Musician, People's Artist Trong Bang and the vibrant days in Nghe An

Musician, People's Artist Trong Bang. Photo: Nguyen Dinh Toan

People's Artist Trong Bang was born on May 1, 1931 in Cao Bang, his hometown is Gia Lam, Hanoi. He was born into a patriotic intellectual family. His father was Nguyen Trong Phong, born in 1895. Before the August Revolution, he worked as an architect, designer, and contractor in the construction and road sectors. He was an employee of the Nghe An Public Works Department (ie the Central Region Department of Agriculture, directed by Prince Xu Pha Nu Vong, during the French colonial period). After the August Revolution, he was an officer of the Kien An Province Architecture Department (now Kien An District, Hai Phong City). His mother was Nguyen Thi Tre, born in 1899, a housewife, wholeheartedly raising her children to become talented. His older brother was Nguyen Trong Loan, former Head of the Cultural Troupe of the General Political Department of the Vietnam People's Army; former Deputy Director of the Army Theater.

Because his father was a road traffic worker and had to work at many construction sites in the country, musician Trong Bang followed his father and family to all the countrysides from the North to the Central of Vietnam from a young age. When his father built the Cao Bang bridge, he named his son Trong Bang to commemorate his birthplace. In the 1940s, his father was mobilized by the French protectorate to Nghe An to complete the construction of the Ba Ra Do Luong Dam system under the authority of the Director of the Central Agricultural Department, Prince Xu Pha Nu Vong.

In his youth, he was immersed in many beautiful landscapes of the country, and his father often played folk songs imbued with national love, so from a very young age, he and his older brother Trong Loan had musical talent and gift.

Musician Trong Bang's father once built the Do Luong sewer. This was also the time when the musician had strong ties to his hometown Nghe An and the poetic Lam River.

The late musician Trong Loan told a story about when he was in Vinh, living in the Thau Dau area, near Vinh National School, early one Sunday morning, the two brothers sat hugging their guitars and passionately playing a Japanese folk song. Coincidentally, a group of Japanese soldiers were practicing marching on the street, passing in front of Mr. Phong's (father's) house. Suddenly, they heard the folk music of their homeland, which made the commanding officer quiet down and order the troops to stand still to listen to the whole song. From then on, every day off, the Japanese officer would come to Mr. Phong's family to get to know the music of the two Nguyen Trong brothers.

Fortunately, thanks to that, revolutionary documents and the red flag with yellow star were safely hidden here until the day of the General Uprising to seize power in Vinh City. Both brothers Trong Loan and Trong Bang were members of the National Salvation Association of the Phan Dinh Phung Vinh National Salvation Youth Volunteer Team (Team Leader was Tran Xuan, former Captain of the Yellow Shirt Football Team - the predecessor of the current Song Lam Football Team). Trong Loan composed the Phan Dinh Phung National Salvation Youth Volunteer Song and sang this song with his teammates on the streets to effectively encourage the patriotic spirit of fighting the French during the exciting days of the August Revolution of the people of Vinh City and the whole country.

People's Artist Trong Bang lived through a vibrant student life during the resistance war against the French at Vinh National School (now Huynh Thuc Khang School, at that time the school was evacuated to Bach Ngoc Commune, Do Luong District). In his free time, he and his classmates would go to the beautiful Lam River to play guitars and sing revolutionary songs. He was appointed as the captain of the school's student art troupes and soon composed songs for the locality...

After graduating from the first course of the University of Literature, he was sent to work in the Central Laos Front and then to Viet Bac as the Captain of the Central People's Art Troupe (now the Vietnam Music and Dance Theater). He was the first Vietnamese to graduate with a Red Diploma from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (former Soviet Union in 1963). In 1969, he was sent to study at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Returning to Vietnam, he worked as a lecturer at the Vietnam Music School and as the Conductor of the Vietnam Symphony - Choir - Opera and Ballet Orchestra, and was later appointed as Deputy Director and Artistic Director (1975). From 1978 to 1984, he was Deputy Director of the Hanoi Conservatory and Director of the Symphony Orchestra, which he was authorized to establish by the Ministry of Culture. From 1984 to 1996, he was the Director of the Hanoi Conservatory of Music, making an important contribution to making the Conservatory a prestigious training, research and performance center domestically and internationally.

