Vietnam

One of my đàn tranh teachers, cô Uyên Trăm, demonstrating the differences in playing styles in the north, central, and southern regions of Việt Nam. She also sings beautiful northern and southern lullabies (ru con) – you can hear her 5 year old in the background, along with the ubiquitous motorbike engine/honks in Sài Gòn.

Xẩm chêng bong is sung from the point of view a wife, telling us about her good-for-nothing husband who cheats & gambles while she works to pay off his debts and feed the family. Here are the lyrics, with words that fall on a strong beat underlined.

The same vocalist sings a hát chèo song used during a múa rối nước (water puppet) performance.

Sometimes I would take ambient sound recordings when moved to do so. Here is one: 2am, Lương Ngọc Quyến street, Hà Nội.

The folk-avant band Đại-Lâm-Linh rehearsing their song ‘nhật thực’ (solar eclipse), in Hà Nội. The instrumentation is piano, dan tranh, guitar, 2 vocalists, and percussion and switches meters, 5/4 to 4/4 to 5/4 to 6/8 to 5/4 again.

The pianist for Đại-Lâm-Linh, Vũ Nhật Tân, is a composer who sadly passed away in 2020. Here is a the ending of one of his beautiful string quartets performed by Hoa Sen String Quartet.