Country on the east coast of the indo-Chinese peninsula.
TRaN VĂN KHÊ/NGUYeN THUYET PHONG
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of
Vietnam is the most culturally diverse country in mainland South-east Asia, comprising 54 ethnic groups. The largest of these is the Việt or Kinh, living in the lowland areas along the Pacific coast and in the deltas of the Sông Hồng (Red River) and the Cửu Long (Mekong). The rest of the ethnic groups live mainly in the highlands and mountains that separate Vietnam from China, Laos and Cambodia.
Over four millennia of legends and recorded history are in evidence at about 300 prehistoric sites, as well as in numerous historical folk tales (Phan, Hà and Hoàng, 35). All traditional folk tales preceding recorded history originated in the original land of the Việt, comprising the valley of the Sông Hồng where the Biển Đông (Eastern Sea) and the mountains meet. As the Việt moved from the mountains to the river areas, water joined mountains as the main topic of narratives and songs.
Traditional festivals honouring nature and the ancestors are believed to have been practised for over 2000 years of recorded history. Such festivals were made up of ritual ceremonies, music, songs and dance, often including a series of games and entertainments. In the first few centuries ce these prehistoric events and customs in the highlands of Phong Châu were gradually transmitted to the lowland areas of Bắc Ninh (now Hà Bắc province), where native beliefs became associated with Buddhism. Many of the traditional festivals are still celebrated in northern provinces, taking place at village temples called đ́nh in accordance with the seasonal cycle of the agricultural year. These temples also served as common houses or town halls for public meetings in traditional society.
In contrast to the Việt, the ethnic minorities live in upland areas that include the mountains and highlands of the north and central regions. While a great number of the northern groups (mainly the Nùng, Yao, Hmông and Thái peoples) came from southern China and Laos, the larger central groups are related to the Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian cultures and date back about 4000 years. They live along the Trng Sn mountain range and in the highlands that stretch, at some points, from the Lao and Cambodian borders to the sea. Their music and dance are associated with traditional customs and beliefs and differ from culture to culture.
Because of this multicultural status, it is impossible to define a uniquely Vietnamese music. Even the music of the majority group, the Việt, shows strong regional differences, which also exist on linguistic and conceptual levels. While research on minority music is still in progress, the Việt musical traditions have been studied in depth and will be the focus of this entry.
The musical practice and theory of the Việt people are featured in the professional training schools in the four main regions: north, central, south-central and south. Although historically related to each other, each region has its own system of folk, chamber, theatrical and religious music. The uplanders seem to have remained in their own communities with little outside contact for about a 1000 years, until perhaps the time of the Lư dynasty (11th–13th centuries). The Việt in the lowland areas, however, have been in contact with foreign cultures for many centuries. A number of Central Asian, Chinese, Indian and Western instruments have been adopted and adapted to the performing traditions of the Việt. For centuries, Chinese literature was translated and used in Vietnamese songs. Indian Buddhism also brought with it a plethora of folk poetry, traditional songs and musical theatre; the land of Nirvana is featured in many chèo theatrical songs and folk performances. All foreign influences have, however, been adapted to the basic concepts of the Việt, the process of selection of instruments, stories and ideas taking several centuries.
Historical and archaeological evidence shows that the bronze drum, the mouth organ and various dances have existed since the period of the Hùng kings (3rd–1st centuries bce). Many existing songs and dances are associated with ancient agricultural customs and the praising of village protector-deities, heroes and heroines.
Buddhism was introduced in Vietnam in the 2nd century ce and may have mixed with other local beliefs in the development of one of the great chanting traditions in the East and South-east Asian Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Some folksongs may be related to the period of the sisters Trng in the 1st century ce or King An Dng a century earlier. Many folkdances also found their way to the imperial court of the Đinh (10th century ce), while chamber and theatre music emerged strongly during the Lư dynasty (11th–13th centuries). Both the Đinh and Lư imperial courts favoured music and dance. Water puppetry was created in 985. In 1025, King Lư Thái Tổ created the position of music director (quẢn giáp), whose function was to oversee all music and dance activities at the court. The đàn đáy, a long lute with three strings and a trapezoidal soundbox, is believed to have been invented during this period along with dances. Its invention was related to the development of the northern chamber genre ca trù, which promoted the role of female singers, particularly in the Lê dynasty (15th–18th centuries). An impressive national art of sung poetry has survived from this singing tradition.
The chèo and tuồng (also called hát boi), two major forms of Vietnamese theatre, had their origins in the Lư dynasty. In this same period, after victories over the Chinese and the Chàm, performers and dancers were brought to the imperial palace for entertainment purposes. The dance music of the Chàm inspired King Lư Thánh Tông (1052–72) to compose his own music. Traditional music, folksong and folkdance were blended into Buddhist feasts and ceremonies. Buddhism became a leading national religion and expanded to every part of the country, leading to the absorption of, and favourable interactions with, other local beliefs. Hundreds of traditional musicians and dancers performed at the grand inauguration ceremony of the Diên Hu temple in the 11th century, as recorded in Đại Việt sử kư toàn th (Complete history of Đại Việt).