People's Artist Trong Bang has made many contributions to the cause of building and developing the classical music in Vietnam. He was the first conductor to conduct famous symphony concerts in Saigon right after the complete liberation of the South (1975). He conducted the Moscow and Tasken symphony orchestras during the Vietnam Cultural Days in the (former) Soviet Union in 1985. He conducted the Electone orchestra of Japan - Tokyo in the summer of 1995. He has conducted the Symphony Orchestras in Hanoi with the participation of many famous artists from France, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, the United States, Australia... coming to Vietnam.

Musician Trong Bang. Photo: Nguyen Dinh Toan.

NS's famous works are instrumental pieces that have a solid position in the history of young instrumental music in Vietnam (choral symphonies), such as: Dance for Cello and Piano, OvertureWelcome(1986); Symphony of PoetryThe person who returns brings joy(1990); Overture FantasyWelcome to the new millennium(2000) andNorthwestern epic… Instrumental music compositions by musician Trong Bang have been printed, recorded and performed in many places at home and abroad.

NS cũng sáng tác nhiều ca khúc nổi tiếng, tiêu biểu như: Tuyển tập ca khúc Love of homeland(H., Văn hóa, 1976); Tuyển tập Song of the Gunman(2000). Bài hát nổi tiếng của NS như: The Northwest is bright again (1951), Love of homeland(1954),Drilling machine speed(1961), The Warriors of Nui Thanh(1965), The American empire is the body of a fly(1965), Song by the pontoon bridge(1966), The storm is coming(1968), We are police officers, The whole country turns to Hanoi, The homeland resounds with proud songs, Forever echoes the love song, Ba Na airplane, We sing about Saigon, See you next year, Cua Lo, With the city of my childhood (về thành phố Vinh)…

NS is also the music author of many stage plays, such as:Bão biển, Khúc thứ ba bi tráng, Người cầm súng, Những người Nga, Người công dân số 1, Đêm cuối cùng ở Tây Ban Nha, Hẹn ngày trở lại; of many movies:Cù Chính Lan, Biển lửa, Chùm hoa thiên lý, Ngày lễ thánh, Bức tường không xây, Ngôi sao trên biển, Trừng phạt, Hoàng Hoa Thám, và nhiều phim tài liệu, thời sự khác…

NS has always adhered to the reality of production and combat topics to compose. His compositions demonstrate musical talent and versatility in style. His instrumental pieces are very heroic, both classical and carrying the breath of life and the grandeur of the times. IfNorthwestern epicexpressing a bright and cheerful atmosphere, imbued with the folk music of the northern mountains;Love of Homelandlyrical, thenThe American empire is the body of a fly.humorous, satirical; ifSong by the pontoon bridgeis deep, penetrating the heart, thenThanh Mountain WarriorHis compositions were well received by the people with their passionate, solemn, lyrical tones, both scholarly and imbued with national identity, so they were worthy of receiving many awards for vocal and instrumental compositions from the State and localities, and social organizations.

NS was invited to attend international conferences and seminars on music in Belgium, Germany, Japan, Thailand... Participated as a judge in international music councils, such as: Member of the Graduation Examination Council of the Academy of Performing Arts in Hong Kong (APA); Instrumental Composition Examination Council of the Asian Musicians' Association (ACL); and was also invited to act in films.Dien Bien Phuof France as conductor (1991).

Domestic and foreign press have written many times about the artistic career of People's Artist Trong Bang with respect and admiration for a musician who is truly prestigious at home and abroad. He is an all-round musician, composing vocal, instrumental, and theoretical music, and is also an experienced pedagogue; an excellent orchestra conductor and has made many great contributions to the improvement and development of Vietnamese traditional scholarly and professional music.

With his great contributions to Vietnamese music, People's Artist Trong Bang was awarded the Third Class Independence Medal in 2013 and the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts in 2017 for the works: Poetic SymphonyThe person who returned brought joy, the epic poem of the Northwest - Dien Bien Phu, improvised musicHello new millennium,soundtrackCu Chinh Lan - The young soldierand songs:The storm is rising, The rhythm of the drilling machine, We are police officers, The love song echoes forever...

Although People's Artist Trong Bang has passed away, his aspirations and wishes for an advanced Vietnamese music with strong national identity will be preserved and continued by his students' generation until the future./.