Vietnamese music continues to improve and integrate into the world
ĐỖ HỒNG QUÂN*
The article points out the achievements of Vietnamese
music in nearly 90 years and the current issues of
“Vietnamese music market” that need to be discussed.
Keyword: Đỗ Hồng Quân, New music, Vietnamese music
The new Vietnamese music industry is nearly 90 years old, dating from the birth of the song Cùng nhau đi hồng binh (Let’s join the Red Army) - the first marching song - composed by Đinh Nhu (1930). In 1943, “Cultural draft of the Communist Party,” compiled by comrade Trường Chinh on the motto “National – Scientific – Popular”, was considered the guideline for music composition and performance. There have been thousands of musical works in several genres, namely song, chorus, singing drama, dancing drama, opera, chamber music and symphony, composed during the resistance wars against French colonialism and American imperialism, and especially since 1975 when the country was reunified and in the reform period.
In recent years, Vietnamese music has continued to develop, based on the traditions of previous generation. The mainstream is still orthodox, following the themes of national identities and destiny . It praises people’s labour life and creativity, youth, love, nature, reviews the triumphant history and memories of the two resistance wars and directs people towards human values.
Songs outnumber other genres in the field of musical composition, and the category is also the strong point of Vietnamese music. Besides the senior musicians who started to compose in the resistance war against French colonialism and still continue to produce new materials, musicians who debuted during the war against American imperialism obtained recognition and strengthened their position in the early 1990s. Following the previous generation, a new force of young composers has appeared, becoming the new voice that considerably contributes to the development of the music industry, wins the heart of the public, and has a positive effect on the society.
In the field of traditional instrumental music, many musicians-cum-singers have attached their names to masterpieces recognized by the audience. They are musician Trần Quý, Quang Hải, Đôn Truyền, Xuân Khải, Phương Bảo, Đỗ Lộc, Nguyễn Chính, Thao Giang, Khắc Chi, Hồng Thái, Thế Dân, Huỳnh Tú, Đinh Hà Linh. We might also consider: Nguyễn Văn Thương who composed Suối đàn T’rưng (The stream of T’rưng) (T’rưng solo), Nguyễn Đình Long who composed Khúc hát quê hương (Song about homeland) for long board zither, Văn Thắng who composed Cánh chim tự do (The free bird wings) (long board zither) and Tiếng lòng (The inner voice) (monochord), musician Hoàng Dương who composed Khúc nhạc tâm tình (Sentimental song), musician Quang Hải who composed Quê hương giải phóng (Homeland liberated) for long board zither solo and symphony orchestra, musician Trần Quý and Chu Minh who composed ouverture Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh (Ho Chi Minh City), a voluminous symphony for traditional musical instruments.
In 2009, the establishment of the Traditional Symphony Orchestra by Hanoi National Conservatory of Music (now the Vietnam National Academy of Music) was allegedly a progress on organizational model and scale of traditional music. The musicians who specialized in composing for traditional musical instruments, helped to upgrade traditional music to a professional level and facilitated the exchange of Vietnamese music with music industries throughout the world.
This exchange requires the acquisition from international exchange and self-progress to write new songs, but it also needs a process to absorb knowledge from local and foreign formal training institutions to work with instrumental music.
There is a fairly huge number of symphony - chamber music works whose contents are relatively diverse and mostly reflect the history of the resistance wars, praising the heroes and great men in the history or in the traditional - folk legends, and extoling the achievements in fighting, working to protect and construct the country and uncover feelings and thoughts of contemporary people about the society and the country’s destiny. Most of the works are entitled so that the audience may easily feel the content. Title is normally related to the content and musical icon of the piece like the symphony Đồng khởi (The uprising) by Nguyễn Văn Thương; ouverture Thắng lợi của tình yêu tổ quốc (The victory of love for the country) by Nguyễn Đình Tấn; the symphony No. 5 Mẹ Việt Nam (The Vietnamese Mother) by Nguyễn Văn Nam; ouverture Người về đem tới ngày vui (He comes back and brings us joyful days) by Trọng Bằng. There are a few works having no title, but their clear musical icons actually help the performers and audience easily understand the composers’ ideas.
At the end of 20th century, academic – classical music gained a substantial position on the stage, in radio and television programs, at schools and in the society. Symphony – chamber music activities strongly thrived with plenty of attractive concerts. Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra (VNSO), the Symphony Orchestra of Vietnam National Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Symphony Orchestra of Hanoi National Conservatory of Music and the Symphony Orchestra of Ho Chi Minh city Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre proved the maturity of the Vietnamese professional music industry. Besides classic works of western musicians, namely Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Grieg, Weber, Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Strauss, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shostakovitch, Sibélius, Ravel, Gershwin, etc., musical works of Vietnamese musicians namely Hoàng Việt, Nguyễn Văn Thương, Đàm Linh, Nguyễn Đình Tấn, Hoàng Vân, Nguyễn Đức Toàn, Văn Ký, Trọng Bằng, Trần Trọng Hùng, Nguyễn Thiện Đạo, Ca Lê Thuần, Đỗ Hồng Quân, Trọng Đài, Đặng Hữu Phúc, Trần Mạnh Hùng, etc were performed domestically and internationally.
Current foreign affairs need to be considered as the remarkable and innovative achievement which has opened new doors for Vietnamese professional music to integrate into our region with the world. The Euro – Asia New Music Festival 2014 organized by Vietnam Musicians’ Association in Vietnam is a typical event.
The Euro – Asia New Music Festival 2014 gathered approximately 200 musicians and artists from 33 countries. Among them were nations developing great music industries, such as Russia, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland, Holland, Denmark, Turkey, Australia, Philippines, Singapore, Japan, and China.
