sentimental

Now, if anyone suddenly asks what is so fascinating about Vi and Giam, it is difficult to answer. Folk songs in general, Vi and Giam in particular, are not as good as other genres of young music, the singers are sometimes not as young and beautiful as contemporary singers, the singing space is simple and rustic, not favoring elaborate lights and flowers... However, anyone who listens to Vi and Giam for a while will be "intoxicated" by Vi and Giam, because Vi and Giam are the essence of the marrow, distilled from a difficult life, so listening to Vi and Giam is always rich, satisfying, and lifelike.

Listening to the vi and giặm, it is very real: the praise is real, the criticism is real, the love is real, the longing and resentment are also very real. Real but graceful, subtle, delicate, deep, not ostentatious. Anyone who hears this teasing simile will not be moved:“When I came to the flower trellis, the flowers had already bloomed/ When I came to the ferry, the ferry had already crossed the river/ When I came to find you, you were already married…”.Whoever hears this metaphor of anger and love will not become angry and then love:“I'm angry, I'm angry, I'm in love/ I can't stand you going the wrong way/ My love, please don't be angry too soon/ But first you have to blame yourself”…

Vi and Giam rarely have far-fetched metaphors, but are always simple metaphors, associations that come from real life. A ferry trip can become a simile, a night of rice planting can also become a Giam. In Vi and Giam, there are high mountains, deep rivers, cool streams, vast oceans, you and me... Vi and Giam carry love, loyalty, anger, affection, resentment, hate... Vi and Giam are tormented by stories of wives, husbands, family matters, national affairs... Vi and Giam are as clear as water, as warm as earth... Listening to Vi and Giam, one laughs, cries, cheers, and falls silent...

The more you listen to Vi and Giam, the more you love Vi and Giam. Perhaps there is no other form of music that fully expresses the character of the Nghe people like Vi and Giam: simple yet romantic, rough yet proud, foolish yet intelligent, straightforward yet liberal... Vi and Giam do not inherit from anyone, do not rely on anyone, Vi and Giam are simply of the Nghe people, carefully crafted from countless hardships and poverty, using the whispers of fragrant rice fields as rhythm, using the sound of the boat's clapping as beat, using the sky, the clouds, the moon, and the grass to weave simple and pure lyrics, conveying deep affection.

I have been to a number of Vi and Giam folk clubs in Nghe An, not many but enough to believe in the feeling that the best way to listen to Vi and Giam is to listen to it in a village performance space, where there are fields, banks, rivers, where farmers roll up their pants to wade in the fields, boatmen strain to push the boat... Vi and Giam were formed and developed in a wet rice agricultural cultural environment, imbued with the breath of nature and the soul of the life, labor and living of the residents, the biosphere of Vi and Giam was created from the land and people of Nghe An, so it is easy to understand that only when attached to this environment, Vi and Giam melodies are pure and rich, making people fascinated.

In 2015, the media reported a lot about the event honoring Vi and Giam folk songs as intangible heritage of humanity, including articles interviewing People's Artist Hong Luu. I remember in an article, the female artist of Nghe An's hometown soul confided that, to preserve Vi and Giam in its true quality, we must find a way to place Vi and Giam in its original performance space.

People's Artist Hong Luu told the story of preparing the dossier to submit to UNESCO, mentioning the journey of many years with her dedicated colleagues to travel to the countrysides of Nam Dan, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Nghi Loc... to meet with elderly Vi and Giam artists, to collect, record, and film ancient Vi and Giam melodies and lyrics. She said that many professional artists can sing Vi and Giam well, but the beauty that comes from the real thing - meaning real manual labor, real living environment, real performance space, the feelings of real villagers - can only be sung "out loud" by folk artists.

She told of old ladies over 90 years old, old and sick, bedridden, but when they heard guests coming to ask about Vi and Giam, they would lean back to sing, and sing clearly and distinctly, with the typical pronunciation of Vi and Giam, their eyes were cloudy but faintly filled with memories of the space of the mulberry fields of the past.

Ví and Giặm have such a lasting vitality because they truly reflect the labor process and the feelings and desires of the workers. The workers of the past carefully crafted the Ví and Giặm melodies and lyrics, which even now, when sung and listened to by the next generation, are still beautiful, still correct, and still relevant to current events. As for us today, with the fast pace of modern life, the time spent on Ví and Giầm is getting less and less. How many new Ví and Giặm compositions are created each year? Have those compositions truly expressed correctly and accurately the feelings of today’s workers? Are the Ví and Giầm qualities rich, the Ví and Giầm lyrics profound, and the Ví and Giầm melodies simple enough to be easy to remember, easy to learn, and easy to enter people’s hearts?

There are still many river banks and lakes, but many places mainly serve high-tech production, the vastness of nature is becoming less and less, the space for performing Vi and Giam is increasingly narrowed, young people go to study and work far from home, there is not much human resource left to keep the heritage alive. These are great challenges in the work of preserving and promoting Vi and Giam heritage, which the cultural sector has made remarkable efforts to partly overcome.

I have been to the Vi and Giam folk song clubs of Chau Nhan (Hung Nguyen); Nam Nghia (Nam Dan); Ngoc Son, Dai Dong (Thanh Chuong); Lac Son (Do Luong); Dien Dong (Dien Chau)… listening to the members who are farmers, freelance workers, communal cultural officials… sing and talk about Vi and Giam. Each person has a different reason for coming to the club, maybe because they loved this folk song genre since childhood, maybe because they were naturally good at singing and were invited, or maybe because of the assigned responsibility… but after a period of attachment, the initial reasons are no longer important, only a deep passion for Vi and Giam remains.

“After singing so much, I don’t even know when I got drunk on Vi and Giam!” - an artist at Ngoc Son Club told me. It is because of the infatuation and love that they stick with the Club from year to year, but sticking with spirit for so long also makes me feel sad, because the budget for Vi and Giam Club activities is limited!

With Vi and Giam, the more you love them, the more you hold them in your heart. For many years, Vi and Giam lovers have been harboring a question: What is the future for Vi and Giam? For several years now, the Provincial College of Culture and Arts has had difficulty recruiting students to study folk music; the Vi and Giam movement in schools has encountered many problems that are difficult to resolve; there have been no outstanding models or bright spots in the association of tours and routes to introduce Vi and Giam folk songs... Everyone talks about their passion and concerns, but it is still very difficult to turn those feelings into practical and effective actions and work. That is the reality that needs to be faced directly, not ignored because it is difficult, not stopped talking because it has been said too much, because Vi and Giam will never disappear, because as long as Nghe people still exist, Vi and Giam will still exist, but how long they will exist, what is the quality, the answer belongs to each of us!