I have recently spent nine months in Mongolia conducting fieldwork for my PhD in ethnomusicology at Leeds University, supervised by Dr Kevin Dawe and Dr Judith Nordby, funded by the Leeds University Research Scholarship. The subject of my thesis is Mongolian film music of the socialist era (1936-1990), looking specifically at the training undertaken by the film composers and the film scores they subsequently produced.

I am currently writing up my thesis and aim to submit in September 2010. Mongolian film composers invariably came from nomadic backgrounds and were chosen on grounds of their musical talent to receive a formal musical education at conservatoires in the Soviet Union. On return to Mongolia, they worked as full-time professional composers for Mongol Kino, the only film studio in Mongolia before 1990. Amongst the multifarious genres of film music present in Mongolian soundtracks, a new genre emerged: mergejliin khögjim ('professional music'). This music is a combination of traditional Mongolian folk music and Western classical music, and is a direct result of the composers' twofold musical training.

My thesis charts the creation and development of this music, questions whether it is a discrete genre or a branch of classical music, and examines what it may reveal about the Mongolian sense of national identity during a socialist regime. During fieldwork, with the help of the Kino Urlagiin Deed Surguli (University of Film Arts) in Ulaanbaatar, I screened over eighty films and conducted over forty interviews with film and music professionals. Additionally, I observed concerts, rehearsals and film editing sessions. The rest of my time was spent living with Mongolian and Kazakh nomadic families to observe and participate in their music making and daily life, and a visit to the Siberian border to meet Tsaatan reindeer herders.