In the 15th century imperial court music was reorganized into đồng văn (choral music) and nhẢ nhạc (instrumental music). The court instruments were also remodelled on those of the Chinese Ming dynasty, regardless of the negative reaction of court dignitaries. New instrumental pieces and songs were composed for various court ceremonies and rituals that were maintained through the Nguyen dynasty (1802–1945). In the meantime, the non-court genres such as chèo, ca trù, religious chant and folksong persisted independently. A masking dance called xuân phẢ is believed to have been created in the 15th century, during the Lê period. This rare dance survives in Thanh Hóa Province, about 170 km south of Hanoi.
The form closest to today's tuồng musical theatre was created in the 16th century. Credit for its invention is given to Đào Duy T, who joined the southern lords Nguyen when the country was divided into north-south political divisions. He founded a school of theatre that was supported by the Nguyen dynasty as a national theatre. Đào Tấn, a court dignitary and instructor at this school, composed the most extensive tuồng plays. The chamber music and songs of Huế (called ca Huế) were developed in the southern part of the country; their influence later spread to the delta of the Mekong river. Here, in the early 20th century, a new form of chamber music was born, called đn ca tài tử or nhạc tài tử, which became the basic repertory of cẢi lung theatre.
Contacts with European cultures, beginning in the 16th century with missionaries and French colonialists, became particularly accelerated in the early 20th century. Western instruments were introduced, some adapted for traditional ensembles; others remained unchanged, with Western repertory that was learned by the Vietnamese. Western music was introduced into the national education system, designed by the French, in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of
Many archaic instruments are Chinese in origin and name. As in China they were classified into eight categories: stone, metal, silk, bamboo, wood, skin, gourd and clay. About 300 instruments are still in use, including those used by ethnic minority groups; the most important are mentioned here.
The sáo or địch (from the Chinese di) is a transverse bamboo flute with six finger-holes and an additional hole covered with a thin membrane, which acts as a mirliton. The cylindrical end-blown flute tiêu (from the Chinese xiao) is made of bamboo or bronze. It has five finger-holes at the front and one at the back.
The kèn (fig.1), a wooden oboe with seven finger-holes at the front and one at the back, is similar to the Chinese suona. The bell is made of brass or wood. There are several types of kèn, e.g. the kèn tiểu (small oboe), kèn trung (middle-sized oboe) and kèn đại (large oboe).
The khèn, a raft mouth organ featured in the engravings of the prehistoric bronze drums, is now only played by the Thái and the Triêng. The Êđê and Mnông living in the mountain areas have a similar instrument called đing năm or m'buốt, with bamboo tubes fixed in a windchest made of a dried gourd. The sinh, a mouth organ used for court music, was adapted from the Chinese sheng; this instrument is now obsolete.
There are a few side-blown horns used by ethnic minorities, such as the pí mo of the Thái and the ki pá of the Jarai. The tù và, an end-blown buffalo horn, and the hẢi loa, an end-blown conch shell, are now no longer in use.
According to a Vietnamese legend, the Đàn bau or đàn đoc huyền (monochord) was given to man by an immortal. The instrument consists of a kind of box formed by three wooden boards from 80 cm to 1 m long and from 9 cm to 12 cm wide (fig.2). The soundboard is made of ngô đồng wood (firmiana plata nifolia) and the two side boards of trắc wood (tulip wood). A flexible stem made of wood or bent bamboo goes through the soundboard 5 cm from one end, serving as a neck. It carries a gourd-shaped wooden resonator or a small coconut shell. The single steel string is attached at one end to the flexible stem at the point where the resonator is attached, passes obliquely through a small hole pierced in the soundboard, and is then wound round a wooden peg which runs through the two sides of the body. In his right hand the musician holds a sharpened bamboo stem about 15 cm long, with the sharp point held at the base of the little finger. He touches the string with the edge of his right hand at precise points, dividing it in the ratios 1 : 1, 1 : 2, 1 : 3 or 1 : 4, and plucks the string with the bamboo stem. By exerting pressure on the flexible neck with his left hand, the musician changes the tension of the string and thus the fundamental pitch. Any note of the scale can be obtained on this instrument, which has a compass of more than two octaves. It differs from the Chinese monochord yixian qin, the Japanese ichigen-kin, the Indian gopī-yantra and the Cambodian saadiev, although it has sometimes been likened to these instruments.
Similar to the Chinese zheng, the Japanese koto and the Korean kayakeum, the Đàn tranh (a board zither; fig.3) has 16 steel strings stretched across movable bridges. The people of north Vietnam use a ground zither known as trống quân to accompany a folksong of the same name. A bamboo tube zither (roding, ding goong, ding put) is played by minority peoples of the central highlands. The strings, consisting of wire or strips of skin, vary in number from one to 13. The sound of the instrument imitates that of a gong ensemble.
