Tai tu music inherits thousands of years of Vietnamese traditional music
Prof Dr Nguyen Thuyet Phong is an ethnomusicologist who was honoured by the US government as a National Heritage Fellow in 2007 and one of two Vietnamese listed in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians alongside Prof Dr Tran Van Khe. Phong talked about the possibility of tai tu music being recognised as an Intangible World Cultural Heritage by the UN.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has tasked the Vietnamese Institute of Music and its departments in HCM City and other southern provinces to develop a thorough profile for tai tu music. This would be submitted to the United Nations' Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) which would consider the music as an Intangible World Cultural Heritage status. What role do you have in the project?
It was my pleasure to be invited by Culture Minister Hoang Tuan Anh to work on the project. What part I will play depends on the assignments of the Vietnamese Institute of Music and the HCM City's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
In my opinion, the road ahead is still very challenging. The art form has lost most of its luster to cai luong (reformed theatre), while its performances are much influenced by tan co giao duyen (a mixture of elements of traditional and pop music).
Tai tu music is traditionally performed in visiting rooms. Its standard orchestra includes a dan tranh (16-string zither), a dan kim (two-chord guitar), a dan co (two-chord fiddle), a ty ba (pear-shaped four-chord guitar), a doc huyen (monochord zither) and a flute.
Performing tai tu music on a big stage as pop and rock music groups do, or like performances during tourism festivals, is not true to its nature.
We should take into account its chamber concert nature when we are striving to restore the art form to its original form in terms of instrumentalists, singers, repertoire, style of singing and instruments, among others.
The most noteworthy surviving tai tu music figures in HCM City include musicians Vinh Bao and Ba Tu who are quite old now and some other musicians. Also, there are artists we don't know about, but we still are trying to find out who they are.
Even though tai tu music today has a much bigger audience, we still need to restore its chamber space that can accommodate small audiences.
Compared to other kinds of traditional Vietnamese music, tai tu music has a much shorter history. Will it pose any hurdle for UNESCO's recognition?
In my opinion, UNESCO recognition is not based on the history of the art form, but on its quality and musical system. In this respect, we can see tai tu music as unique in that it synthesises traditional music of the north, centre and south of the country over thousands of years.
So it has an extraordinary power. Its performance adheres to strict specific rules. Its theory, which has been handed down by generations through word of mouth, draws on many traditions of the past.
Once the art form is restored, we should commit to conserving it.
What do you have to say about the get-together of ethno-musicologists from over the world during a recent conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) in Ha Noi city and Quang Ninh Province?
It was a good opportunity for us to advertise our traditional music and learn from international experts in studying and conserving traditional music. It's noteworthy that the ICTM is also advising UNESCO on appraising intangible heritage profiles.
With 54 ethnic groups, Viet Nam is of great interest and inspiration to the world's ethnomusicologists. Some presentations at the conference deal with subject matter like ethnic groups' music and youth, ethnomusicological applications in education, sociology and the mass media. — VNS