Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond by Theodore Levin with Valentina Süzükei, and: The Horse-head Fiddle and the Cosmopolitan Reimagination of Tradition in Mongolia by Peter K. Marsh (review)

The cultural heritage of the Inner Asian region, including Tuva and Mongolia, is rich and unique, yet not much known outside this region. Since Carole Pegg published her book Mongolian Music, Dance, Oral Narrative: Performing Diverse Identities (2001), the two books under consideration here have been published and present the more recent musical scene and deep history of Inner Asian music. While Marsh’s book is focused only on Mongolian musical culture, Levin primarily addresses Tuvan music along with neighboring Altaic areas such as the western area of Mongolia, Xakas, where he focuses on throat singing. Although these two authors have distinctive writing styles and presentation of their information, both volumes provide a tremendous introduction for the lay public and also essential information to scholars for further research on Inner Asia.

Marsh’s book, published in 2009 and based on his doctoral research, is a good initial study of the Morin khuur (horse-head fiddle), which manifests extensively in contemporary Mongolia. The book provides a well-argued and well-documented history of the Morin khuur, as well as a general outline of Mongolian musical culture over the last century in relation to the Sovietization and modernization of Mongolian traditional culture. He addresses the important historical events and important figures in the course of the “modernization” of Mongolian traditional culture during the socialist period and at the beginning of the post-socialist period during the 1990s. Since the 1920s, Mongolian culture has transformed from a rural culture with nomadic roots into an urban culture, and Marsh provides a close analysis of these events, along with the uprising of Mongolian nationalism through the culture of the Morin khuur.

This book consists of six chapters, arranged chronologically. Chapter 1 presents historical overview of the 2-stringed fiddle in prerevolutionary Mongolia prior to 1921. In his discussion of the history, Marsh points out that the Mongolian claim that the Morin khuur is an ancient instrument is largely unsubstantiated and says that “the extant physical and literary evidence for the horse-head fiddle prior to the early nineteenth century is weak” (16). However, the exposition in this chapter of the lute and fiddle tradition in prerevolutionary Mongolia, which Marsh provides through his research, from the period of the Mongol Empire to the 1920s, is both extensive and convincing and reveals the history and mechanics of the instrument. Chapter 2 addresses the ideological and practical formation of how the Soviet influence impacted musical culture following the revolution. Marsh’s explanation of what he describes as a “national musical culture” offers excellent insights into how Mongolian musical culture was structured and redefined during the socialist period. The idea of the horse-head fiddle as a national symbol, and the “perfection” of Morin khuur craftsmanship influenced by the Soviet violin maker Denis Vladimirovich Yarovoi (67), reveals the extent of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party’s focus on transforming a folk art into a type of refined Europeanized performance art. In this way, Marsh’s historical trajectory provides many pertinent examples of this transformation, including institutionalization, schooling, and the organization of ensembles, cultural festivals, and numerous competitions that were important factors in controlling traditional art at that time. Chapter 3 deals largely with the creation of...