The đàn nguyệt or đàn ḱm, a moon-shaped, long-necked lute with two silk strings (see fig.4 below), differs from the Chinese yueqin, which has a very short neck. The yueqin is known in Vietnam under the name of đàn đoẢn (‘short-necked lute’) or đàn tau (‘Chinese lute’). The đàn nguyệt is similar to the Cambodian caapey, but its fingerboard is a little shorter than that of the caapey, with 8 frets instead of 12.
The đàn tam or tam huyền is a three-string lute with a round soundbox covered on both sides with snakeskin; it resembles the Chinese sanxian. The đàn đáy (singer's lute; see fig.4) is peculiar to north Vietnam and was used to accompany the ca trù singer. It has a very long neck, three silk strings and a trapeziform body. Like the đàn đoc huyền, it was, according to legend, a bewitching instrument given to man by the immortals.
The đàn tY bà, a four-string, pear-shaped, fretted lute, is similar to the Chinese pipa (tY bà being the phonetic transcription of pipa in Vietnamese pronunciation). It is played with a small plectrum or with the fingernails (fig.5).
The Thái and Nùng peoples of north Vietnam use a long-necked lute called tính tẩu or đàn tính, which has a soundbox made from a gourd and a round soundboard 15 cm in diameter; the fingerboard has no frets.
The more notable bowed stringed instruments are the đàn nhị (see figs.1 and 3 below) or đàn c̣, a two-string fiddle similar to the Chinese erxian, and the đàn gáo, also with two strings. There are many kinds of đàn nhị, differing according to the size of the resonator and the length of the neck. The đàn gáo has a resonator made of an empty coconut shell, similar to the Cambodian tror u and the Laotian so u. In the early 20th century, the European guitar was introduced to Vietnam and later became a favourite instrument of the tài tử and cẢi lung ensembles. Known as lục huyền cam (‘six-string instrument’) or ghi-ta, it was modified by having the wood between the frets hollowed out to facilitate deep pressing on the metal strings, which were adapted to be softer and more flexible. At the same time the violin, called vĩ cam or viô-lông, was adopted into the same ensembles.
There is a great variety of drums in Vietnam. The bồng is a single-headed drum shaped like an hourglass and beaten with the hands, while the trống cái, also with one skin, is beaten with one stick in the court music of Huế and in southern Vietnam.
Some drums with two heads are the đại cổ (‘big drum’), a barrel-shaped drum beaten with one or two sticks and similar to the Chinese dagu; tiểu cổ, the generic name for a small, double-headed drum; the trống chiến (‘battle drum’), a barrel-shaped drum used in the traditional theatre; the trống nhạc, a pair of shallow cylindrical drums used in ceremonial music, and the trống cm (‘rice-drum’; see fig.1 above), a barrel-shaped drum similar to the south Indian mrdangam. This drum may be Indian in origin, since it was introduced into Vietnam through the former kingdom of Champa.
The Chàm people use the baranng, a large, single-headed frame drum, to accompany their long songs. It can also be played in an ensemble for ceremonial music. The ganang, a pair of double-headed cylindrical drums, is also of Chàm origin; one skin is beaten with the hand, the other with a stick. The ngor, song gor, hogro or hogoi is a large, barrel-shaped drum used by the ethnic minority groups in the high plateaux of central Vietnam.
Of the many idiophones to be found in Vietnam, the sinh tiền (clappers; see fig.1 above) is probably the most unusual. This instrument consists of three small planks: the longest (30 cm long, 3 cm wide and 1 cm thick) carries a head provided with two or three sapeke (Chinese coins); underneath it is serrated. A second plank, shorter than the first (20 cm long), carries two brass heads, each provided with two or three sapeke. The third plank (15 cm long) has teeth cut into it. The sinh tiền combines the characteristics of clappers, sistra and scrapers.
Other Vietnamese idiophones are the sanh, a pair of wooden clappers; the song lang, a small woodblock beaten with a small wooden ball connected to the block by a flexible curved slat made of horn; the mơ gia tŕ, similar to the Chinese muyu, a fish-shaped woodblock used in Buddhist religious ceremonies; the mơ, a slit-drum made of hollowed-out wood or pieces of bamboo and used in ceremonial music; the mơ sứng trâu, a part of a hollowed buffalo horn (see fig.1 above); the chung or chuông, bells used in Confucian or Buddhist music; the chiêng, a gong with a central boss; the la, a flat gong; the bạt, small cymbals; and the chap chơa, large cymbals of different sizes.
Sets of 7, 9 or 13 gongs are used by the Êđê, M’nông gar and M’nông ma of the high plateaux. They are struck in the same way as the gongs from Sagada in the Philippines.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of
Vietnamese music is essentially vocal. Chamber music and theatre ensembles only play preludes and interludes in performances featuring songs and chanted poetry. Instrumental music is played for religious ceremonies in the lowlands; formerly it was also played at the imperial court. In the highlands, gong ensembles are widely used.
