The quiet night of Chanh Thon village in Van Nhan commune, former Ha Tay province was roused by the sounds of the dan day, trong chau, etc. For a long time, villagers have been familiar with these sounds, which come from the ca tru class held at the village communal house by old craftsmen.
Phuong, 7, was trying to sing a ca tru melody named Bac phan, which requires a high vocal range. Phuong and Oanh are the smallest singsong girls of the ca tru class in Chanh Thon, which is run by three ca tru craftsmen, Nguyen Thi Khuou, 82, Nguyen Thi Vuon, 84, and Nguyen Van Khoai, 83.
The craftsmen learnt ca tru from their elders and now they teach their descendants in the same way. The class gathers both children and adults of up to 50 years old.
“Our class has both old and young learners so we have to organise class in the evening, from 8-10pm,” said Mrs. Vuon.
The three craftsmen teach learners the words, then the melody and finally put everything together to music.
When the class just opened, villages didn’t understand ca tru songs so they didn’t like it, but gradually, villagers have come to understand and love ca tru. Ca tru performances have become an indispensable part of Chanh Thon’s festivals and offerings.
“It is very lucky that my village has three people who still preserve ca tru. If only I was alive now, this reputed profession would have been lost,” said Mrs. Khuou.
Mrs. Khuou learned her first ca tru melodies from her grandmother. When she started the career of a singsong girl, the war broke out and nobody paid attention to ca tru.
The craftsman showed a quire of old, smeared papers and said: “These papers record tens of ca tru songs. I and Vuon have preserved them for nearly 70 years like treasures.”
There were some songs that weren’t written down, but the three craftsmen have tried to remember them and write them down for posterity.
“Ca tru melodies are engrained on my mind so I’m not afraid of losing them. I consider them as my own treasures,” she said.
Before they opened the ca tru class, sometimes these craftsmen gathered to sing for each other and recorded songs on cassettes as a way to lessen their occupational wistfulness.
But Mrs. Khuou’s most valuable treasure at present is her ca tru learners, including her two paternal grandchildren.
“In the past, ca tru was only transferred to descendants but it is different now. I teach ca tru to everyone. I’m trying to pass everything I know to them,” Mrs. Khuou said.
She says she wants to live for three years more to give all of her knowledge of ca tru to the young. She said: “This art requires careful teaching method. I had to learn it for at least three years to be able to sing fairly well. Ca tru is different from cheo and is not as simple as hat xam.”
Ca tru is a strong hope to revive in Chanh Thon carpentry village.
Phuong, 7, was trying to sing a ca tru melody named Bac phan, which requires a high vocal range. Phuong and Oanh are the smallest singsong girls of the ca tru class in Chanh Thon, which is run by three ca tru craftsmen, Nguyen Thi Khuou, 82, Nguyen Thi Vuon, 84, and Nguyen Van Khoai, 83.
The craftsmen learnt ca tru from their elders and now they teach their descendants in the same way. The class gathers both children and adults of up to 50 years old.
“Our class has both old and young learners so we have to organise class in the evening, from 8-10pm,” said Mrs. Vuon.
The three craftsmen teach learners the words, then the melody and finally put everything together to music.
When the class just opened, villages didn’t understand ca tru songs so they didn’t like it, but gradually, villagers have come to understand and love ca tru. Ca tru performances have become an indispensable part of Chanh Thon’s festivals and offerings.
“It is very lucky that my village has three people who still preserve ca tru. If only I was alive now, this reputed profession would have been lost,” said Mrs. Khuou.
Mrs. Khuou learned her first ca tru melodies from her grandmother. When she started the career of a singsong girl, the war broke out and nobody paid attention to ca tru.
The craftsman showed a quire of old, smeared papers and said: “These papers record tens of ca tru songs. I and Vuon have preserved them for nearly 70 years like treasures.”
There were some songs that weren’t written down, but the three craftsmen have tried to remember them and write them down for posterity.
“Ca tru melodies are engrained on my mind so I’m not afraid of losing them. I consider them as my own treasures,” she said.
Before they opened the ca tru class, sometimes these craftsmen gathered to sing for each other and recorded songs on cassettes as a way to lessen their occupational wistfulness.
But Mrs. Khuou’s most valuable treasure at present is her ca tru learners, including her two paternal grandchildren.
“In the past, ca tru was only transferred to descendants but it is different now. I teach ca tru to everyone. I’m trying to pass everything I know to them,” Mrs. Khuou said.
She says she wants to live for three years more to give all of her knowledge of ca tru to the young. She said: “This art requires careful teaching method. I had to learn it for at least three years to be able to sing fairly well. Ca tru is different from cheo and is not as simple as hat xam.”
Ca tru is a strong hope to revive in Chanh Thon carpentry village.
Ca tru: (also known as hat a dao or hat noi) is an ancient genre of chamber music featuring female vocalists, with origins in northern Vietnam. For much of its history, it was associated with a geisha-like form of entertainment.
Ca trù, like many ancient and highly developed arts, has many forms. However, the most widely known and widely performed type of ca tru involves only three performers: the female vocalist, lute player and a spectator (who also takes part in the performance).
The female singer provides the vocals whilst playing her phach (small wooden sticks beaten on a small bamboo platform to serve as percussion). She is accompanied by a man who plays the dan day, a long-necked, 3-string lute used almost exclusively for the ca tru genre. Last is the spectator (often a scholar or connoisseur of the art) who strikes a trong chau (praise drum) in praise (or disapproval) of the singer’s performance, usually with every passage of the song. The way in which he strikes the drum shows whether he likes or dislikes the performance, but he always does it according to the beat provided by the vocalists’ phach percussion.
New observers to the art often comment on how strikingly odd the vocal technique sounds, but it is the vocals themselves that are essential in defining ca tru.
Ca tru started off like many of Vietnam’s arts as being a form of entertainment for the royal court. It was only later on that it branched out into being performed at small inns. Indeed, it was mainly scholars and other members of the elite who enjoyed the genre, which was somewhat inaccessible to the masses.
In the 20th century, ca trù nearly died out. As of now, extensive efforts are being made to invigorate the genre, including many festivals and events where several types of ca tru (among other related arts) are performed. Vietnam has also completed documents to have ca trù recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage - Wikipedia.
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