The Vietnamese Lithophone is a set of stone slabs of different sizes and shapes fabricated through an elementary technique. These stones are available in the mountainous areas south of Central Vietnam and east of South Vietnam. Discovered by Georges Condominas - a French, in Dak Lak in 1949, Lithophone is an ancient musical instrument with 11 slabs of stone.
Later, four more Lithophone were...
The history…
According to the “Dai Nam thuc luc tien bien”, the first Dan Bau was made in 1770; yet, many scholars estimate its age to be up to one thousand years older than that. A popular legend of its beginning tells of a blind woman playing it in the market to earn a living for her family while her husband was at war. Whether this tale is based in fact or not, it remains...
How can tuong singing be identified among other Vietnamese traditional music?
Tuong can be classified into tuong chinh - a more academic style including various types of performance and tuong do - a more comic style criticizing the corrupt officialdom.
Tuong singing in Vietnam shares some similarities with Chinese opera (named “Kinh kich”), such as the simplicity of staging, the...
Let me tell you about the lullabies that most Vietnamese did listen when they were little children. Hat ru (or Lullaby singing) is a sort of folk music often heard in Vietnam, especially in the countryside. Ru as a noun is certainly a song to lull babies, and as a verb is to lull, but Vietnamese women use them to consign their fates and also express feelings, such as homesickness or the mood of...
From the past till now…
Ca quan ho, also called quan ho Bac Ninh singing, originated around the 13th century, and has traditionally been associated with the spring festivals that follow the celebration of the Vietnamese New Year. According to the tradition, only young people used to sing quan ho songs, as the major body of song texts centers on the subject of love and sentimental desire...
Cheo performance
There’s a folk verse in Vietnam that tells about a lazy guy who does not want to do anything but could not resist the attraction of a Cheo play, which has played a very important role in Vietnamese cultural life for a long time and is considered the oldest and most popular folk music performance in Vietnam.
When did the Cheo appear?
Cheo is believed to have originated in the...
A show performed by old artists
Let’s turn back time to the old days to the legend attached to this special kind of art. The legend, which has been handed down from generation to generation, tells that Xam singing was invented by Tran Quoc Dinh- a children of King Tran Thanh Tong around 700 years ago. According to this legend, the King was humane and upright and had the good relationships with...
Cai Luong (roughly translated as “renovated theatre”) is a form of modern folk opera, particularly famous in Southern Vietnam. It is the convergence of southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, tuong (a Chinese-based classical theatre form) and modern spoken drama. It took origin in Southern Vietnam in the early 20th century and blossomed in the 1930s as a theatre of the middle class...
The Klong put is the Xe Dang language name of a musical instrument of the wind family, air driving-in branch. It is played by ethnic groups in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) such as the Xe Dang, Bahnar, Gia Rai, Hre, etc.
A traditional Klong put consists of many large empty hornless bamboo sections. The length of each section ranges from 60 to 200 cm and a diameter ranging from 5 to 8 cm.
This...
Appearance
T’rung is one of the popular musical instruments closely associated with the spiritual life of the Bahnar, TSedan, Giarai, Ede and other ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It is made of short bamboo tubes differing in size, with a notch at one end and a beveled edge at the other. The long big tubes give off low-pitched tones while the short small ones...