The court orchestra comprises three kinds of instrumental ensembles: the Đại nhạc (large ensemble), which uses drums, gongs and wind instruments (oboes and conches), the nhạc huyền (ensemble of bronze and stone chimes) and the tiểu nhạc or nhă nhạc (small ensemble), which features mainly strings (lutes, fiddles and flutes). A typical đại nhạc ensemble in the early 20th century consisted of 20 large drums, eight oboes, four large gongs, four medium gongs, four conches and four water-buffalo horns. This ensemble and the nhạc huyền only performed on important occasions. The nhă nhạc consisted of two transverse flutes, one two-string fiddle, a moon-shaped lute, a pear-shaped lute, a three-string lute, a small single-headed drum, sinh tiền, and a set of three small gongs. Today, visitors to the Huế Imperial City only see performances of the nhă nhạc ensemble.
The ceremonial music ensemble of south Vietnam, called nhạc le, is composed of instruments which can be grouped into văn (strings) and vơ (percussion). A complete nhạc le ensemble includes four two-string fiddles, a lute, a pair of double-headed drums, a single-headed drum, a large gong, a small gong, a pair of large cymbals, a pair of small cymbals, a single-headed hourglass drum, a water-buffalo horn drum and an oboe.
There are various kinds of ensemble for the traditional theatre, folk theatre and modernized theatre. Entertainment (chamber) music is performed by an ensemble of three instruments: 16-string zither, two-string fiddle and moon-shaped lute (which can be replaced by the pear-shaped lute). A group of five instruments is called ngũ tuyệt (the five ‘perfect’ instruments; see fig.3 above): it consists of the four above-mentioned instruments and one three-string lute or the monochord. Sometimes a group of six, the latter group plus a transverse flute, is used to perform entertainment music.
In the central highlands of Vietnam, gong ensembles are prominent features of minority cultures. The number of gongs (flat and bossed) in an ensemble varies from two to 22 depending on the ethnic group or specific occasion. Three typical types of gong ensembles are those of the Brâu, the Êđê and the Jarai peoples. Brâu musicians play a set of two gongs, suspended from the ceiling inside their stilt houses, with a pair of short beaters and a pair of long beaters that rest on a musician's shoulders. Êđê musicians play complex, four-part polyphonic compositions sitting on a kpan (long bench made of a tree trunk).The gongs, which hang from the ceiling, rest on their laps. Unlike with most gong techniques, five players strike their flat gongs with beaters on the back, while three players beat their larger bossed gongs on the front. All use their left hands to regulate the sound of the gongs. Large-scale performances often take place at the water-buffalo feasts of the Jarai and Bahnar peoples, in which up to 23 gongs are used. Like the majority Việt people, many minority groups in the highlands use a drum as a leading instrument to signal the beginning and end of a performance. The highland Chàm, however, play a pair of gongs and a hand-beaten drum in a call-and-response manner while dancing.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of
Defining musical scales in Vietnamese music is a difficult task; a folksong may consist of only two pitches, while an instrumental piece of the art tradition could employ the entire available pitch range. The fretting of string instruments is based on either pentatonic (e.g. the đàn nguyệt moon lute) or heptatonic (e.g. the đàn đáy long lute) scales. Emphasis is given to a five-tone scale that is peculiar to the Vietnamese tradition.
Table 1 shows the type of pentatonic scale employed in Vietnam. As can be seen, the notes ḥ, xang, xê and líu are strong and relatively stable, while the notes x and cống are weak or mobile. The notes líu and ú, which are an octave higher than ḥ and x, do not have the same names because their musical function in many melodies is different. Most of the scales are anhemitonic except for the scale vọng cổ, which uses the semitone e'–f'.
Other types of scale are used by the various ethnic minorities, and two-, three-, and four-note scales occur in folk music.
The điệu or giọng (modes) and the hi (modal nuances) are important in chamber (entertainment), theatre and Buddhist music. There are two principal modes or modal systems, the bac and nam. They are called either giọng, a rather vague term meaning voice or intonation, or điệu, a Sino-Vietnamese word which corresponds to the Chinese diao (chō in Japanese and jo in Korean). Despite this linguistic relationship, the Vietnamese concept of mode is distinct from that of other East Asian cultures.
The bắc is a regular pentatonic scale with two auxiliary notes as passing notes or ornaments (see Table 1, scale bắc). Any note of the pentatonic scale may serve as the opening, final or cadential note, but the ḥ (c') nevertheless remains the fundamental note. Next in importance are the notes xang (f') and xê (g'). Specific ornaments should be used. The tempo ranges from moderate to very fast; slow pace is exceptional. The điệu bắc expresses gaiety or solemnity but includes several hi (modal nuances): the bắc itself, expressing gaiety; the quẢng (fancy and in the Cantonese manner); the nhạc or hạ in the south and the thiền in central Vietnam (solemn, ceremonial music).
