Spring Ca Tru
Spring for my hometown Hoan Chau is not only the season of festivals, but also the season for singers and musicians of the "theatre troupes and silk troupes" in the upper and lower villages in the district and commune to compete in practicing their voices and instruments. Since the revival of Dien Chau ca tru, many villages and communes have had ca tru groups, clubs, and from there, the need to watch performances of this unique art form seems to have become an indispensable spiritual food in the cultural life of the community, especially during the Tet and Spring seasons.
(Baonghean) -Spring for my hometown Hoan Chau is not only the season of festivals, but also the season for singers and musicians of the "theatre troupes and silk troupes" in the upper and lower villages in the district and commune to compete in practicing their voices and instruments. Since the revival of Dien Chau ca tru, many villages and communes have had ca tru groups, clubs, and from there, the need to watch performances of this unique art form seems to have become an indispensable spiritual food in the cultural life of the community, especially during the Tet and Spring seasons.
The Thuc An Duong Vuong Temple Festival, the longevity celebration, the ancestral worship ceremony of the clans... are occasions for the big and small silk houses (ca tru clubs of the district and communes) to receive many "orders" to perform. In the Cuong Temple Festival, the ca tru performances in the temple yard after the announcement ceremony are very impressive "specialties" that have contributed to attracting many tourists to the festival. Particularly in Dien Yen and Dien Hoa - two localities with the relics of Dinh Chay and Phuong Lich communal houses associated with ca tru, the atmosphere of preparation for the opening day of the festival by the actors and actresses is even more bustling and urgent. Artist Nguyen Tai Khoan, who is both the Vice Chairman of the district ca tru club and the Chairman of the Dien Yen ca tru club, and a great musician, is staging several lullaby, talkie and love xam performances for the New Year celebrations with his wife and children. For nearly ten years, Mr. Khoan's family has been a "small ca tru shop" not only famous in Dien Yen, the cradle of Ke Lu ca tru, but also many times with the district ca tru club "bringing the bell" to ring all the way to Hanoi.
Singing Ca Tru at Phuong Lich Temple.
Leaving Ke Lu, we returned to Phuong Lich and witnessed the bustling atmosphere of Dien Hoa Ca Tru Club preparing for the Spring. At the entrance of the alley, poet Cao Xuan Thuong heard the sounds of tang, tom chat... u hu u hu of the actors and actresses enthusiastically practicing their voices and instruments. Mr. Thuong is not a member of the Club but is very knowledgeable about Ca Tru, the author of many famous new Ca Tru songs; he has worked hard to help the commune Ca Tru Club, and is a valuable advisor to the district Ca Tru Club in staging many performances that have won high prizes in Ca Tru exchanges and festivals in the region and nationwide. Wherever the Ca Tru Club performs, he tries to arrange his work to go along; sometimes when he feels inspired, he asks to "go down" to be an official in charge of the court, or to play the role of a musician like a real actor!
When talking about ca tru in Dien Chau, we cannot help but visit Doai-Dien Lien village, one of the cradles of ca tru in the district. This is the hometown of actor Tran Hai - a great actor of the once famous Ke Lu silk shop. The stone zither that actor Tran was using at that time was nearly 150 years old and was a "family heirloom" from Hai's grandfather. For a long time, ca tru in Dien Chau and the whole Nghe An province was in a "dead sleep"! Fortunately, there was teacher Nguyen Nghia Nguyen, a folk artist, who was very passionate about ca tru. He spent nearly ten years collecting ca tru melodies and "lighting a torch" to find the remaining old artists in the localities to be the core to teach and rebuild the ca tru singing movement in the district. It was Mr. Nguyen who "searched" for the actor Tran Hai, and the girls Ngoc Mai, Thu Hoa, Bich Loan... were the young actresses discovered and trained by Mr. Nguyen to form the first ca tru group in Dien Chau. From this initial "small silk shop", Mr. Nguyen organized many teaching classes to expand and develop more people who know how to sing and love to sing ca tru in the localities, and then (in 2002) established the "large silk shop" Phu Dien - which is the district's ca tru club today.
Thanks to the dedication to Ca Tru of people like Mr. Nguyen, Mr. Thuong, and old artists like Mr. Tran Hai..., the Ca Tru Club of the District has continuously developed, and then less than 3 years later, 6 "small shops" of Ca Tru from the communes of Dien Lien, Dien Yen, Dien Hoa, Dien My, Dien Xuan and Dien An were born; and from here, the Ca Tru singing movement in Dien Chau has been further expanded. Ca Tru from here is considered a "specialty" in the "spring menu" of festivals and traditional cultural activities of the community in my hometown. Not only that, Dien Chau Ca Tru has also made a splash after each time "bringing the bell to strike the land of others"! In 2005, 2009 and 2010, the Dien Chau Ca Tru Club won 2 Silver Medals and 1 Bronze Medal in the regional and national Ca Tru festivals; In particular, at the 2011 National Ca Tru Club Festival, Dien Chau Ca Tru won 1 first prize for singing, 1 first prize for dancing and 1 young talent prize for Dan Day. Since 2005, the Ca Tru Club of my hometown has been recognized by the National Institute of Music as one of 15 Ca Tru Clubs of localities nationwide that have Ca Tru.
Tran Canh Yen (Dien Thinh, Dien Chau)
