Musician Hong Dang - a talented artist, an outstanding son of his homeland Nghe An has passed away.
Information from musician Hong Dang's family said he passed away at 5:57 a.m. this morning (March 21) at Hanoi Friendship Hospital, at the age of 86.
Musician Hong Dang (real name Phan Dang Hong) was born in 1936 into a family with a tradition of studiousness in Yen Thanh district, Nghe An province.
He is the nephew of revolutionary Phan Dang Luu. Since childhood, he had been reading music books in French. At the age of 12, he composed his first song called "Student Life". The song was loved by many of his peers.
In 1956, when the Vietnam Music School (now the Vietnam National Academy of Music) opened its first course, he was one of the first students majoring in Composition. That course had great composers of the country's music, such as Hoang Viet, Hoang Hiep, Ngo Huynh, Huy Thuc, Vinh Cat, To Ngoc Thanh, Hong Thao...
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| Musician Hong Dang. Photo: KT |
The work he first introduced to the capital was the opera Song Hong Ngan Nam (playwright Duong Viet A), which was performed by the Hanoi Song and Dance Troupe in 1964 - under the direction of conductor Nguyen Huu Hieu.
Musician Hong Dang has composed more than 700 works, including many genres: songs, choirs, operas, instrumental music, film music, stage music... In particular, he has composed music used for more than 70 films, including famous film soundtracks such as: Milk Flower (film Hanoi in the season of birds making nests), Floating (film Life of a street singer), The sea sings this afternoon (many films about the sea), Nostalgia for the ocean night (film Salt grains of the sea), The sea and the girl I haven't known (film Little stars), Green space (film Sky)...
In particular, the song "Hoa sua" written by him in the soundtrack of the movie "Ha Noi in the season of birds making nests" about the rebuilding of Hanoi after December "Dien Bien Phu in the air" touched the hearts of millions of Vietnamese people. "Hoa sua" stepped out of the film frame and became one of the best songs about Hanoi, although there is not a single word "Hanoi" or "Capital" in the lyrics.
Musician Nguyen Thuy Kha commented that in "Hoa sua" nature is hidden in the love of couples. In "Ky mieu thanh tuoi thuy" nature has crowded into the backpack of the person going to the border front. Hong Dang's melody has made the hearts of young men flutter, unable to contain themselves: "This afternoon, passing through a familiar street, hearing the first sounds of cicadas, suddenly my soul is stirred. The endless chorus of cicadas"...
In 2001, musician Hong Dang also received the State Prize for Literature and Arts with the songs: The Sea Sings This Afternoon, Milk Flower, Gifts of May, Memories of the City of Childhood and the choir Burning Fire...
Musician Hong Dang is credited with initiating Half a Century of Vietnamese Music and he himself was honored in the Music Road in 2000. On October 28, 2021, he was awarded the Grand Prize "Bui Xuan Phai - For the Love of Hanoi" for his outstanding contributions to the capital's music scene./.