Scales
belonging to the điệu nam have four main degrees, a tritonic
structure or an irregular pentatonic structure. The xang (f') is
a little higher in pitch than the xang of the bắc mode. X
ranges from d
'
to d
',
sometimes even as high as an e'. The cống falls between a' and a'. Only the notes ḥ,
xang or xê may serve as the opening, final or cadential note. As
in bắc, the ḥ, xang and xê are the most
important degrees of the scale. Specific ornaments for the điệu
nam should be used. The tempo ranges from moderate to slow; quick pace is
exceptional. The modal nuances of the điệu nam are the xuân
(expressing serenity or tranquillity), the ai (melancholy or sadness)
and the oán (deep sorrow); there is one exception, the đẢo
in the south, which expresses solemnity.
The idea of mode is highly developed in Vietnamese music, the điệu bringing to the melody a characteristic colour. In the tuồng and hát chèo (traditional theatre music) and in hátẢ đào (the repertory of professional singers) the melody unfolds from a given mode; the điệu nonetheless differs from the Indian rāga.
Vietnamese, like Chinese, is a tonal language. There may be six different tones for one syllable and the meaning of the word changes according to the particular tone. In folk music, the relation between music and speech is very close. In the declamation of poetry, prayers or songs of the Ả đào repertory, words are set to music, and the singers or the priest must take the particular tones of the words into consideration in order to find a proper melody.
In the chamber music of central and south Vietnam, the melodic line of a specific tune varies according to the school, region, the musical instruments, the musician and the period. A melodic line provides merely the theme from which a good musician can create a more elaborate melody with more ornamentation.
In this context, a metabole is an alternation or succession of two or more five-note scales (with or without a periodic and final return to the point of departure) in the course of a pentatonic melody. Derived from the Greek word meaning ‘change’, the term was used and defined by the musicologist Constantin Brăiloiu and characterizes a musical phenomenon that is often found in Vietnamese folk music, especially in north and central Vietnam, in folk theatre music and in the chau văn repertory (medium's songs). There are several types of metabole. If in the first part of a melody the pentatonic scale g, a, c', d', e' is used and in another part of the scale c', d', f', g', a', one cannot say that the scale used for that melody is therefore hexatonic, consisting of the notes g, a, c', d', e', f', g', because when the f' is present the e' is absent and vice versa. These are, on the contrary, two distinct pentatonic scales whose juxtaposition constitutes a metabole.
The term phách in Vietnamese designates a piece of wood or bamboo used to mark time units. Phách also refers to the time units (e.g. a tune of 60 phách) or the tempo (phách dồn meaning quick tempo). In south Vietnam, nhịp means ‘to beat time’ or refers to the strong beat of each time unit; a weak beat is called láy. In folk and art music duple time is used almost exclusively; triple time is scarce. There are many cyclic rhythmic patterns with 8 or 16 beats in ceremonial and theatre music. The last note of a piece is emphasized by a stroke of clappers, a woodblock or the mơ sng trâu; the manner of playing these instruments varies according to the region and the musical genre. Syncopation is often used, and free rhythm is found in the chanting of poetry, in theatrical declamation and in improvised vocal or instrumental preludes.
The rhythmic patterns in theatre and ceremonial music are numerous. They are determined by the placing and number of specific drumstrokes and are taught by onomatopoeic syllables, e.g. toong, táng, cắc, trắc, tà-rắc, rụp. Very few rhythmic patterns are fixed; most of them can or must be used with rhythmic variation. To perform the basic pattern is known as đánh chân phung (‘to strike in a true and square way’) when there is no variation and đánh hoa lá (‘to strike, adding flowers and leaves’) when there is. Polyrhythms can be found in traditional theatre music and ritual music. Formerly, all kinds of music were rhythmically accompanied, but entertainment music in central and south Vietnam now has no special rhythmic accompaniment.
Vietnamese music is not exclusively monodic. The Thái and Hmông perform some folksongs in several parts, and Buddhist prayers are never chanted in unison. In instrumental music many different melodic lines, derived from the same melodic pattern, are performed simultaneously by several instruments, although the last note of a musical phrase and musical section must be played in unison or in octaves. On the main beats all the instruments play either a unison or a consonance. On the weak beats they are free to use any note of the modal scale. Heterophony can be found in the instrumental accompaniment of a song as well as in instrumental music performed by ensembles.
An important feature of Vietnamese musical tradition, ornamentation is usually reserved for certain instruments or certain modes. For example, arpeggiation is used only on the tranh. On the same instrument vibrato is used for the notes x and cống in the điệu bắc and for the notes ḥ, xang and oán in the điệu nam, hi ai. The scale is the same for the hi xuân and the hi ai, but the ornaments for the note xang are different in the two cases. Besides these prescribed ornaments, there are improvised ones in both vocal and instrumental music. A singer or musician is appreciated much more for his ability to ornament than for the number of pieces in his repertory.
