate temporary meeting points.