"Until he passed away, he never once set foot on the land that nurtured his musical inspiration. The autumn in Hanoi will forever live only in his subconscious," shared the wife of musician Tran Quang Loc.
She added that the creator of "Is it you , Hanoi autumn?" had been battling illness for many years before passing away in the arms of his family, students, and colleagues.
He takes his guitar with him wherever he goes.
Many documents state that musician Tran Quang Loc was born in 1949. However, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan asserts: "I was born in 1949. My husband was born in 1948. There's a difference of one year." Artists are generally ageless, but his exact birth year should be corrected.
The late musician Tran Quang Loc in his youth and later years.
The health of the author of "Is It You, Hanoi Autumn?" had been "alarming" for many years before his death. "Back then, I accompanied him to California (USA) to do several programs honoring authors and their works. Over there, his colleagues were very kind to him; they cooked a pot of clam porridge for him to eat. That evening, he vomited and felt very weak. When he was taken to the hospital, a tumor was discovered in his bladder. He was very upset. At that time, we had only finished two programs, and there was still another one left to complete, but we still bought tickets back to Vietnam because my husband didn't have insurance in the US, and the costs were too high."
Upon returning to Vietnam, he was hospitalized in Ho Chi Minh City. Hearing about his hospitalization, many famous singers from the North came to visit him, such as singer Hong Nhung, singer Bang Kieu, and singer Thu Phuong,” Mrs. Thuan recalled.
Composer Tran Quang Loc (right) and composer Tien Luan (left), author of "My Hometown During the Flood Season". (Photo provided by the son of the late composer and composer Tien Luan)
Although Tran Quang Loc passed away more than four years ago, his wife still remembers Thu Phuong's words when she visited him in the hospital: "After giving my husband some money, Thu Phuong said: 'Auntie, please try your best to take good care of him. When he recovers, please let me know, and I'll buy plane tickets for you and Uncle to visit Hanoi. He didn't know anything about Hanoi, yet he wrote such wonderful songs about it.' Thu Phuong's words moved me to tears."
But then, Tran Quang Loc's wish to admire Hanoi in autumn was never fulfilled. Later, he was also diagnosed with lung cancer. Mrs. Thuan gently comforted her husband: "It's because you smoked too much, Dad. Just hang in there."
The late musician Tran Quang Loc in his youth and later years.
But even when illness struck, musician Tran Quang Loc still tried to work: "I knew my husband's health condition at each point, but I didn't want to tell him directly, because I was afraid he would be upset. Even when he was sick, he still worked on orders. Sometimes, his ten fingers would be on the piano keys, but his head would collapse onto the piano keys from exhaustion," his wife recounted.
The reporter asked, "Do you do it out of passion or for a living?" Throughout the conversation, Mrs. Thuan consistently affirmed that she only knew how to tell the truth, so I wasn't surprised to receive the answer: "I do it out of passion, but also for the income. 5 million or 10 million dong is a lot for my family. I also try my best to please the customers. They're all the way in Australia, in America..."
The handwritten notes of the late musician Tran Quang Loc on his iconic song.
Besides composing music, musician Tran Quang Loc also runs music classes. Mrs. Thuan continued: “My husband was constantly ill for 6-7 years, yet there were always students at home. There were so many. My husband had to go for radiotherapy twice a month. At that time, I told the students: 'Kids, tomorrow your teachers are going to Saigon to have fun. Please take a day off so we can go.' They replied: 'We understand. Tomorrow we'll invite you to Saigon to have fun.' Every time he went for radiotherapy, the students drove him there in their cars. It was very touching.”
According to Mrs. Thuan, the author of "Is It You, Hanoi Autumn?" taught music from a young age. He moved around a lot because of his students' suggestions. His wife recalled: "Many years after liberation, his students urged him to go to Saigon to do business. I advised him, 'You have no capital, how can you start a business in Saigon with nothing?' But he went to Saigon anyway, carrying a guitar with broken strings. It was so sad. One of his legs was weak. When he arrived in Saigon, he taught music in District 4, living in a cultural center because he couldn't afford to rent a house. Then some students from Ba Ria - Vung Tau came to Saigon to study, met him, and they talked and grew fond of each other. So he followed his students' suggestion and went to My Xuan (now part of Long Thanh district, Dong Nai province)."
