Meritorious Artist Le Hoang: 'Just one sound of the panpipe can evoke the soul and identity of a nation'

Nghe An Newspaper had a conversation with Meritorious Artisan Le Hoang about the work of preserving and developing folk songs of ethnic minorities in Nghe An.

PV: Can you tell the readers of Nghe An Newspaper about the journey of preserving the precious cultural heritage of the Thai ethnic folk songs that you have been passionate about and pursued for many years?

Meritorious Artisan Le Hoang:Folk songs are my blood, my breath, my need in life. I was born and raised in Mon Son commune (Con Cuong), a land imbued with Thai folk melodies such as lam, xap, xuoi, nhuon, on, xuong of Mo Pi, mo khen. Since childhood, I often heard my father play khen, my mother sing xuoi, my sisters learn to sing and I sing along...

Meritorious Artisan Le Hoang. Photo: NVCC

From the age of 13 to 14, I loved listening to the Lam-Xap-Xuoi-Nhoon melodies of the Thai people. Every night, wherever there was a singing competition, I would go and listen. Gradually, those melodies became like my breathing instinct, and I remembered most of the ancient songs of my people. So I grew up with those passionate music. Then, when I reached the age of dating, I was immersed with the local boys and girls in the moonlight nights, playing the pi and singing love songs.

Later, when I traveled here and there, I often collected, learned, filtered, and compiled them into songs and developed those melodies into songs. Perhaps that is why in my compositions, I often have songs that are full of ancient folk music, but still easy to learn, easy to remember, and especially loved by young people.

PV: So, it is understandable that you are the person from Con Cuong village who is most honored in preserving and promoting ethnic minority folk songs, with many years of dedication to performing arts as well as spreading the love of folk songs to the younger generation?

Meritorious Artisan Le Hoang:Since my youth, I have been on stage quite a lot. At that time, the stage was just a performance space for people during festivals. Later, I was continuously invited to attend large and small festivals in and outside the locality. During the years of the Sen Village Festival, I always represented my commune and district to perform my ethnic folk songs. There were years when I won high prizes, but there were also years when I only won collective prizes, but the excitement and passion when coming to the festivals to bring my folk songs to visitors from all over the world always made me excited and passionate. A whole month before the festivals, we enthusiastically practiced and passed on to each other the techniques of releasing sounds, how to play pi and khen to make an impression and imbued with national identity. Some of my favorite performances include “The sound of the flute beside the Pieu scarf”, “The girl from Ban Xan”, “The sound of Tu Quy”… These works really give us a lot of inspiration when performing and we can clearly feel the audience blending into that space.

Since childhood, Le Hoang has been passionate about the rhythms of nhuon, xap, xuoi. Photo: NVCC

PV: In your contributions to preserving Thai folk songs, what characteristic of this type of folk song impresses you most?

Meritorious Artisan Le Hoang:The lyrics of ancient melodies are always figurative, suggestive, with hidden meanings, poetic, metaphorical, saying one thing but understanding another; expressing the meaning so that the listener can feel, reflect, and even see their own identity in it. In the melodies, only the "lam" has rhythm (2/4 rhythm), can be sung with the "khèn" (panpipes), sung with gongs for everyone to dance together. With this melodies, people can develop many songs with Thai folk melodies that touch people's hearts, have a popular character but are full of art.

Of course, other melodies also make us fascinated when we enjoy them, both the audience and the singer (dancer), such as nhuon, xuoi... These melodies let us feel the most delicate and unique features of our national folk songs.

Thai ethnic folk songs need to be preserved and promoted. Photo: Documentary

PV: Not only is he a good performer of Thai folk music, singing and dancing, he is also the composer of many melodies and songs. In all of his compositions, listeners and viewers can clearly feel the rich national folk music elements, not only emanating from the melodies but also from the lyrics and the way the performer breathes into it. Can you share more specifically about this?

Meritorious Artisan Le Hoang:Folk songs of any nation are the soul, the deep culture of each person, each land. They make those who go far away remember, want to return, they make those who stay for their whole life not want to go anywhere, they make brothers, neighbors, compatriots come closer, unite, share food, clothes, and love each other. Therefore, when singing a song, or playing a flute, we feel ourselves in it, our childhood, our relatives and our compatriots.

Many Thai folk song clubs were established to preserve and promote the melodies left by our ancestors. Photo courtesy

Folk songs are passed down from generation to generation, the current generation has the duty to preserve, promote and propagate. Therefore, when developing a national folk song, all lyrics must be associated with love, labor, production, associated with regional customs and practices, closely following the melodies left by our ancestors; developing but must keep the listener's and singer's mind, strong image, easy to perform to be accepted by the audience.

PV: As a person who restores many customs in festivals and many folk song clubs in ancient Thai villages, you also teach many clubs to preserve and develop Thai folk songs. How do you feel about the cultural life of ethnic minorities in Western Nghe An in recent years?

Meritorious Artisan Le Hoang:In general, our people are still passionate about national folk cultural movements. Just a sound of the flute makes us want to join in a dance, and the spirit of brotherhood and community solidarity also comes from that. However, the reality is that currently, types of cultural and folk art activities are increasingly fading away. Typically, the type of "Han Khuong" now seems to have disappeared from the daily life of the Thai people, along with the musical instruments and people seem to have also disappeared.

Nowadays, making panpipes is also facing many difficulties because very few people can still make panpipes that meet sound standards. Photo courtesy

For example, making Khen Be, not everyone who is skillful in producing ethnic instruments can make Khen. In the past, there were a few people who could make Khen with the right quality, when using the sound to produce the right melody, but those people have followed their ancestors to heaven, taking with them both their skillful hands and the ability to evaluate the sound, choose the materials when making Khen, so now no one makes this instrument anymore.

Or many elders still keep the lullaby, which cannot be conveyed by musical scores or recording techniques, but only preserved by word of mouth, now the elders are no longer around and there is no one else who can carry out that mission. Therefore, the lullaby melodies are lost or not taught systematically.

Besides, there is a reality that, currently in the villages, there are no young people who know how to sing, know how to perform folk songs. The love duet singing no longer exists, some Muong village festivals are not preserved, no longer exist in the spiritual life of the Thai people. That is something I deeply regret and worry about, but honestly, my own efforts alone cannot restore it. Recently, when community tourism developed, some cultural activities were restored but they were distorted, no longer true to the original. Then the mixed language, mixed costumes not true to the identity, that also makes me worried and tormented...

The form of Thai ethnic folk music activities in the villages of Western Nghe An is gradually decreasing as there are no young people and the elderly are getting old and weak. Photo: Documentary

PV: In your opinion, what is the most important thing to preserve intangible cultural heritage in today's era?

Meritorious Artisan Le Hoang:To preserve and promote the identity of these intangible cultural forms, folk clubs should not be allowed to operate spontaneously and without direction as they do now. Cultural authorities and sectors need to advise the government to pay real attention to collectors and folk artists - the holders of intangible cultural treasures.

At the same time, the cultural sector needs to have a strategy and program to restore and teach ethnic minority folk songs in a systematic way to preserve the soul and national identity, to bring these types of music closely to community activities, and to serve tourism tours well so that clubs can be self-sufficient and develop sustainably.

PV: Thank you for the conversation!