Le Thanh Duc, deep sadness...

(Baonghean) - I met Duc "guitarist" about 6 or 7 years ago. Back then, he played music for the "Street Corner" coffee shop - a dreamy corner of the shop overlooking the misty Goong lake and low-hanging trees. In that space, Le Thanh Duc's guitar blended with the guitar of his brother Le Thanh Ha, gently resounding, such as "Glass Sunlight", "Watching the Autumns Go", "Sea of ​​Memories"... Le Thanh Duc left an impression on me with his wandering look, full of hidden feelings hidden behind his long hair, his silent bowed head and his thin, skillful fingers on the strings...

Two guitarists attracted customers to “Street Corner”, customers who later became familiar and close to each other to the point that they were always assigned a separate corner in the shop. Music always has an unparalleled mysterious power to attract people, helping them to be soothed, supported, to be at the end of sadness and to be at the end of loneliness. After many years of forgetting that in the busyness of daily life, Le Thanh Duc showed me again through his fingers with infinite power as they glided over the strings of his guitar.

Later, when Mr. Duc and Mr. Ha no longer played music at “Street Corner”, I still remembered the misty lake, the drooping trees and the looks of strangers who had become close after a piece of music. We were the same, becoming friends, even though I was nearly 20 years younger than them. Le Thanh Duc, behind that quiet and sad appearance, was an open, enthusiastic and extremely generous heart. Therefore, his house of less than twenty square meters became a “destination” for friends and students… The house nestled in the middle of Nguyen Du street, under the shabby canopy of star apple trees, was his place to return to. “The house is so small, but living alone, it always feels very spacious”. Le Thanh Duc said so, and I felt his sadness and loneliness were so deep. He added that the TV next to his bed was never turned off, day and night. Perhaps, it helps him feel more together and warmer "because from there comes human voice"?

Every night, near midnight, the skinny man with long, loose hair returns to his house, opens the door and greets the two birds that are dozing in the cage, just waking up and making a fuss because they saw their owner coming home. "So, for a long time now, a starling and a thrush have been my friends," Le Thanh Duc said with a smile. "Why don't you find yourself a real friend?", I asked him with concern and noticed him laughing out loud: "Coming to a guy like you is like hugging a suicide bomb"... It turns out that the past, the sadness that has not been resolved for many years, has made Le Thanh Duc full of hidden feelings... But more than that, deep inside him is a silent sacrifice for his children, his most beloved ones: "When the children are all on their own, then I will think about my own business."

Le Thanh Duc is the youngest in a family of 6 children. His parents are originally from Hue, and were people who moved to Nghe An during the war against the French. He said that despite hardship and poverty, his parents were people who loved literature and art, loved singing and playing musical instruments. Therefore, all their children had the “gene” for literature and art. “And the first guitar he had in his life was also bought by his grandfather.” That day, Le Thanh Duc’s father discovered that his youngest son loved to play the flute. He listened to his son’s flute, filled with happiness and excitement, believing that he was truly talented and would definitely become an artist. So, despite the fierce war and the family being evacuated to Thanh Chuong, he traveled to Vinh on his old bicycle to buy his son a guitar.

In 1976, when Le Thanh Duc was a junior high school student, the Hanoi Conservatory of Music (Vietnam National Academy of Music) came to recruit people. Many candidates participated in the audition through very strict rounds. Le Thanh Duc's "Uncle Ho's Sandals" conquered the difficult "judges" and brought happiness not only to him but also to his whole family. His father was very happy, but his mother... cried. She thought about having to send her son to study far away while still missing him so much, could she bear it? Moreover, Duc was the youngest child, still young, and his family's circumstances were difficult. Leaving his mother's arms, could he be independent?

That year, the selection round in Nghe An only recruited 2 candidates, Le Thanh Duc and the later famous singer- Meritorious Artist Thai Bao. Le Thanh Duc was selected to the Traditional Music Department. 7 years at the Conservatory with so much sweat, tears of hard work, of sadness and longing. “The first two months, the little brat kept crying. He missed home. Besides, that time was so hard. One day, the teacher saw that he was so sad, she hugged him and encouraged him forever… It was love and passion that kept him here, as well as his whole life later, because of that he lived to the fullest” - Le Thanh Duc said about himself like that.