In the Vietnamese folk music tradition, improvisation can be either poetic or musical, especially in the trống quân and quan họ, sung by two groups in competition. In art music, before playing a melody, musicians used to improvise in the prelude called rao in south Vietnam and dạo in central or north Vietnam. Nowadays the dạo in the Huế tradition (central Vietnam) consists of a few stereotyped musical phrases. While the rao is still elaborate, improvisation is no longer as developed as it used to be in either the dạo or the rao.
The notes of the scale, as in Chinese tradition, are represented by Chinese characters written from top to bottom and from right to left. For the notes of a lower octave a dot is put under each character. The notes of the upper octave are represented by the same characters with an additional symbol on the left side. Illustrations of the notation system can be found in Tran Văn Khê (1962) and Nguyen Thuyết Phong (1989).
Nowadays, however, the names of the notes are written in modern script with Roman letters, as in ex.1. A circle or a dot in red ink beside a character shows that the note is on a strong or a weak beat respectively. This system of notation has no indication for the manner of performance. There were tablatures for the đàn tranh and the ty bà, but they were not as accurate as the tablature for the Chinese qin. Many new systems of notation, invented by a few traditional masters, are being used concurrently with Western music notation.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of
Art music, with its definite rules and its varied repertory, is performed by professional or semi-professional musicians. In the time of the monarchy, this music was played to accompany court ceremonies or to enliven banquets. Nowadays it serves merely as entertainment or to accompany ceremonies or theatrical performances.
(iv) Đn ca tài tử or tài tử (‘music of skilled amateurs’).
(v) Ceremonial and religious music.
(ix) Popular and Western music.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
In the 15th century, in the reign of King Lê Thái Tông (1434–42), a court high official was commissioned to study the music of the Ming dynasty, then reigning in China, in order to create a Đại Việt (Vietnam's former name) court music. He distinguished eight kinds of music; giao nhạc (‘music of heaven's terrace’) for the sacrifice to heaven and earth; miếu nhạc (‘music of the temples’) performed in the imperial and Confucian temples; ngũ tử nhạc (‘music of the five sacrifices’); đại triều nhạc (‘music of the great audiences’); thung triều nhạc (‘music of the simple audiences’); yến nhạc (‘banquet music’); cung trung chi nhạc (‘palace music’), and cứu nhat nguyệt giao trùng nhạc (‘music for assistance to the sun or the moon in case of an eclipse’).
Several instrumental ensembles were used to perform royal music: the đông văn and the nhă nhạc, which were replaced by the giao phng. In the 19th century and even in the 20th, shortly before the fall of the monarchy in 1945, court orchestras were as follows: the nhạc huyền, consisting of archaic instruments, mostly used as a parade orchestra, the nhă nhạc (‘elegant music’), and đại nhạc (‘great music’). The repertory included a series of nine hymns (cửu tấu) or six hymns (lục tấu) sung by a choir in unison.
Court dances were performed by two groups of dancers, the văn vũ (‘civil dance’) and vơ vũ (‘military dance’). A great number of musical pieces for the đại nhạc and nhă nhạc ensembles are no longer performed except at national festivities, or in special circumstances such as the reception of foreign ambassadors or at international festivals.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
Music for entertainment is not ‘light music’ but rather art music performed by a small number of instrumentalists for a limited audience, somewhat like chamber music in the West. There are three regional types.
In north Vietnam, hát Ả đào or ca trù chamber music is performed by professional or semi-professional singers accompanied by only one musician playing on the đàn đáy, or by an instrumental ensemble when the singers dance at the same time. From a historical point of view, it is very likely that the hát Ả đào was created in the 15th century, reached its peak of development in the 19th century and began to decline in the 20th. It is now disappearing, and singers who know the whole repertory can no longer be found.
The music of the hát Ả đào has altered considerably owing to the decreasing number of accompanying instruments, the scarcity and even suppression of the dances and the disappearance of the teaching centres of vocal music. The genre once displayed skilled vocal technique, instrumental accompaniment, the combination of melodic and rhythmic elements and audience participation. The singer had to have a refined vocal technique and a deep knowledge of rhythm. She would accompany herself rhythmically on the phách (clappers), a small bamboo plank or a piece of hard wood that she beat with two wooden sticks (see fig.4 above). As a rule, only one musician accompanied the song on the đàn đáy. One of the listeners would hold the trống chau (‘praising drum’), a small, double-headed drum that was beaten with a wooden stick and gave stereotyped rhythmic patterns. The old repertory included entertainment songs, songs in honour of tutelary genii and competition songs.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
The period from which the ca Huế (Huế songs) and the đàn Huế (Huế music) date is not known. This genre could have existed for a long time and may have had a different name in the past; its present name derives from Huế, the site chosen as the capital of the southern part of Đại Việt by Nguyen Phúc Tran in 1687. The Huế tradition is kept alive by musicians who continue to hand down their art to younger musicians.
