Gong tuning - a technique that needs to be preserved and promoted

Since the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space was recognized by UNESCO as an Oral Masterpiece and was listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, in recent years, Lam Dong province has had many policies and solutions to preserve and promote the cultural values of the Southern Central Highlands gongs.

Artisan Duong Nhat (Quang Nam) specializes in producing gong musical instruments, is knowledgeable about gong music, and teaches students the skills, techniques, and art of gong tuning.

Artisan Duong Nhat ( Quang Nam ) specializes in producing gong musical instruments, is knowledgeable about gong music, and teaches students skills, techniques, and the art of gong tuning.

Over the years, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lam Dong province has always proactively coordinated with relevant units and local authorities to effectively implement the work of preserving and promoting the value of the Gong Cultural Space Heritage in the province. In addition to restoring traditional villages of ethnic groups, organizing the restoration of traditional festivals (bringing rice to the warehouse, praying for rain, etc.), organizing gong teaching classes, training classes to improve the skills of artisans in teaching gongs to the young generation of children of indigenous ethnic groups, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the province now pays special attention to teaching gong tuning techniques. Not only helping people to be aware of preserving and conserving, but also making an important contribution to creating gong pieces with many unique sounds of the indigenous ethnic groups of the Southern Central Highlands.

The Central Highlands Gong Culture Space was recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in 2005. This is the pride of the Central Highlands gongs, so the preservation, inheritance and promotion of the value of gongs are always of interest to the Party and State, considering this an important content in the cause of building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity.

For ethnic minorities in the highlands in general and the Central Highlands in particular, gongs are symbols of strong vitality, carrying the breath of the mountains and forests... However, in reality, in many localities today, the situation of gongs losing their scales, losing their voices or being muted is quite common due to many reasons. Over time, especially in the integration trend, under the impact and influence of new life and culture and art, there have been periods when people in ethnic minority areas have been "forgotten" and not maintained the gong cultural lifestyle, not paying attention to preservation and being affected by objective factors..., so the gong scales have gradually faded away and are at risk of disappearing from community life, because in the village no one knows the technique of tuning gongs. On the other hand, the shortage of artisans with gong tuning skills, especially young people, is a challenge that needs to be overcome. In addition to having good gongs and skillful playing techniques, creating a good gong piece requires adjusting the gong to bring it back to its correct tone.

Mr. Duong Ngoc Tien - gong tuning artisan of Quang Nam province shared: Of the two types of gongs, percussion and beating, the technique of tuning the beating gong is much more complicated. Each gong has different sound deviations. To tune the gong correctly, students must know how to play and identify the sound of each gong. Because each gong has a different pitch system...".

During the gong tuning course, the students were enthusiastically taught and guided by the artisans from basic to advanced steps such as preparing tools to tune the gong, feeling the timbre of each gong to bring it back to its original sound, techniques to evaluate the current condition of the gong, how to combine gongs together to form a complete set... According to the students participating in the training course, this is a useful course so that in the future, the students can return to help their local people tune gongs that have lost their sound, contributing positively to the work of preserving and promoting the unique value of gong instruments. "Under the guidance of the artisans, we have grasped and practiced the basic techniques of adjusting the pitch system of gongs as well as methods of identifying different types of scales, on that basis to practice tuning on our own gong sets..." - said Mr. K'Tinh in Due village, Dinh Lac commune, Di Linh district.

In the past time, in addition to the gong tuning training course organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lam Dong province in Di Linh district, with the support of all levels and sectors from the central to local levels, up to now, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lam Dong province has presented over 600 traditional costumes, 50 sets of gongs to villages and communes and more than 2,100 students have learned how to play gongs through 70 gong teaching courses.

Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lam Dong province, Tran Thanh Hoai, said: The goal of the course is to teach and transfer valuable gong tuning techniques to artisans as well as the next generation. Because the Ma, K'Ho, Churu... people in Lam Dong are not only the creators of the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Heritage, but they are also very important successors in preserving and promoting the cultural identity of gongs to future generations.

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