1. That day, when she had just finished beating the drum to end a singing session, and had just put on her five-paneled dress and stood up from the flower mat, the official Chau Hai Duong was stopped by the singer Bach Van, the Director of the Hanoi Ca Tru Club. In this land of Hanoi, no one who loves ancient music is a stranger to singer Bach Van, the person who revived the source of Ca Tru after many years of interruption, spending many years seeking a teacher to learn the techniques. But today, she was surprised every time the strange official beat the drum. The song chau (two tom sounds on the drum face), lien chau (three tom sounds) or xuyen tam (tom-chat-tom, the chat sound is the sound entering the drum wall), chinh dien (chat-tom-chat) all had the dignified demeanor of someone with abundant internal strength, and also had the ability to "float" with the singing and the playing of the instrument. Singer Bach Van asked the official which artist he had studied with, how many years...
The surprise of singer Bach Van is also the surprise of all those who are connoisseurs of ca tru. The art of ca tru has three musical instruments: the clapper in the singer's hand; the zither accompanying the singer's singing; and the chau drum. When the time comes, the guest will play the chau. In the past, the players were all literati, scholars, or Confucian scholars. In the first half of the 20th century, when ca tru developed strongly in the cities, the audience for ca tru expanded as Confucianism was in its decline. But to "enjoy" ca tru, officials also needed "capital" to be able to play the role of a "musician". To participate in that game, people had to study and practice. The changes of society caused ca tru and the chau drum to miss a beat for several decades. It was not until the early 2000s that ca tru gradually returned. At that time, on the mahogany bed and flower mat, there was also a complete trio: the singer, the musician, and the official. But the mandarin in the original sense has become “extinct”. The new generation of mandarins has become “professional”. The people who hold the court are the people of the clubs and guilds that “perform” for the public. However, mandarin Chau does not belong to any guild or club. Mandarin Chau Hai Duong is the author of dozens of translated and compiled books, mainly on classical studies, and is also a “connoisseur” of ca tru like other literati, writers, and romantics of some time…
Translator and researcher Chau Hai Duong's real name is Le Tien Dat. He was born in the mid-1970s, when Chinese calligraphy and ink had long since become a thing of the past. But his grandfather was good at Chinese characters. So, naturally, he came into contact with hieroglyphics since he was a child. By chance, he read his grandfather's book of Ca Tru poetry. Another time, when he went to a bookstore, he saw a book about Ca Tru. At that time, young Dat boldly spent his own money to buy it, simply because: "My grandfather will surely like it." Unexpectedly, that was the word "fate" with Ca Tru, and first of all, Ca Tru poetry. Because later, the more he studied Chinese characters, the more he absorbed and loved Ca Tru poetry. When he met the artisans of the Thang Long Ca Tru Guild, Chau Hai Duong was guided by the artisans. He gradually understood and began to boldly hold the whip to try "chat-tom".
It sounds simple, but to start singing a song is a long journey. First of all, you must be familiar with Ca Tru poetry. And to be familiar with Ca Tru poetry, you must have a good knowledge of classical music. As for the music , you must understand the rhythms of Ca Tru, understand the drums. From there, you can judge the sentences, the rhythms, and praise and criticize appropriately. After understanding the rules, Chau Hai Duong officials often listened to Ca Tru songs by classical singers to learn. For him, only when singing a song can one truly enjoy it deeply, and "enter the game". Otherwise, it is just standing outside to "look into" the world of Ca Tru.
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Researcher and translator Chau Hai Duong (left), a famous official among ca tru lovers today. |
2. Perhaps, not everyone knows that many talented writers in the past were also mandarins. They enjoyed and composed poetry, and then the female singers and actors performed the poems they composed. Famous names include Nguyen Du, Nguyen Cong Tru, Duong Khue... Ca tru exists in many different forms: Hat cua dinh is singing to worship saints, often held in festivals; singing to celebrate happy occasions for noble families, such as birthdays, New Year's Eve... In the first half of the 20th century, the form of ca quan was popular in big cities, especially Hanoi. Ca tru truly became a chamber art form. For talented writers of that time, enjoying ca tru was a popular pastime when socializing and meeting friends. The hobby of playing Ca Tru can be found in many literary works by artists before 1945. In particular, the Ca Tru playing of the literati is clearly described in the book Burning the old incense stove (Kim Dong Publishing House, 2021) by poet Dinh Hung. A group of literati including Nguyen Tuan, Khai Hung, Thach Lam, Nhat Linh... once got excited and invited each other to sing with a geisha. In that era, the two words "listen to sing" were considered synonymous with "hold the drum". For example, when the female owner Bach Lien (Sen) of the singing house pushed the drum in front of writer Nhat Linh and said: "Please let me hear the song, sir!", that is, when Bach Lien invited writer Nhat Linh to play the drum. Also in that singing session, with Thach Lam, when the singer gave him a song, he personally had to hold the drum to "tom, chat". When receiving the drum and the drum, he considered it "listening" with his ears, head and chest (mind and heart). Both Nhat Linh and Thach Lam were not connoisseurs of Ca Tru, but in that game, both of them not only performed well but also had good points. Explaining this, researcher Chau Hai Duong said: “The story of the literati of that time enjoying Ca Tru gives us a clear picture of the space of Ca Tru performing art in the early 20th century. I think that in that story, even though Thach Lam was not connoisseur of Ca Tru, he was still able to perform Ca Tru because at that time the writer lived in an atmosphere where Ca Tru was popular, in addition to the so-called blank space with “intuition” as the author mentioned, listening to it a lot made him perform Ca Tru very naturally.”