Some of the best-known pieces in the Huế repertory are Lu thủy (‘Flowing water’), Cổ bổn (‘Old piece’), Long điệp (‘Butterflies courting’) and Mi bài ng (‘Ten royal pieces’), also called Mui bài tau (‘Ten Chinese pieces’), in the bắc mode; and Nam ai (‘Lament of the south’), Nam b́nh (‘Peace in the south’) and Tứ đại cẢnh (‘Landscape of four generations’) in the nam mode. Huế music can be played as a solo, a duet, a trio or a quintet (ngũ tuyệt, see §3 above). It can also be performed by the court nhă nhạc ensemble.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
This music, found in the south, belongs to the same tradition as Huế music, though the repertory and the instrumental technique are slightly different. Pieces in the bắc mode such as Lu thủy (‘Flowing water’) or Kim tiền (‘golden coin’) recur here, but apart from the six bắc pieces, there are seven great pieces (bẢy bài ln) belonging to the nhạc type expressing solemnity, and several short tunes of the quẢng type expressing fancy.
Nam xuân (‘Spring in the south’) and Nam ai (‘Lament of the south’) differ from the pieces of the same name in the Huế tradition. The most popular piece in the southern tradition is Vọng cổ (‘Nostalgia for the past’), composed in 1917 by Cao Văn Lâu (also known as Sáu Lau), a native of Bạc Liêu in south Vietnam. Since then, this piece of 20 phrases of 2 bars has become a piece of 6 phrases of 32 bars. Its melodic line, with fixed notes on certain beats, can be infinitely varied according to the musicians and the instruments.
The instruments of tài tử music are basically the same as those of the Hue tradition. In addition, the modified European guitar (ghi-ta), violin (viô-lông) and steel guitar (ghi-ta ha-oai-en) are used in all tài tử and cai lung repertories. Recently, the đàn bau monochord has been reintroduced into southern music after a long period of absence. The most favoured tài tử piece is vọng cô (‘Remembering the past’).
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
In several regions funerals still proceed according to Confucian, Buddhist, Caodaist or Christian rites. In south Vietnam, funeral music is performed by a group of five instruments called quân nhạc (‘military music’), and the pagodas and temples still resound with Buddhist or Caodaist prayers.
There is nothing comparable to the Japanese shōmyō (Buddhist chant), but a great number of prayer texts are similar to those found in Chinese or Japanese Buddhism. There are two main genres: tụng, cantillation without instrumental accompaniment, and tán, Buddhist chanting with instrumental accompaniment in big ceremonies. Some of the tán are sung in the thien nuance of the bắc mode, others in the nam mode. The mediums' songs chau văn in north Vietnam, hau văn in central Vietnam and rôi bóng in south Vietnam are dying out.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
Vietnam has 54 different ethnic groups. Nearly all the peoples sing hát ru (lullabies), đong dao (children's songs) and ḥ (peasant work songs). The Thái have songs with dancing, whereas several ethnic groups of north Vietnam sing special funeral or ceremonial songs. In north Vietnam, antiphonal songs are sung by boys and girls, especially the trong quân (accompanied by the trong quân, a ground zither) and the quan họ, a song peculiar to the province of Bắc Ninh. These are both love songs with collective and competitive features. For the trơng quân only poetic improvisation is required, but musical improvisation is also part of quan họ. Blind musicians (xẩm xoan) go from one village to another singing historical, humorous, epic and sometimes erotic songs for the villagers. More than 6000 folksongs have been recorded for the archives of the various research institutes of Vietnam. It still remains for them to be studied and analysed in order to present a more accurate picture of Vietnamese folk music.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
All the traditional theatres of Vietnam are musical theatres, of which the script and the acting are the most important elements, though given coherence by singing, dancing and instrumental accompaniment. Tuong or hát boi, a court theatre, is considered the ‘classical’ theatre of Vietnam. It is very similar to Chinese theatre, with the same simplicity of stage setting and almost the same conventions concerning the characters, costumes, make-up and gesture. However, stories (tuong) are taken from the history and mythology of Vietnam and China. These are categorized according to their sources: the tuong thay (masters' plays) were composed by prominent Vietnamese playwrights; the tuong pho (long plays) were derived from long Chinese stories; and the tuong đo (varied plays) derived from Vietnamese folk stories. Although many stories are adapted from Chinese sources, vocal techniques and instrumentation are quite distinctive. Voices (giọng) are classified according to the style of the vocal production used by the singer: giọng óc (falsetto), giọng gan (‘liver’ voice), giọng ruot (‘intestine’ voice), giọng hm (‘jaw’ voice) etc. The kèn bóp (oboe) and the trong chien (‘battle’ drum) feature prominently in the accompanying instrumental ensemble.