In late 2014, Vietnam Musicians’ Association became an official member of the Asian Composers League (ACL).
After 1975, Vietnamese music developed in a special historical – social context that reflected that the entire country was liberated and unified. The acquisition of foreign culture and international exhange in our music consequently carried new characteristics, followed new trends and faced new requirements.
Having been through the wars to the peace, this music industry needed changes in theme topics and portrayal. The protagonist was no longer the soldier, but the memories and echoes of war in people’s minds. Thematic topics changed then to talk about liberated lands, construction works, couples’ love and people’s postwar life when the country started to reform and develop.
With respect to achievements in the field of song, we should mention the period before 1975 with the contribution of musicians, namely: Nguyễn Xuân Khoát, Đỗ Nhuận, Văn Cao, Nguyễn Đình Thi, Lưu Hữu Phước, Phan Huỳnh Điểu, Nguyễn Văn Thương, Hoàng Vân, Huy Du, Nguyễn Đức Toàn, Xuân Hồng, Trần Hoàn, Trọng Loan, Trọng Bằng, Phạm Tuyên, Chu Minh, Hồng Đăng, Hoàng Hiệp, Đàm Linh, Nguyễn Đình Tấn, Nguyễn Đình Phúc, Văn Chung, Trần Kiết Tường, Vũ Trọng Hối, Nguyễn Văn Tý, Hồ Bắc, Huy Thục, Tân Huyền, Nguyễn Nhung, Doãn Nho, Thuận Yến, Lưu Cầu, Ca Lê Thuần, Văn An, Nguyễn Thành, Văn Dung, Vũ Thanh, Trần Chung, and musicians who made heroic sacrifices on battlefields, such as Hoàng Việt, Văn Cận, Vĩnh Bảo.
Some songs which became milestones in music history were Giải phóng Điện Biên (Liberate Điện Biên) by Đỗ Nhuận, Tiến về Hà Nội (Go towards Hà Nội) by Văn Cao, Giải phóng miền Nam (Liberate miền Nam), Tiến về Sài Gòn (Go towards Sài Gòn) by Lưu Hữu Phước (or Huỳnh Minh Siêng), Như có Bác Hồ trong ngày vui đại thắng (Like we have Uncle Ho in this great victorious day) by Phạm Tuyên, Đất nước trọn niềm vui (The country is fully foyful) by Hoàng Hà.
After the country’s unification, the number of music makers gradually increased, thanks to new composers and performers in Southern provinces and cities, especially musicians from the Liberation Association of Culture and Arts. This strengthened the Vietnam Musicians’ Association and helped it to develop to meet the requirements of the Reform program and the industrialization and modernization plans of our country.
Vietnamese professional musicians acquired and transformed pop music to meet the changing tastes of Vietnamese audiences. The acquisition and transformation required that change first be made in composition and performance by employing more traditional - folk themes and instruments as part of the melody, harmony and rhythm. It was the right way that some Vietnamese pop composers went on and the initial results showed that some Vietnamese pop musicians were successful, namely Trịnh Công Sơn; Diệp Minh Tuyền; Thanh Tùng; Phạm Minh Tuấn; Trần Long Ẩn; Tôn Thất Lập; Nguyễn Đình Bảng; Nguyễn Cường; Trần Tiến; Dương Thụ, Trương Ngọc Ninh; Phó Đức Phương; An Thuyên; Đỗ Hồng Quân; Trọng Đài; Từ Huy; Ngọc Khuê; Trương Tuyết Mai; Đức Trịnh; Văn Thành Nho; Phú Quang; Nguyễn Trọng Tạo, and, among the younger generation, included Nguyễn Ngọc Thiện, Nguyễn Văn Trung, Phạm Đăng Khương, Thập Nhất, Lê Quang Vũ, Đỗ Bảo, Giáng Son, Tạ Quang Thắng.
Recently, the majority of the audiences are fond of hurriedly composed market-oriented songs with simple and meaningless lyrics and frivolous music. They are eager to follow only pop singers, pop “divas”, pop “stars” who are widely famous thanks to the media. The public, especially young people, forget or know nothing about orthodox music, academic – classical music (both vocal music and instrumental music) and traditional music. In the market, music is a commodity that makes all show business activities influence music industry. Television, in its need to attract audiences, offers more and more reality shows in which competitors compete for prizes. This basically lowers the educational and aesthetic content and falls purely under entertainment. The chaotic music industry influences everyone involved, including the musicians, the singers and the public, and it gradually ruins and deviates people’s music tastes.
There needs to be a warning and a strict critique against composing new songs by borrowing foreign beats, because this “formula” or “reverse” process in music production may prevent the creativity and offend the vocation of musicians whose works are inspired by feelings about life, not by “eating already served meals”. This deception can even enable the spread of pop songs far and wide whose core is based on the “bone” (beat) from foreign music.
Each country’s music is not immutable; each interferes and selectively acquires the world’s quintessence. Nowadays we approach almost every culture in general and music in particular from traditional folk music, to academic music, to popular music (pop, rock).
Generations of Vietnamese musicians always have followed this process to build a modern expression for traditional music by developing three music genres: traditional folk music, orthodox – academic music, and popular music. This is a sound idea which is quite suitable to the development of music life. It maintains, completes, gradually enhances the root or the orthodox element of our music culture (represented by traditional music and academic music) and meets the demand for music of the public, especially young people. All these three music genres must be attached to the idea of starting from tradition, coming to modernity, and integrating into the world. It means the blend of national identity, humanity and innovation of our nation in this new period.