Mongolian urtyn duu, or long-song, is a living tradition shaped by nomadic life, ecology, and embodied experience. Sunmin Yoon draws from over fifteen years of fieldwork to reveal urtyn duu as music but also a way of knowing the world through the body, senses, and environment. As Yoon shows, rural and urban singers alike learn their craft through daily experiences of listening to landscapes, animals, and community voices. These practices forge deep links between sound, memory, and place. The singers’ use of breath, movement, and feeling produces powerful emotional and sensory experiences that connect both musicians and listeners with wider ecological and spiritual worlds. Though reflecting social change and modern Mongolia’s history, the tradition at the music’s heart continues to call upon and convey the core values of a nomadic people.

Enlightening and evocative, Singing Paths offers an eyewitness look at a rarely explored musical tradition.

Sunmin Yoon is an assistant professor of world music/ethnomusicology and Korean studies at the University of Delaware. She is the coeditor of Mongolian Sound Worlds.