In the concert hall of the Mongolian State Philharmonic, the Morin Khuur Chamber Orchestra’s Mongol Music classical concert series presented audiences with an evening of newly composed works by both celebrated and rising composers, offering a compelling exploration of the country’s evolving musical landscape.
The ever-expanding size of the horsehead fiddle orchestra continues to flourish under the skillful baton of conductor D. Tuvshinsaikhan. That evening, the talents of composers E. Dorjsuren, Tsen. Erdenebat, Kh. Altangerel, Sh. Ulziibayar, and the esteemed N. Jantsannorov came alive, letting local and international listeners alike feel the full splendour of the iconic Mongolian instrument and its unique classical tradition.
The program included Kh. Altangerel’s The Wheel of the Firmament, Sh. Ulziibayar’s The Divine Sky, N. Jantsannorov’s Sinfonietta, E. Dorjsuren’s suite The Mongolian Expanse, and Tsen. Erdenebat’s The Vast Homeland — a series of concertos composed specifically for the Morin Khuur Chamber Orchestra. Each piece carried the composer’s mark as unique as a signature, distinctive motifs, vivid imagery, and rich ideas that seamlessly wove Mongolia’s national musical idiom with the refined conventions of global symphonic tradition. The result was an evening where the sonorous, earnest, and warm sound of the Morin Khuur orchestra deeply moved the audience.
Some pieces delicately quoted leitmotifs and rhythmic structures from the world’s great classical masters, paying homage to them through a Mongolian sensibility of the composer, conductor, and musicians – thus merging Western musical heritage with Eastern spirit, where two horizons of classical tradition met in a polytonal, multi-hued and singularly original way. As music evoking the cosmos, Mother nature’s grandeur and the blessings of one’s parents resonated with the Mongolian soul, one was imbued with an abiding sense of hope. Other works conjured a cinematic atmosphere, brimming with adventure, drama, action, and lyricism — stirring the imagination like the score of a modern epic yet to be filmed.
Among the evening’s pieces, N. Jantsannorov’s Sinfonietta stood out as a masterful reflection on Mongolia’s contemporary pulse and its evolving rhythms of modern life. The frequent bursts of percussion landed with such startling force that the audience found themselves sitting bolt upright, drawn involuntarily into the work’s commanding flow. At its close, the hall fell into a fleeting silence that left us glancing at each other, wondering, “What just happened?” — the kind of hushed aftermath that history’s great composers have inspired upon the debut of their masterworks.
The composer himself remarked that the Sinfonietta was written for the Morin Khuur chamber orchestra’s growing company. The piece’s measured heartbeat mirrored the sweep of the clock’s hand, and seemed to capture Mongolia’s present-day process of transformations in the profound and avant-garde classical composition.
Since its founding in 1992 with twenty musicians, the Morin Khuur ensemble has grown to over fifty, maturing into a chamber orchestra in scope and scale — hence its proud new title, the Morin Khuur Chamber Orchestra, “Морин хуур найрал хөгжим.” Mongolia’s third, fourth, and fifth generation of composers are not only making their mark at home but also presenting their music on the world stage. Through this invaluable and unique orchestra, they continue to introduce international audiences to a living national art that bridges eras and cultures.
Surely, then, the time has come to house this incomparable stringed vessel of song and other traditional Mongol instruments in a hall worthy of their art — an acoustically superb, modern venue, designed from the ground up with state-of-the-art recording technology, versatile enough to welcome visiting orchestras from around the world for collaborations and performances. One could look, for example, to the world-class Boettcher Concert Hall of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Complex in the USA for inspiration.
The time has come to give the celestial Morin Khuur a palace as vast as its song.
J. Ariunaa
Published in UB Post
July 7, 2025
