Night Hamlet

Pham Dinh Chuong, the musician of the Thang Long Band, left us many unforgettable songs. He wrote in genres ranging from Cha cha cha to Slow… and he also wrote us a song with a luxurious Bolero melody: “Xom dem”. He wrote this song in 1955, I have carefully copied it in my student notebook since 1960 until now and it has not faded!

“Night Hamlet”, this is not an address for any particular poor hamlet, but a poor night hamlet of all poor night hamlets present in the South of the 20th century.

“Xom dem” is a song written with a Bolero melody, it can be said that this is a luxurious Bolero song... although this is a song whose content describes “a poor scene of a night hamlet, they live by the labor of their two hands”. Poor but clean, poor but “noble”, poor but “humane”, a truly admirable poverty of a poor class in particular in “Xom dem”, and in general, the poverty of the working masses at that time!.

People often criticize Bolero as “corny” music. Honestly, until now, no one has explained the word “corny” in detail! And it would be fair to say that if there is a song that people consider “corny”, then this song would be sung by Thai Thanh, Khanh Ly… and would no longer be “corny”!

In 1960, singer Thanh Thuy in a music group from Saigon to Binh Tuy (now Ham Tan - La Gi) performed “Xom dem”. At that time, the concert “did not sell tickets”, free admission. Listening to Thanh Thuy sing “Xom dem”… Because Thanh Thuy sang so well, the next morning I rushed to the bookstore to buy this song. But the song “Xom dem” was sold out. I asked some friends to borrow it to copy.

At the beginning of the “free pause” (“The way back to the night…”) (just entering the rhythm), it is truly Bolero, not slow, not fast, slowly in a night village like “the rain falling, erasing the worn path”…

Why is the song "Night Hamlet" good?

In my opinion, 80% of a good song is due to the lyrics. If there were a writer or poet who wrote a second verse for “Xom Dem”, I guarantee that this “second verse” would make “Xom Dem” fall apart immediately!

There is a strange thing: Songs about life that have “Rain” in them are all good songs! It seems that “Rain” brings more sadness than joy to life, even though “Rain” is life in this world.

In the Bolero melody, “Knock the beat like it’s raining”, Pham Dinh Chuong showed us a “Night Hamlet” that was so sad it made our hearts ache: “… The road home is in the middle of the night/ The deep alley is colorless at night/ Through the precarious fence, there are many heads/ The yellow light of the electric lights is faint/ The long road is shadowless/ From afar, I hear someone’s lullaby/ The rain falls, erasing the worn path/ There are still hearts waiting/ Who said goodbye at the end of the quiet, deserted hamlet/ Whose eyes tremble with a thousand gentle words/ Hoping that tomorrow, the poor fate will be sunny and sow the threshold/ Life will be more beautiful...”.

Musician Pham Dinh Chuong wrote “Poor Neighborhood with a Poor Couple Temporarily Staying Home”, sleepless nights hoping for a brighter day: “… A night in a foreign land, who is looking forward to it/ A lonely night, a night of waiting/ A night of silent rain/ Following the wind, stirring up a dream/ Waiting for tomorrow with the warm spring light/… So the night still rises with fragrance/ To guide someone’s steps on the road/ To see the neighborhood at night without sadness/ Because someone knows how to bring love…”.

“Night hamlets” are hamlets along canals, suburban hamlets… usually poor hamlets throughout the South during the war. At that time, the working class living in the poor hamlets loved this song very much. It can be said that this is a song with the most elegant Bolero rhythm in Vietnam.

The song “Night Hamlet” was published in 1955, and after so many years, listeners still miss the night hamlets filled with love: “… The lonely night / I hear someone faintly singing a loving lullaby / I hear the space filled with love / I promise that life will stop being so bleak…”.

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