My husband is Catholic, so the parish priest arranged for him to play the organ for the parish during Mass. Then the priest and nun introduced him to families who could afford it, so he had to teach organ to well-off families. We didn't have enough organs to teach the students, so one student said, "I'll go back to Saigon and buy you two." The priest gave us a plot of land near the banana grove to teach. After a while in My Xuan, another student invited the priest to go to Ba Ria to teach music in a local ward. My husband told the priest about it, and he didn't object, but advised us to come back to him if we ever faced difficulties. Before parting ways, the priest gave us an amount of money equivalent to 5 million dong today. Then, my husband and I, carrying our child, rode our bicycle back to Ba Ria. In Ba Ria, we stayed in a charity house, and the ward allowed us to open a music class. The ward chairman, who had a spirit of arts and culture, even used his own money to go back to Saigon and buy a few organs for my husband to teach his students.”
He not only taught piano, but also composition, harmony, and orchestration. Later, the musician even opened a home recording studio on Truong Han Sieu Street, Ba Ria City, Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province. The more students he taught, the more musician Tran Quang Loc developed his creative thinking. After his students left, he began his artistic work, so his musical legacy is rich and diverse in genre.
Content with a 40-year marriage.
The author of "Is It You, Hanoi Autumn?" has four children. Three are daughters from his previous marriage. He and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuan have only one son. According to Mrs. Thuan, her talented husband's three daughters from his previous marriage have all married and now live in the United States. They deeply love and respect their father. When composer Tran Quang Loc was seriously ill, his daughters frequently returned to Vietnam to visit him. His children also love and respect Mrs. Thuan, considering her their second mother. They understand the hardships and struggles their parents faced in life. When speaking about her husband's children from his previous marriage, Mrs. Thuan always uses loving words, without any distance.
The late composer Tran Quang Loc was born in a poor rural area of Quang Tri province, while his wife, Nguyen Thi Thuan, was from Hue. They knew and cherished each other from a very young age, when they both lived in Da Nang. After graduating from music school in Hue, Tran Quang Loc moved to Saigon. Mrs. Thuan also moved to Saigon to study Literature and later worked there, but in a field unrelated to literature.
Two lonely souls met and became husband and wife. They married quite late in life, when they were already in their 30s. Mrs. Thuan is currently living with her son, who is in his forties but is still unmarried.
Mrs. Thuan has never regretted her 40-year marriage: "Although life was very hard, there were times when we didn't even have a bicycle. But I am content because I married the man I love." She recounted her "faults": "My husband doesn't know how to fix electrical or plumbing problems, he only knows how to play the piano, with all ten fingers always on the instrument. Oh my God, he's also a very flirtatious man."
But on the other hand, the musician had many endearing qualities. He lived simply and wasn't picky about food: "Sometimes we'd get a bowl of soup or some fish cooked by my wife, other times it was just a simple boxed meal. The teacher and students would eat together, then continue studying in the afternoon. Some students only studied for one session but didn't go home until evening. They would play their guitar all day long, which was very endearing."
The musician passed away without a last will and testament, but before that, he managed to give his wife a music authorization document: "At that time, I wasn't thinking about copyright issues. I told him: 'What belongs to you is yours.' I didn't want to infringe on his rights because I was afraid of upsetting him in his final moments. But musician Tien Luan, who was very close to my family, suggested: 'Just let me write the authorization document; it will be easier to discuss things later.' So he wrote the authorization for me. Although the current copyright fees aren't much, they're enough for my daughter and me to live a simple life," she shared.
It is known that Tran Quang Loc's repertoire includes approximately 600 songs. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuan revealed: "He didn't write any songs specifically for me." But she is not sad because they have dedicated their entire lives to each other.
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