Filed under: VIETNAM
Vietnam has a very rich diversity of musical styles, due in part to it’s geography, ethnic groups and the fact that it blends Chinese, as well as Southeast Asian musical influences.
Here’s an example of “Ca Hue” from the same Victor series as our last posting. Ca Hue is a type of composed music that dates back to the 1500’s when Hue, in central Vietnam, became a cultural center independent of Hanoi in the north. The singer plays a wooden clapper and the ensemble usually consists of the “five excellent instruments”; Dan Tranh (zither), Dan Nhi (2 string fiddle), Dan Nguyet (2 string lute), Dan Day (3 string lute) and Ty Ba (pear shaped lute), sometimes a flute replaces one of the lutes.
This song is called “Tu dai canh” and is one of the standard pieces of Ca Hue repertoire.
Thanks again to Prof. Terry Miller for label translation and musical info. Some information on Ca Hue came on from Phong Nguyen’s article on Vietnamese music in the indispensable Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music, edited by Terry Miller and Sean Williams.
Although Vietnamese music is highly influenced by Chinese (Vietnam was ruled by China for almost 1000 years!), the are many distinctive instruments, especially stringed lutes with raised frets. Here’s a few old postcards depicting Vietnamese musicians and some unique instruments, ca. 1900-10.
On the left, the single string Dan Bau. On the right is the two string fiddle called Dan Nhi.
Another uniquely Vietnamese instrument with raised frets, the Dan Day.
L to R; another raised fret instrument is the Dan Nguyet (in the south called Dan Kim), a bowed Dan Nhi, the Vietnamese zither called Dan Tranh, I can't quite make out the next fiddle, but I think it's a Dan Gao, and finally the Dan Tam, related to the Chinese sanxian.
Filed under: VIETNAM
My apologies for the long delays between posts, I was sidetracked by some Greek music projects and summer vacation. So, without further ado, here is the first of a short series of records from Vietnam.
This record was recorded in 1928 for Victor’s 40000 series, a mysterious group of records that includes various dialects from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, and China. I have yet to find any solid discographical information on this series aside from a mention of the above dialects in an old Victor catalog (thanks to Du Jun Min). This series is followed by the 42000 series of Chinese (mostly Cantonese) records.
I was fortunate to have prof. Terry Miller translate and annotate a small group of records in this series. He writes:
This is a hat cheo theater song, “Ta canh co dau thua bac (describing a ca tru singer who lost her competition). The genre is “cheo cai luong” (reformed cheo theater), the singer is Dao (Ms.) Nha, and the place is Rap Cai Luong Hi Vien Hanoi (the Cai Luong Theater of Hanoi).
(Hat Cheo is an ancient form of vernacular theater from North Vietnam that reached it’s peak in the 19th century. It includes satire, songs, dances and skits.
Annamite refers to a region of central Vietnam then called Annam, but at the time was used to refer generally to all Vietnamese people. -Haji Maji)
Please have a look and listen at Excavated Shellac’s current post from Laos, which will be our next stop after Vietnam!
