Passing on the "soul" of the gong…

VHXQ - Gongs have always been present, from traditional festivals and characteristic dances to important rituals and ceremonies of the highland people.

Distinguished artisan Duong Ngoc Tien teaches musical ear training to young people in the highlands.

Previously, artisans from Phuoc Kieu bronze casting village (Dien Ban ward) had to frequently travel to remote villages to help local people with their sound testing. Now, however, the resonant sounds of gongs and drums are being passed on to the indigenous people…

Sound of gongs and drums

Distinguished artisan Duong Ngoc Tien, a native of Phuoc Kieu village, has spent over a decade traveling through the villages of the Truong Son mountain range. He travels to help ethnic minority communities "appreciate the sound" of gongs and drums during each festival season.

Mr. Tien explained that, being a musical instrument, the sound of the gong will become distorted over time. And like other musical instruments, gongs need to be tuned regularly to ensure the highest possible accuracy.

According to artisan Duong Ngoc Tien, if the alloy mixing technique is considered a family secret passed down through generations to create the distinctive products of Phuoc Kieu casting village, then the sound-tuning technique is the talent of each individual artisan in the village.

And this can only be shaped through training, experience, and natural talent.

With keen ears, a deep understanding of regional music , and craftsmanship experience, the artisans of Phuoc Kieu village create gongs and drums tailored to the specific ethnic minority groups throughout Central and Western Vietnam. This is why these two types of musical instruments from Phuoc Kieu are highly valued by customers everywhere.

According to artisan Duong Ngoc Thuan from Phuoc Kieu bronze casting village, in the past, the village only produced and supplied gongs to ethnic minority communities. At that time, they also needed experienced artisans in traditional music to adjust and create sounds that suited their unique cultural identity.

In later years, when that generation of local artisans was gone, the task of sound assessment was taken over by the bronze casting artisans of Phuoc Kieu. This required the bronze casting artisans to have a deep understanding of music, to know that each set of gongs and cymbals has a complete set of notes like modern music, and at the same time to have a thorough understanding of the cultural and artistic traditions of each region in order to create suitable gongs and cymbals.

Distinguished artisan Duong Dinh Tien demonstrates and imparts the art of gong and drum playing to students.

Fostering a sense of cultural subjectivity.

Perhaps due to the extreme difficulty in sound quality, many artisans in the gong casting village have been unable to sustain themselves with the craft in recent years…

Distinguished artisan Duong Ngoc Tien said: “On one occasion, while accompanying the Quang Nam Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism delegation to the Central Highlands to attend the ceremony announcing the intangible cultural space of gong music, I witnessed that the gongs of the Dong Giang delegation were unfortunately damaged and unusable. So I had to borrow a set of gongs from the Quang Tri delegation, make some adjustments to play them, because the two sets of gongs basically have some similarities. After this incident, I always wondered, if I hadn't been there that day, how could the artisans from Dong Giang have fulfilled their assigned responsibilities? How could they have proactively handled the situation as a replacement…?”

The concerns of artisan Duong Ngoc Tien were later resolved through training courses aimed at passing on the techniques of appreciating the sound of gongs to the ethnic minority communities in Quang Nam province.

Young men from the villages, who have a love and sense of responsibility for traditional ethnic culture and art, and who possess talent and a certain sensitivity to music, were selected by their villages to participate in classes led by artisan Duong Ngoc Tien.

In these training sessions, he not only talked about the sound of gongs, the irreplaceable role and value of gong music in the traditional festivals of the mountain people, but also demonstrated with the gong set so that the trainees could grasp the basic knowledge of ear training.

However, the difficulty here is that there are no structured curricula for the "subject" of gong and drum sound appreciation. Therefore, the artisans passing on the knowledge rely on the listener's musical sensitivity and emotional sensitivity, hoping they can grasp some aspect of this special technique.

Dozens of gong and drum music appreciation classes have been opened for young people from ethnic minority communities throughout the villages of Quang Nam province.

What artisan Duong Ngoc Tien, as well as other gong-making artisans, hope for is that the indigenous cultural groups themselves will master the technique of tuning gong instruments.

From there, combined with the cultural and artistic heritage inherent in each ethnic group, they can proactively create sets of gongs and drums that ensure the best quality for their cultural and festival activities.

And, once the village artisans master the technique of sound perception, they can adjust and create good effects not only for Phuoc Kieu gongs, but for any gong product...

According to artisan Duong Ngoc Tien, no one can understand the culture, art, and traditional music of ethnic minority groups better than they do. Therefore, passing on the techniques of gong and drum sound appreciation to these communities is also about passing on the "soul" of this musical instrument, so that its resonance can blend with festival rituals, sacred dances, and other traditional musical instruments… creating an eternal symphony of the vast forest.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/trao-truyen-hon-chieng-3305715.html