Mongolian film music during the Socialist era (1921-1990) and its aftermath

• Main Author: Rees, Lucy Miriam
• Published: University of Leeds 2011
• Subjects: 780
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.547539

A Mongolian film industry was established in the 1930s with the principal aim of disseminating socialist propaganda to the populace, and film music therefore became necessary to score the new Socialist Realist films. Promising young musicians, mostly from rural Mongolia, were chosen to receive formal musical training in the Soviet Union. On their return to Mongolia, they became the official film composers of Mongolia’s only film studio, Mongol Kino. Over time, the Mongol Kino film composers started to combine elements of the music they had learned at Soviet conservatoires with Mongolian musical traditions, thereby creating a new genre that has been termed mergejliin khögjim (literally ‘professional music’). After the fall of the Socialist regime in 1990, the Mongolian film industry developed in manifold directions as the country moved towards a market economy and became involved in the world of globalisation. This thesis is a survey of Mongolian film music from the 1930s to the early 2000s, and questions the reasons why and methods by which Mongolian film composers combined traditional Mongolian and foreign musical influences in their film scores. The role of film composers in expressing notions of identity through their film scores during and after the Socialist era (1921-1990) is also addressed.