Musician Pham Tuyen - musician of childhood

Musician Pham Tuyen is one of the great names in modern Vietnamese music. In his massive composing career spanning more than half a century, he has left a deep mark in many genres, especially prominent with songs for children.

VNA General Director Vu Viet Trang and Vice President of the Vietnam Writers' Association and Chairman of the Jury Tran Dang Khoa presented the "Knight of Crickets" award to musician Pham Tuyen. Photo: Le Dong/VNA

Musician Pham Tuyen has just been awarded the Cricket Knight Award - the most important award of the 2025 Cricket season. This is the first time the Cricket Knight Award has been awarded to a musician.

"A fresh branch dedicated to the children"

The late musician Thuy Kha once said that Pham Tuyen was a musician of childhood. And poet Tran Dang Khoa affirmed that musician Pham Tuyen was a giant tree, in which there was a young branch he dedicated to children.

True to those comments, in his massive composing career spanning more than half a century, musician Pham Tuyen has composed more than 700 songs, leaving a deep mark on Vietnam's musical life. Among them, there are more than 200 songs written for children and many songs have become classic children's songs of the country's music industry, living forever in the memories of many generations of Vietnamese children. Those songs are: The Star Lantern, The Swallow of Childhood, My School is a Kindergarten, My Aunt and Mother, The Little Elephant in Ban Don, Going Up to Reunion, The Hungry Lady Goes to the Market, Carrying a Carrying a Carrying Carrying, Gourd and Pumpkin, The Magpie...

In 2013, musician Pham Tuyen set a record for "Musician who composed the most widely popular children's songs" recognized by the Vietnam Record Organization.

Not only does he have a large number of works for children, musician Pham Tuyen is also a contributor to the formation and development of a musical foundation for children after 1975. His music is the first lessons for children about kindness, family affection, and love for the homeland, wrapped in simple, innocent lyrics.

Musician Pham Tuyen and his wife, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuyet, also collected nursery rhymes to put to music, so that children could hum the nursery rhymes of their ancestors. And the "treasure" of 41 ancient nursery rhymes that he put to music was introduced through the book project "Nursery rhymes of children" in which his daughter - journalist Pham Hong Tuyen - is the narrator.

Children's nursery rhymes is a series of 5 books, of which "Back to the countryside - Children's nursery rhymes" is the first volume to be published. Of the 41 nursery rhymes published under this project, only 5 songs: "Rềnh rềnh rang reo", "bà họng đi cho", "Ganh ganh gong gong", "Bầu và Bí", "Con chim chich choe" have been recorded. The remaining 36 songs, including many familiar nursery rhymes such as "Mau mau tinh thuy", "Thương con ba ba", "Cai co di don con mua", "Cai bong"... are recorded for the first time.

The ancient nursery rhymes he composed contain the soulful and intimate beauty of the natural landscape, people, and Vietnamese folk culture and are loved by generations of children, such as: Mrs. Cong goes to the market, Gourd and Pumpkin, Carrying a load, Wake up quickly, Remembering the grace, The magpie, The stork goes to welcome the rain, Loving the turtle...

“Back to the Countryside - Children's Songs” - a multimedia music collection by musicians Pham Tuyen - Pham Hong Tuyen is one of the 10 nominees. Photo: Provided by the Organizing Committee

Not stopping at “introducing the song”, the work “Back to the Countryside - Children's Nursery Rhymes” by Pham Tuyen - Pham Hong Tuyen chose the form of a multimedia book, combining storytelling, music, illustrations and QR codes to listen to music, listen to stories - creating a continuous experience for children. Each nursery rhyme is not only music, a story, but also a game, thereby helping the song become lively.

Musician Pham Tuyen also contributed to bringing many international children's songs to Vietnam by translating beautiful Vietnamese lyrics for these songs. Two famous songs from the former Soviet Union can be mentioned: At school, she taught me that and Nu Cuoi. Especially the song Nu Cuoi with the familiar lyrics to many generations: "Laughter is always with us, laughter will always be around us, laughter is our dear friend in our youth...". Then when the famous Japanese robot cat Doraemon came to Vietnam, musician Pham Tuyen was also the one who translated the Vietnamese lyrics of the funny songs about Doraemon and his friends, recorded and published by Kim Dong Publishing House.

"The giant tree" of Vietnamese music

Journalist Pham Hong Tuyen, daughter of musician Pham Tuyen, shares her feelings at the 2025 De Men season program. Photo: Le Dong/VNA

Musician Pham Tuyen was born on January 12, 1930, the ninth child of Mr. Pham Quynh, editor of Nam Phong newspaper published before the August Revolution in 1945. Although his hometown is Hai Duong province, Pham Tuyen was born and raised in Hanoi , then followed his family to Hue, living on the banks of the An Cuu River since the age of 6. In elementary school, musician Pham Tuyen began learning music through ancient music. In high school, he studied Western music theory and then learned to play the guitar and accordion.

At the age of 12, musician Pham Tuyen composed his first song, "Waves of the Perfume River." His musical talent was evident when he joined the army in 1949, then studied at the Tran Quoc Tuan Military School, where he composed the songs "Vo Luc Quan," "Duong ve trai"...

After graduating from Tran Quoc Tuan Military School, in 1950, he was appointed as the Captain of the Young Military Academy of Vietnam. During the period (1951-1958) when he was in charge of literature, sports and arts at the Central Campus, he composed many children's songs, such as: "Tien len doan vien", "Chiec den ong sao", "Em vui choi ngay hom nay", "Em duoc nghe chuyen Bac Ho"... He has a music collection "Canh swallow tuoi tho" consisting of 200 children's songs published by Kim Dong Publishing House in 2008.

Pham Tuyen's compositions during the anti-American period were very rich and diverse. In particular, he left a great mark with political songs about Uncle Ho and the Party. Among them, the two songs "The Party gave us a Spring" and "As if there was Uncle Ho in the great victory day" were very famous.

“The Party has given us a whole spring” was once voted by listeners of the Voice of Vietnam as one of the 10 best songs about the Party. The song was written in 1960 when our Party turned 30 years old. The song is like a joyful cry of the entire nation when living in the spring of the country brought by the Party: “The Party has given us a spring full of aspirations, a spring full of light everywhere…”. In the State Prize that musician Pham Tuyen was awarded in 2001 for 5 songs, there was the song “The Party has given us a spring”.

The song “As if Uncle Ho were here on the great victory day” was broadcast on the Voice of Vietnam radio on April 30, 1975, after the victory news. The song at that time was like the joyful cry of the whole nation bursting into joy of victory and happiness of gaining independence, freedom, and the North - South reunion. Immediately, the song entered the hearts of millions of Vietnamese people, and was sung throughout the country. Half a century has passed, musician Pham Tuyen has more news to compose, but his song “As if Uncle Ho were here on the great victory day” is forever the joyful cry of the nation on the great victory day. “Vietnam! Ho Chi Minh!” - that line is not just a song, but the heart, the blood flowing in the hearts of many generations, the triumphant song that goes with the years.

According to VNA

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/nhac-si-pham-tuyen-nhac-si-cua-tuoi-tho-a421669.html