Xam "knocks on the door" of school

Singer Ha Myo's performance of Xam singing was enthusiastically received by young people.

With the spirit of infusing new music with old values in a way that preserves the cultural soul while still carrying the spirit of the times, many of them have brought Xam to schools, thereby spreading traditional cultural values to young audiences.

Reaction probe

Once having a period of peak development, like many other traditional music forms, Xam singing is facing many difficulties and challenges when entering the digital age. Economic life is improving, the traditional folk performance environment is increasingly narrowing, along with the competition of various modern art forms leading to changes in public tastes. Audiences have too many conditions to access new music genres through the media, which has invisibly created a big barrier for young people when approaching Xam singing as well as other traditional art forms.

From here, many people believe that today's audiences only like to listen to modern music and "turn their backs" on old values. However, this is only a one-sided view, when young people do not have many opportunities to access and learn about traditional music as well as classic works of Vietnamese music, it is difficult to like or love them.

Fortunately, in the current flow, there are still many young artists who are always "throbbing" with traditional music with new variations. For example, female singer Ha Myo, who has brought the colorful and fresh art of Xam singing to the modern stage. She emerged as a musical phenomenon when she was the first person to dare to combine Xam with Rap and EDM electronic music. After many years of persistently renewing folk music genres, Ha now continues to cherish the project of bringing Xam through the school doors. The female singer shared: "In fact, ethnic melodies always have a certain attraction for Vietnamese audiences. After many times of experimenting with performing Xam at school, Ha Myo has seen that the affection of students for traditional music is very large and very positive. Therefore, in the near future, Ha will have a series of performances at many schools to continue to probe their reactions to Xam music in particular, and folk music in general".

Slow and steady wins the race

If in the past, Xam was a sad, mournful melody in the middle of the street, in the middle of the market... then in Ha Myo's music products, Xam becomes more lively, fun, colorful and suitable for young people. Therefore, it is understandable that songs like Xam Ha Noi , Xam Thap An ... attract the attention of the audience. However, just performing the songs is not enough, she always spends a lot of time interacting with the audience. Through that, Ha Myo will hear their thoughts, feelings and aspirations for traditional art. "Ha invites you to try singing Xam to see that Xam is not too difficult, and then you will feel how good and meaningful the art of Xam of Vietnam is", Ha Myo expressed.

In the series of events of Vietnam Card Day 2023 - Wave Festival recently held at Hanoi National University of Education, Ha Myo not only brought colorful performances imbued with traditional and modern qualities, but also directly guided many students to sing along to the songs Xam Ha Noi and received enthusiastic responses. More specifically, when the clips of Xam singing exchanges were posted on social networks, many audiences left very positive comments. Some audiences even said that this was the first time they had approached the art of Xam singing and were captivated from the first melody. Up to now, the Xam singing clips have attracted more than 3 million views with good signals.

Although the journey to bring traditional art, especially Xam, into schools still faces many difficulties in terms of resources, Ha Myo is still trying step by step to go further and longer. “Ha’s wish from the past until now has not changed, which is to strongly spread Xam art in particular, and Vietnamese traditional music in general, to the young audience and further, to reach the international level. And when you have love for traditional values, it means that you will love your country more,” the singer confided about her journey to bring traditional music to schools.

Not only Ha Myo, there have been many artists who have committed to "renewing" traditional music, bringing stage projects into schools... However, in recent times, these projects have also revealed many difficulties, the effectiveness has not been as expected, the impact on contemporary audiences is still quite modest. Part of the reason is that the profession places too much emphasis on the issue, when expecting young people to become the next generation as performing artists. It is necessary to put it on the scale of comparison to see that, focusing too much on training artists, while ignoring the audience, the result is also zero. Therefore, bringing traditional music into schools needs to have a clear, consistent direction and substantial, in-depth investment. And "renewal" also needs to have the right direction, skillfully and subtly blending tradition and modernity to be effective. Continuing to "awaken" the love of traditional music by nurturing appreciation will be like a "small stream" flowing endlessly, contributing to preserving and spreading the traditional cultural values of the country in the future.

HONG HANH

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