Fall in love with the folk song

(Baonghean) - With just one verse, the hearts of those far from home suddenly throb strangely. A whole childhood memory, a longing, a longing appears clearly. There is nothing as powerful as music, nothing as passionate and profound as the melodies of the folk songs...

1.More than 10 years ago, on a trip to Kim Lien to learn about the Nam Dan fabric singing guild, I visited the house of teacher Nguyen Huu Cu. Many people were puzzled when he suddenly wanted to embrace the desire to preserve and conserve old melodies, to establish a fabric singing guild and to restore the old space of the fabric singing guild.

I used to think that he - a native of Duc Tho (Ha Tinh), but fate and destiny brought him to Kim Lien - had an "extreme" love for the fabric wallet. He loved it so much that he thought all the twists and turns of his life were due to the fabric wallet. He loved it so much that he was willing to spend his own money to do anything related to popularizing and spreading it. He loved it so much that, in the middle of a hot noon, he forgot to eat and took me to the house of some old artisans of Hoang Tru village hoping that I could "feel" the wallet of the old days... And "extreme" when the fabric wallet went on stage, if it wasn't in a brown shirt and singing to the rhythm of the xa quay, he thought it was "fake", no longer a fabric wallet...

Singing Vi by the Lam River by the Nam Dan Folk Song Club. Photo: Tran Hai.

That sunny afternoon more than 10 years ago, in a simple house in Hoang Tru village, I heard from my old chest the haunting song of the fabric guild. The song has gone through months, years, through the ups and downs of life, of the homeland, of human destiny, but it is still here, still deep in my heart: “I asked you where your hometown is/ And you know that the mulberry garden has silkworms…?”.

From that moment, I knew I was in love with the cau vi. A northerner fell in love with the cau vi of white sand and Lao wind…

I understand why, Mr. Cu, who has been wandering all his life, still returns to the folk songs in his last days. Those folk songs of his homeland are in his blood and flesh. Just like the poet Nguyen Duy “sitting sadly remembering our mother in the past”: Milk nourishes the body, songs nourish the soul. What other songs could the songs that have nourished the souls of the children of Nghe An be, besides the folk songs and folk songs?

Later, many times, when I passed through the Nam Dan countryside, I always imagined the blue moonlit nights on the mulberry fields, the romantic fences. Somewhere, there were once many footsteps coming to Mrs. An's textile yard (Mrs. Hoang Thi An, Uncle Ho's aunt), a bank of trees, a grain of sand still kept the lullabies of mother Hoang Thi Loan during the weaving nights. Somewhere, in the vast space of the present, there still remains the shadow of a person "going to listen to singing, with rolled up pants and standing at the head of the yard", to add to the sorrow of "people losing their country and suffering".

The people of Nam Dan also told me many anecdotes about a Mr. Giai San (Phan Boi Chau), a Mr. Tu San, both of whom were passionate about the fabric guild, and were both "teachers" of many nights of singing vi. The nights of singing vi in ​​the fabric guild filled with moonlight and happiness became a beautiful, dreamy memory in Phan Boi Chau's soul. Even though the moonlight was so hazy and vague, even though the distant rumbling sound seemed to lull him into oblivion, even though the singing vi rang out high but had something deeply sad, the nights of singing vi in ​​the fabric guild were real. And the young man Giai San stood hesitantly by the hibiscus flower bank, singing a witty song in response to the girls spinning. He smiled to himself in the moonlight. He had had beautiful, dreamy days in his homeland, and then a long, arduous, heroic life.

2.My niece, a 9X niece studying at a university in Hanoi, was very surprised to know that I love Vi Giam so much. And she also surprised me when she learned that, instead of idolizing young singers or famous foreign singers, she idolized the artists singing in the fields of her homeland. It was Vi Giam that brought us closer together, 2 mothers and 2 grandchildren, 2 homelands, 2 generations.

My niece confided to me like a friend: Mu, we just went to listen to Vi and Giam when we heard that Nghe An Folk Song Troupe was going to Hanoi to perform. When People's Artist Hong Luu sang: "Who knows the Lam River water is clear and muddy, then you know that life is both shameful and glorious", my friends and I were all sobbing, Mu. Some even shed tears. In a foreign land, after so long being immersed in busyness and preoccupation, but with just one simple and gentle melody being sung, the longing filled our hearts...

The Center for Preservation and Promotion of Nghe An Folk Heritage performs Vi Giam in the capital. Photo: PV

Then, after the night my grandchild went to see the show, I saw these lines on Facebook: “Remembering the days when I was a child, during the season I often followed my grandmother to the fields to sow rice. In the afternoon, running along the dike, I kept hearing the giggles of the sisters and aunts mixed with the sweet melodies ringing in the wind: If you love, love for sure/ If you have problems, then fix the problems completely/ Don’t be like the rabbit standing at the head of the field/ When happy, play with the shadow, when sad, leave”. The lyrics sung in hardship are still poetic and extremely lovely.

Then, as I grew older, I often sat in the evenings with the adults in the neighborhood, listening to my uncles and aunts singing along to my old karaoke system. They sang as if they had not thrown themselves into the scorching sun that day. They sang as if they had not had to carry sacks of rice heavier than their own body weight that afternoon.

So my immature soul at that time fell in love with Vi and Giam, was intoxicated and absorbed in it even though at that time I could not understand all the lyrics.

Growing up, my feet have left their mark on every road of the Fatherland. We sometimes spent millions of dong to enjoy a night of music. The artists standing on the stage, they were splendid and full of sublimity, but all of them could not enter my heart like the images of the aunts and the girls, their faces marked by the sun and rain with their bright singing voices. The workers who became artists in the moment, not only passed on to me the songs but also gave me optimism in the hardships and difficulties, gave me understanding and pride in my hometown people - those who lived very leisurely in the middle of the vast fields, believed in life amidst the saltiness and hardships of the poor land. With just one verse, the hearts of those far from home suddenly throb strangely. A whole childhood memory, a memory, a love appears clearly. There is nothing as powerful as music, nothing as passionate and deep as the melodies of the folk songs and the folk songs.

And I really want to say a word to Mr. Cu, who passed away a few years ago due to illness, about his worry that if the folk songs were to disappear one day: Dear teacher, please rest assured, today and forever, wherever there are still Nghe people, the folk songs and Giam songs will still be sung, will still be moved. Because the folk songs and Giam songs are the soul of Nghe in the soul of Vietnam, from ancient times and still the same for future generations!

Thuy Vinh