Becoming a mandarin is not an easy task, so after half a century of interruption, now with the revival of a dao music, finding a true mandarin holding a court has become more difficult than ever. In fact, there are more and more singers and musicians. But true mandarins are still rare. Researcher Bui Trong Hien - author of "A dao: A study on the history and musical system" (Literature Publishing House, 2024), the most elaborate book on ca tru to date, once lamented: "In the rare performances of clubs and guilds, the role of the host is mostly taken on by the actors themselves. Because the audience/officials participating in the game like in the past have not yet formed. On the other hand, the new generation of audiences who want to follow the elegant art of their ancestors do not know what to do, where to start? They also do not have many opportunities to approach practice, while the instructions in the literature are too few and vague."
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The event "Vong khuc ca tru" took place on the evening of April 14, 2024 on Lan Ong Street, Hanoi. (Photo: ORGANIZING COMMITTEE) |
3. Becoming an official is difficult. But precious things are always sought after by noble people. Not long ago, in Hai Phong, there was a group of people who love ancient customs who restored a ca tru singing show in the old style at the home of the famous xam singing artist of the port city, Dao Bach Linh (aka Linh Xam, Head of the Hai Phong Xam Club). It was truly a ca tru "play". The guests included some female singers from the Hai Phong Ca Tru Guild and female singer Kim Ngoc (Music lecturer at FPT University, Hanoi). But the remarkable thing was the "organizer", one of the people who organized this singing show was a 9x generation official - Duy Linh. Duy Linh was fond of xam singing. But later, he realized the class of ca tru, especially when Linh learned Chinese characters. The words in ca tru have depth and layers, the more you listen and think about them, the more attractive you find them. Since 2016, Linh has begun to study deeply about Ca Tru, Ca Tru culture, especially the "dum co" technique (drum beat). After several years of research and study, Linh has boldly begun to hold the Chau. Duy Linh shared: "Holding the Chau is an art, first of all, you have to understand Ca Tru poetry. The Chau drum has many stanzas. You have to "punctuate the stanzas" and "punctuate the sentences" at the right time and place, you have to beat the drum to encourage the singer at the right time so that the singer can be more excited when performing. But if the drum beat is too rigid, it will become rigid. So you have to understand and be in tune with the singer and the songwriter to have "the same voice and the same spirit". Only then can the person holding the Chau combine with the singer and the songwriter to form a whole, creating a soulful singing performance". Having spent many years studying, Duy Linh always admits that he is a follower and still has a lot to learn. Duy Linh does not hide his "ambition" to become a mandarin in the old way, so that he can enjoy ca tru in depth.
From the place where people who know how to listen to Ca Tru have completely disappeared, now, there are new generation officials. Dr. Pham Thi Lan Anh, Head of the Heritage Management Department (Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports), who has been attached to Ca Tru for many years and has participated in organizing Ca Tru Festivals many times, shared that in previous years, officials were almost only people from the guilds and Ca Tru clubs who took turns playing the drum. But now, many singing sessions have people volunteering to play the drum. Previously, Ca Tru only appeared on stage during festivals, performances, or performances by organizations, but now there are singing sessions where audiences pay to listen, and there are Ca Tru performances by groups that love ancient music and ancient styles. Recently, the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports organized a contest to compose Ca Tru poetry in the spoken singing style, and many good poems have appeared. The initial formation of a new audience, knowledgeable about ca tru, is a sign of the sustainable revival of this unique performing heritage.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/lang-du-trong-the-gioi-ca-tru-post813426.html
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