Archiving creative materials:

This is the first time a collection of Vietnamese music by a private individual has been recognized as a World Documentary Heritage. The event is not only a milestone honoring composer Hoang Van, but also raises a broader question: How are we preserving our artistic creative materials?

The collection of composer Hoang Van's works is published on the multilingual platform https://hoangvan.org.

Preserving creative works: Not given enough attention.

The aforementioned recognized collection comprises over 700 works composed by musician Hoang Van from 1951 to 2010, encompassing various genres: songs, symphonies, marches, orchestral pieces, film scores, etc. In addition, there are over 1,000 supplementary items: manuscripts, audio recordings, articles, documentaries, letters, and archival photographs. All materials have been digitized, cataloged, and published on the multilingual platform https://hoangvan.org.

According to UNESCO's assessment, the collection meets all the criteria for inscription as a World Documentary Heritage: authenticity, integrity, outstanding universal value, and usability. Hoang Van's works are a mirror reflecting Vietnamese history expressed through the language of music. With a harmonious blend of European classical music and Vietnamese folk music, the works of composer Hoang Van not only possess artistic value but also serve as valuable documentation for research into Vietnamese culture, society, and musical history.

In fact, very few artists in Vietnam have left behind such a complete and systematic collection of materials as Hoang Van. Many of Trinh Cong Son's manuscripts have been lost, and most have been collected sporadically by private collectors. The music collection of composer Van Cao is also scattered, with the remainder mainly kept by his family...

In the field of literature, the loss of original manuscripts is also common. The poet Xuan Dieu once had dozens of handwritten manuscripts, but most have been lost. During his lifetime, the writer Nguyen Huy Thiep shared: “Manuscripts are sometimes like antiques, significant for research. However, not all manuscripts are valuable, and determining their value depends on the researchers. But at least, they reflect the personality, the hard work, and the personal habits of the writer. To this day, many of my manuscripts have been scattered in various private collections…”

In the field of fine arts, many exhibition designs, battlefield sketches, and drawing diaries by artists during wartime have been lost, or lack a permanent storage location with proper preservation conditions.

The lack of attention to preserving creative materials by artists stems from many reasons, but primarily from the fact that artists themselves often don't foresee the value of archiving personal documents. Composer Pham Tuyen once shared: "I just write, then put it away somewhere, without thinking about whether someone will need it later." Writer Nguyen Viet Ha also stated: "I don't consciously preserve manuscripts; even when I write something I don't like, I often burn it"...

Furthermore, archiving, preserving, and digitizing artwork requires significant costs and specialized skills—qualities that individual artists struggle to secure without support from cultural institutions, as well as policies that encourage, sponsor, or accompany artists in preserving their creations.

Raising awareness about preserving heritage.

In many countries such as France, Germany, the United States, and Japan, the archiving of individual works may be handled by national libraries or by private art heritage funds. Artists or their families often proactively deposit their materials, or digitize and publish them online themselves.

In Vietnam, families of famous artists are now more conscious of preserving their ancestors' heritage, with many families sending documents to the National Archives Center for optimal safekeeping. For example, the family of painter Bui Trang Chuoc (real name Nguyen Van Chuoc, 1915-1992) donated the entire artistic legacy of painter Bui Trang Chuoc, the creator of the Vietnamese national emblem, to the National Archives Center III for long-term preservation. Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, daughter of painter Bui Trang Chuoc, said: “Through experience, my family has seen the important, necessary, and urgent role of archiving, and we are increasingly aware of our family's responsibility in continuing to preserve and promote my father's valuable archival materials on national symbols and paintings. My family is confident that if these documents are professionally preserved at the State archives, they will be safer and more secure in terms of physical condition and information than ever before.”

Initiated in 2008, the Museum of Vietnamese Scientists' Heritage has worked with nearly 7,000 scientists and collected and archived nearly 1 million documents and artifacts, along with hundreds of thousands of minutes of audio and video recordings of the memories and stories of scientists and artists in various fields and specialties. This shows that the awareness of preserving personal heritage among artists and scientists is gradually increasing.

The inscription of composer Hoang Van's collection as a World Documentary Heritage is a source of pride and a reminder of the importance of art archiving in Vietnam. Creative works, even personal ones, remain a part of the national memory and deserve to be preserved.

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