Den danske opdagelsesrejsende, Henning Haslund-Christensen (1896-1948), foretog fem rejser til Asien, hvor han indsamlede etnografika og lavede lydoptagelser af mongolsk folkesang og instrumentalmusik.
I 1920’erne opholdt han sig i længere tid på en forsøgsgård i Mongoliet, hvor han fik kendskab til landet, lærte sproget og fik indsigt i den lokale kultur.
Fra 1927 til 1929 deltog Haslund-Christensen i “The Sino-Swedish Expedition” under ledelse af Sven Hedin. På denne tur optog han for første gang musik på voksvalser med en fonograf.
Haslund-Christensen rejste igen i 1936-1937, denne gang på sin første ekspedition til den østlige del af det Indre Mongoliet ved grænsen til Manchuriet. Her rejste han i det mongolske Hsingan område, hvor han opholdt sig i længere perioder blandt Khorchin mongolerne i syd og senere blandt Solon, Buryat og Chipchin mongoler i nord nær byen Hailar. Han medbragte optageudstyr fra Svensk Radiotjänst i Stockholm, og det var planen, at han senere skulle holde en række radioforedrag.
Den efterfølgende rejse i 1938-1939 var Haslund-Christensens anden ekspedition, og den gik til det sydlige Indre Mongoliet. Ekspeditionen medbragte igen et omfattende optageudstyr fra Svensk Radiotjänst, bestående af optagemaskine, kabler og lakplader. Både Haslund-Christensen og arkæologen Werner Jacobsen var involveret i optagelsesarbejdet, mens lingvisten Kaare Grønbech dokumenterede.
Samlingen omfatter 213 lydoptagelser fra 1. og 2. Dansk Ekspedition til Centralasien, indspillet på lakplader. Der er tale om et stort antal enkelte musikstykker, optagelser af lamaistisk liturgi samt seks sprogindspilninger til lingvistisk forskning.
The Haslund-Christensen Collection
The Danish explorer, Henning Haslund-Christensen (1896-1948), made five expeditions to Asia where he collected ethnographic objects and made sound recordings of Mongolian folk music and instrumental music. In the 1920s he stayed for a longer period at a research dairy farm in Mongolia where he studied the country, learned the language and gained an insight into the local culture.
From 1927 to 1929 Haslund-Christensen took part in “The Sino-Swedish Expedition” under the leadership of Dr. Sven Hedin. During this expedition Haslund-Christensen made his first music recordings on wax cylinders by means of a phonograph.
In 1936-1937 Haslund-Christensen took off again, this time on his first expedition to the eastern part of Inner Mongolia close to the border of Manchuria. He travelled the Mongolian Hsingan area and stayed for a while with the Khorchin Mongols in the south and later on with the Solon, Buryat and Chipchin Mongols in the north near the city of Hailar. He brought recording equipment from “Svensk Radiotjänst” (a Swedish public service for broadcasting radio services) and he was meant to make a series of radio presentations at a later stage.
The following journey, which was Haslund-Christensen’s second expedition, brought him to the Southern part of Inner Mongolia in 1938-1939. Again, the expedition had brought a range of recording equipment from “Svens Radiotjänst” including a recording machine, cables and lacquer disks. Haslund-Christensen and the archaeologist Werner Jacobsen were involved in the recording process while the linguist Kaare Grønbech did the documentation work.
The Haslund-Christensen Collection comprises 213 sound recordings from the 1st and 2nd Danish Expedition to Central Asia, all recorded on lacquer disks. These include many recordings of individual pieces of music, lamaistic liturgy as well as six language recordings for linguistic research.