Musician Nguyen Tai Tue and memories of Korea

Meet fellow countrymen in foreign countries

In his state-provided private house in an alley in Hanoi, musician Nguyen Tai Tue recalls the time he was sent to study in North Korea. “It was in March 1967, when the Ministry of Culture sent a dispatch to the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province requesting that I be sent to the Ministry for study. In early May, I, along with several hundred students, arrived in Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. After studying Korean for six months, I was admitted to the Pyongyang National Conservatory of Music.”

But here, he began to encounter a procedural problem. When the school reviewed his records, they discovered that he did not have a music degree, and therefore was not qualified to study at the Pyongyang National Conservatory of Music. At this time, a solution was considered: to ask for help from our country's Ambassador to North Korea at that time, Mr. Le Thiet Hung.

“Meeting a Vietnamese person in a foreign country is already precious, I could not have imagined meeting a fellow countryman from Nghe An at that time,” said musician Nguyen Tai Tue. At that time, Mr. Le Thiet Hung, in his first meeting with musician Nguyen Tai Tue, asked him a question with a strong Nghe An accent.

“At that time, Mr. Hung asked me: Are you also from the countryside? Have you gotten used to the atmosphere in Pyongyang?” - musician Nguyen Tai Tue recalled.

Also according to musician Nguyen Tai Tue, at that talk, Mr. Le Thiet Hung assessed that musician Nguyen Tai Tue was a person with real composing talent through the songs that Mr. Hung heard. Thanks to Mr. Hung's help, musician Nguyen Tai Tue was able to pass the examination of the Conservatory of Music of the neighboring country. After 3 weeks of examination, he was given special permission to go straight to the University, without having to go through the preparatory course.

Recalling his years in Korea and the affection that this country had for him, musician Nguyen Tai Tue summed up with a saying: “I had the opportunity to study great musical caliber. What I am today is thanks to the years of studying there and absorbing a lot of the musical quintessence of the neighboring country.”

Sprouting love

The country of North Korea not only enhanced the musical talent of musician Nguyen Tai Tue, but more importantly, it was also the place where his love blossomed. Flipping through the memories of his youth in North Korea, musician Nguyen Tai Tue was full of excitement when telling the story of his love.

“Here she is, the girl I met in North Korea, now she is my wife,” musician Nguyen Tai Tue said, pointing to a photo of his wife when she was young. His wife is Vu Thi Cam Tu. At the time when Mr. Tue was studying abroad in North Korea, majoring in music, Ms. Tu was also studying at the Polytechnic University, majoring in Civil Engineering.

“She also loved singing, so we could share many confidences. She was petite, gentle, elegant, intelligent, studious and good at studying. Those qualities and virtues made me admire her,” musician Nguyen Tai Tue recalled.

Recalling the memories of being close to Mrs. Cam Tu, musician Nguyen Tai Tue recalled that Mrs. Cam Tu once asked him: "I really like the song Le Quang Vinh, glorious son, do you know who the author is?", musician Nguyen Tai Tue replied: I don't know either, sing it for me to hear. Then Mrs. Cam Tu sang enthusiastically, but sometimes the lyrics were wrong, sometimes the music was wrong. So the young international student at that time had to listen and correct it.

“Maybe that’s why she recognized it right away and said: I know, that’s your song,” musician Tai Tue recounted. Love had blossomed, but it wasn’t until a year after the two returned to Vietnam that their wedding took place. “At that time, I had many girls following me, not just my wife. But as a man, you have to put your career first, family matters aside for now,” musician Tai Tue wittily said.

His wife is also the one who helps her husband archive works, translate documents, print and copy songs... In addition to being a good and resourceful wife, the wife of musician Nguyen Tai Tue is also a person who contributes to the country's construction industry. Few people know that the current Vietnam Music and Dance Theater is managed by Ms. Cam Tu, who is in charge of land application procedures, capital funding, design, construction inspection and supervision.

Homeland is full of folk songs and folk songs

Mentioning his hometown Nghe An, where he was born, musician Nguyen Tai Tue still has deep affection for his hometown. “Being born in Nghe An, a place of great people and spirituality, that pride is forever nurtured in my soul,” musician Tai Tue said.

He said: I was born into a Confucian family, my grandfather and father were both teachers and loved art, loved Nghe Tinh's Vi and Giam singing. When I was 5 or 6 years old, my father took me to listen to Vi and Giam singing on the Lam River.

“At that time, even though I was young, I really liked listening to the Vi and Giam songs. There were some sad parallel sentences that made me cry. When my mother found out, she told my father not to let me listen to them like that anymore. But my father said: You have to let your child listen to them, you have to let him feel the culture, the folk roots of his ancestors so that he can grow up, that is a good thing. I cried like that, I cried 10 more times and still took him…”, the musician said.

According to the musician, living in that atmosphere of Vi and Giam, imbued with the Vietnamese soul, despite being admitted to the University of Culture, Nguyen Tai Tue was still determined to choose the path of composition to satisfy his artistic desire. At the age of 18, he went to Hanoi, he was exposed to many different genres of folk music, he felt overwhelmed and saw the path ahead of him open wide.

“I have “Singing in the Pac Bo Forest”; “Song to Noong”… because I have studied and considered the cultures of ethnic groups as my flesh and blood, my love,” the musician expressed.

Not only is his homeland deeply ingrained in him with the folk songs, but the image of his homeland is also always present with him. “Now, every time I return to my hometown, the first thing I do is go up the dike and stand and watch the Lam River flow, where the ferry dock used to be where I used to swim. Towering to the south is Hong Linh Mountain, the sacred mountain that has created the cultural lines of Nghe An,” the musician said.