Tuong requires specific training in the most substantial repertory of songs and music among traditional theatrical forms. The repertory consists of nói loi (declamations), xung, bạch and thán (recitatives), hát khách (songs of the ‘guest’ category), hát nam (songs of the ‘native’ category and in the nam mode), hát bài (songs for a particular character) and hát noi niêu (varied songs).
Hát chèo or chèo, which emerged from folk traditions, became an important form of theatre in northern Vietnam in the Lư dynasty (11th–13th centuries). Many older plays are anonymous, and the texts are in the common language of the people; texts and melodies are orally transmitted. Unlike the court theatre, there is no scenery, no gorgeous costumes and no sophisticated make-up. The repertory includes various types of nói sử (declamation of verse in a serious style): sử chúc for the prologue; sử xuân, of a happy nature; sử rau, of a sad nature, and sử văn, of a mournful nature. Nói lửng is declamation of verse in a light style. There are also songs such as the sắp, which are for lively scenes, the ba than and hát văn for sad scenes, the sa lệch for love scenes, the cam giá for courting scenes, the he moi for buffoonery and the chuon chuon for mad women to sing. The instrumental ensemble used to consist of a fiddle player, a flautist and a drummer. Nowadays more instruments are used.
Cai lung (reformed theatre) was created in 1918 and is popular in southern Vietnam. The plays are different in essence and in form from traditional theatre, the themes being chosen from Vietnamese history as well as from foreign sources (Chinese, Indian, Arabic, European), from novels, from the various religions or from everyday life. They are written in the language of the people. The stage is adorned with a curtain and scenery, and more theatrical properties are used than in the other types of theatre so far described. It attempts a more natural style of acting; conventional gestures and stylized attitudes are now to be found only in historical plays.
The music of Cai lung is based mainly on the repertory of tài tử chamber music. Compositions in the bắc mode are for light scenes and in the nam mode for sadder scenes. Chinese and European songs have been adapted for inclusion; new short songs have been added for particular roles.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
For centuries, many folkdances have been integrated into ritual ceremonies, musical theatre and court music. One example is the stick dance, which had originally been a folkdance and was performed by King Đinh and King Tran from the 10th century to the 13th. Folk martial arts were adapted as the basic rules for hát boi tuong, which was once the court musical theatre. Village temple courtyards have long been performance sites for folk and traditional dances that depict historical stories of, and offerings to, local deities. Dances are rarely performed simply for entertainment purposes, with the exception of those performed for the former court banquets.
Folkdances are associated with local festivities and portray agricultural activities, local customs and stories of famous persons. Stories of the Hùng kings are enacted in the ancient site of the pre-historic kingdom of Văn Lang in Vĩnh Phù province on the annual commemoration day (giổ tổ Hùng Vng). The dances depict the life of this legendary time with bronze drum playing and scenes of tribute offerings from neighbouring countries. The cycle of the 12 agricultural months is elaborated in the 12 dance suites called mùa đèn (‘light dance’) in Đông Ankh district, Thanh Hóa province. Along the south-central coast, an annual ceremony in honour of the sacred whale features the bá trạo (oar dance) and other related dances, such as the ‘flower offering’ dance and the ‘long swords’ dance.
Dance is included in Buddhist ceremonies, chau văn possession rituals, ceremonies of the Cao Đài religious sect and the Catholic Mass. The most prominent of these are Buddhist dances: lục cúng (‘six offerings’), kinh đàn (sutra chanting ritual), du địa phu (‘salvation from hell’) and others which were probably created in the Lư dynasty.
Imperial court dances continued as a richly elaborate art for nearly 1000 years, from the time of the Lư dynasty. In the 17th century, Đào Duy T created the thanh ḥa th (royal dance mansion), where three teams of 120 dancers, musicians and singers were trained for court performances of a repertory of 11 major dances, performed for specific occasions in the palace.
Among minority peoples, well-known dances are performed during harvest and other festivities. These include the Thai xoe, the Khmer lăm thôn, the Chàm cà choong and the Êđê xoang; other dances are performed for courtship, celebrations and rituals.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
A new style of Vietnamese music has arisen as the result of contact with Western music. At first, songs were composed in a Western idiom to be taught in schools and universities, to boy scouts and to revolutionaries. Now, popular songs with romantic, folk and historical themes are widely sung on commercial recordings, radio, television and modern stages. Young musicians trained in the West have endeavoured to write compositions for the piano or violin before attempting other Western genres such as the symphonic poem, concerto, symphony or opera. Some use only Western techniques; others try to combine elements of traditional music with Western forms and idiom. Such composers are not yet well known outside Vietnam.
Traditional Vietnamese music, in spite of its originality and diversity of styles, no longer corresponds to the needs of the media or urban Vietnamese people. Many original folkdances have become obsolete or have changed extensively.
See also South-east Asia.
Vietnam, Socialist Republic of, §5: Musical genres.
GEWM, [iv] (Nguyen Thuyet Phong)
HDM2 (Trân Văn Khê)
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