Recorded from Nghe An Folk Song Festival, Group 2

(Baonghean.vn) -On May 30-31, the Nghe An Folk Song Festival, Cluster 2 took place in an exciting and enthusiastic atmosphere in Tan Ky district. The festival had the participation of 4 units: Thai Hoa town, Nghia Dan district, Anh Son district and Tan Ky district. The festival was considered a success in many aspects, especially in the awareness of preserving and promoting traditional cultural values.

Before the festival, every street in Tan Ky district was filled with colorful banners and billboards about the festival; Commune radio stations continuously broadcast folk song programs as well as introduced this festival.

Although it rained continuously and it was harvest season, the audience came in large numbers, filling the entire hall of the district cultural center.

Performance of the Folk Song Club of Thach Son Commune (Anh Son).

There were 9 clubs, 157 artists and actors from 4 districts and towns coming to the festival. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoi, 77 years old, Head of the Vi-Giam Folk Song Club of Nghia Hoi commune, is the oldest artist at the festival. In 1999, after retiring from the lecture hall, he and a number of senior party members working in the Party cell proposed to establish the Vi-Giam Folk Song Club and it was approved. The club's establishment attracted over 30 participants of all ages. Since then, the club has regularly held activities, practiced performing arts, and participated in cultural activities in the commune and district. The club attended the festival this time with 43 members, the youngest actor was Nguyen Thi Ngoc, only 8 years old. Currently, the club's greatest asset is 73 songs and performances that have been collected and practiced by its members.

Like many other clubs, the clubs of Tan Ky district such as Thi Tran, Nghia Dong, Ky Son performed special performances praising the innovations and multi-faceted growth of the land with many national historical and cultural relics. Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Head of the Vi-Giam Folk Song Club of Tan Ky Town (the unit that won the first prize of the festival) shared: The Vi-Giam folk songs of Nghe An have always been preserved, conserved and promoted by our people. Our club with 20 members has carefully prepared for this festival; the melodies of lam, nhuon, suoi, xap, tap thênh tap tang, du du dieng dieng enrich this land and the Phu Quy region in general.

At this festival, the clubs have built their own art programs, closely following the regulations, rules, and content of the festival, strictly adhering to the ratio between old and new; elaborately staged with performance forms suitable for space and time; Artists performed with emotion, attracting viewers. There have appeared many new faces, with sweet and mellow voices such as Thu Thuy, Dinh Chien (Ky Son - Tan Ky Club); Thanh Huong (Dong Hieu Club), Thu Thuy (Tan Ky Town Club), Thanh Hoa (Nghia Dong Club), etc. There are many young actors with potential to sing folk songs.

According to Meritorious Artist Pham Tien Dung - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nghe An, Head of the Organizing Committee, Head of the Jury of the Festival, there are still some shortcomings that the clubs need to learn from for the next festival and the upcoming provincial festival, which are: The art of singing requires subtlety in gestures, lyrics, and expressing the feelings of each side, but in some performances this element has not been paid attention to; The number of restorations of the ancient performance space form is not much, the number of authors writing lyrics for folk songs is still too small, so many clubs perform quite a lot of overlap in some popular works such as "Ten graces of parents", "Phu tu tinh tham", "Ban hat gheo"; The clubs have been aware of using traditional musical instruments, but sometimes the rhythm and melody are not suitable for the singers; The costumes are not good, using brown as the main color but too dark, creating a dark color on the stage, the patterns and motifs have the typical appearance of the Southern region, the performance is not very creative...

Certainly, the echoes of this festival will spread and have a positive impact, promoting and further expanding the Nghe folk singing movement in this region, becoming an indispensable spiritual food in the lives of the people./.

Thanh Chung