After graduating, Le Thanh Duc became a musician at the Nghe Tinh Song and Dance Troupe. It was musician Le Ham who kept him with the troupe when he intended to start a career elsewhere. “That is a respected teacher. There are many people, because of fate that we meet, because of debt that we always think of them, live for them, work for them…” Le Thanh Duc talked about Le Ham, and his teachers, friends… with much respect, gratitude, and affection. Meritorious Artist - Music Professor Bich Ngoc (husband of People's Artist Tra Giang) who gave him so much favor. People's Artist, teacher Cao Viet Bach - the conductor of the orchestra of the Vietnam Music and Dance Theater and the Voice of Vietnam Radio, who considered him a close brother. Once when teacher Bach returned to Vinh, Le Thanh Duc took him “on a trip”, causing many people to look for him and he almost got disciplined if it weren't for the teacher's timely intervention. As actor Ngoc Ngai of the Nghe Tinh Song and Dance Troupe, “when he plays the role of Uncle Ho, he is absolutely amazing. At that time, the whole 12-9 Theater cried when listening to his performance. Even I, who was standing in the wings playing the guitar, when I saw Ngoc Ngai come out, I burst into tears. I played the guitar and cried at the same time.” As Thu, the monochord player for the Folk Song Theater, a close friend who has always sat quietly in a corner of the coffee shop to listen to Duc play the guitar for many years. As Hung, the executive director of the Festival Palace Coffee with dedicated projects to help the people of Thanh Vinh improve their spiritual life through the form of music coffee…

Anh Duc in a night commemorating musician Trinh Cong Son at the Festival Palace Cafe. Photo: Tran Hai

10 years working at the Song and Dance Troupe is 10 years that Le Thanh Duc and other artists have experienced hardships and hunger, a bitter reality behind the glitz of the stage. Only those who are very dedicated can stick with the profession, he sighed, distantly. “I still remember, back then, our people were also lacking in spirit, not just material things. When the troupe went to perform, I often rushed to check the tickets, to loosen the rules a little for some people who didn’t have money to buy tickets to pass through. I witnessed some girls and boys stealing some rice from their mothers and selling it to get money to buy tickets to see a show. And many children, the situation was just like in the song by Tran Tien, “out there, there is a boy climbing a tamarind tree to listen to my guitar”. Knowing that I did wrong, but how could I bear it… Is that the “mistake” that artists make? Or maybe because that’s how we are, so no matter how hard we struggle, we can’t think of doing anything else, besides clinging to… art”.

Regarding the 176 regime, Le Thanh Duc participated in local movements, taught music to those in need and also tried to make ends meet here and there. His next “mistake”, it must be said, was a big mistake, which was paid for with a 36-month prison sentence in Camp 6. Although there were still many hidden issues that only he could understand, from then on his artistic heart was broken, and his small family was separated after 10 years together. In less than 2 years (in 2000), thanks to his good reform achievements, his sentence was reduced and he was released from prison. From then on, he chose a quiet life, he wanted to “disappear” among the noise, so he went to Hai Phong. After 4 years as a music teacher in Hai Phong, Le Thanh Duc returned to Vinh, working with a camera at the Square as a street photographer for tourists, and in his free time, he taught guitar lessons and played at weddings and events. He did all of these jobs to save money to raise his 2 children, "because being alone, it doesn't take much" - he said.

After the time of taking pictures on the street, he also felt tired. So in the end, “only the guitar and me remained”. He had long-term contracts with coffee shops that required live music thanks to people who loved him and his skillful playing. He had more friends, more students. There was a student who loved guitar, had no money to study, but was helped and taught by him, now an adult, can do “shows” at weddings on his own. There were many students who passed the entrance exams to the Academy of Music, University of Culture… always grateful to Mr. Duc, a romantic but dedicated teacher.

From the day he sat with his hair down on the strings of the guitar in that foggy coffee shop, until now, he has not changed much. The years, the ups and downs and the heavy guilt have made him age no further. Every time I go to the coffee shop, listening to the guitar, sometimes clear, sometimes dripping slowly on his hands, I imagine the road he will soon return to, the house he will soon enter. The birds scurrying to greet him, the sound of the television still playing the same steady sound that for years cannot fill the innate loneliness... Oh, I am a wandering artist all my life, he has always been sure of that, and hung the guitar on the wall with his tired fingers after a tiring night of work. Or maybe, he will take the guitar out of the case again, and his fingers will aimlessly glide over those cold copper strings. A sound will arise, as deep as the night...

Thuy Vinh