Some translations for those who don't know Dutch or Mongolian: The morin khuur uses wood from a shaded forest, preferably birch or pine. Most tools used to make the morin khuur are also handmade. To cut the horse head figure, the wood needs to be very dry. The neck is adjusted in height and angle to fit the customer. Apparently the glue is made from cooked rabbit skin. A different kind of wood is glued onto the neck (the grip) to ensure that the neck doesn't change shape. The neck and horse head combined are 77 cm long and the playable part of the string is 44 cm long. The front and back of the body are made of 4 planks which are tightly glued together to form 2 planks. The front is embellished, which helps prevent cracks from forming, and has two holes for the sound. Another piece of wood is added to transfer the vibrations of the snares to the body. A hole is added on the top of the body to attach the neck and then the body is painted to protect the wood. The pegs are made of hard red or black wood and are used to tune the snares. A small piece of wood is placed inside the body to transfer the vibrations between the front and back of the body. The bridge connects the snares and is often shaped as a lion head. The snares are made of around 100 to 120 horse hairs, connected with resin. The hairs are easily damaged and must be handled with care. They must stay clean at all times and are washed in lukewarm water. The thick and thin snares are made of a male and female horsetail respectively, and are called "arga" and "bileg".
@cuss word sayer The subtitles were in Dutch, my native language. It's available in most major language learning apps such as Duolingo. I don't know much Mongolian and haven't yet found a particular app that I like, although there seem to be a handful of decent ones such as Simply Learn Mongolian, Bluebird and Memrise. When you've got the basics, I'd recommend just talking with Mongolian speakers on Speaky or something similar, and make a wordlist with Anki.
Greetings from Sweden! Even though I do not understand a single word it was a pure joy to watch this wonderful instrument being put together. Thank you!
Is language of the narrator mongolian? I understand some of the words. I'm a türk, I know that turks and Mongols share close geographic areas in the far past but surprising that remarkable number of words still they have in common. Thanks for the video of this elegant instrument. The luthier was working like a sculptor :) By the way in turkey we have an bowed instrument named "iklig" which is made and played by nomadic turkish groups. I think turks bring that instrument from central Asia.
Beautiful video. The subtitles changed from english to some other language around the three minute mark. I wish they had continued in english. I'm trying to learn all I can about this instrument.
This was REALLY awesome to see! Is there any chance you can fix the English subtitles? It looks like they switch from English to Dutch around the 3 minute mark. Regardless, thanks for sharing!
What is the final thickness of both the top and back? I have researched the construction , watched every video available but some dimensions and details of construction are difficult to find. Terrific video.
Around 1:42 it is claimed that the Morin Khuur was played during Chinggis Khaan's ceremonies. Is this actually true? Can anyone point me to a source of this? Thanks.
