Musician Van Cao rewrote the National Anthem half a century after its creation.

More than 30 years ago, musician Van Cao copied the song “Tien Quan Ca” to present to the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum. The time the musician copied the Vietnamese National Anthem also marked the 50th anniversary of the song’s birth.

Last year, when I went to the National History Museum for work, a tour guide took me to introduce some of the exhibits on display in the museum. The first place I was introduced to was a glass cabinet placed in a solemn position, in which was the Declaration of Independence and next to it was a handwritten copy of the song “Tien Quan Ca” by musician Van Cao.

The song “Tien Quan Ca” on display was transcribed by musician Van Cao, and inscribed: “Presented to the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum, December 22, 1994”.

“Currently, the Vietnam Revolution Museum merged with the Vietnam History Museum to form the National History Museum, so the handwritten copy of the song “Tien Quan Ca” now belongs to this Museum,” said the tour guide.

Musician Van Cao's handwriting about the song "Tien Quan Ca" printed in Doc Lap newspaper in 1944.

Recently, I had the opportunity to work with Mr. Hoang Ngoc Chinh, an officer of the Collection Department of the National History Museum. Mr. Chinh said: "At the end of 1994, we museum officers were assigned to ask musician Van Cao to copy the song "Tien Quan Ca" to serve the exhibition work."

At that time, the musician’s health was not good, and he often had to drink milk to nourish himself. But when the officials of the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum asked to have his “Tien Quan Ca” autographed for display, musician Van Cao became more active. He happily received guests and told stories about composing the song “Tien Quan Ca”, which had been around for half a century at that time.

When they arrived, knowing that the musician was tired, the staff of the Vietnam Revolution Museum had prepared some music sheets for musician Van Cao to fill in the notes and lyrics. But musician Van Cao said he would personally draw the music sheets and transcribe the complete National Anthem to give to the Museum.

Some time later, upon receiving the news that the National Anthem had been copied, the Museum staff went to musician Van Cao’s house to receive this artifact. That day, they learned that in order to have this copied National Anthem, the musician had to copy it several times. This moved the museum staff very much, because at that time the musician was weak and his hands were shaking, but he tried to draw each musical score, write each note and the lyrics of the song “Tien Quan Ca” very clearly to present to the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum.

That day, while also copying the song "Tien Quan Ca", musician Van Cao also told the staff of the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum about how he had previously written this song on stone to be printed in the Doc Lap newspaper half a century ago.

Regarding this, musician Van Cao wrote a memoir recording the above event: “In November 1944, I personally wrote the song “Tien Quan Ca” on stone to print the first Literature and Arts page of the Doc Lap newspaper, still retaining the handwriting of a new worker. One month after the newspaper was published, I returned from the printing office.

Passing a small street (now Mai Hac De street) I suddenly heard the sound of a mandolin coming from an attic. I stopped and suddenly felt moved. An emotion came to me more than all the works I had performed in the theaters before…”.

More than thirty years have passed since musician Van Cao copied the song “Tien Quan Ca” and presented it to the Vietnam Revolution Museum for display. That notebook has become a historical artifact, allowing visitors to the National History Museum today to see a song that has become the National Anthem of Vietnam.

In 1994, musician Van Cao gave the Vietnam Military History Museum the sheet music for the song “Tien Quan Ca”, which is currently displayed next to the brass instrument used by the Liberation Army Music Band to play the National Anthem during the Declaration of Independence ceremony on September 2, 1945 at Ba Dinh Square.

In this copied music, the musician also wrote a dedication to the Vietnam Military History Museum, dated March 22, 1994. More than half a year after copying the song “Tien Quan Ca” to present to the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum (December 22, 1994), musician Van Cao passed away. This is probably the last time musician Van Cao copied the song “Tien Quan Ca”.

tienphong.vn

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/nhac-si-van-cao-chep-lai-ban-quoc-ca-sau-nua-the-ky-ra-doi-post881126.html