vietnam sounds

Finally... here are some edited excerpts of the hours of audio collected in Vietnam. Interview clips/translations will come later (and videos!) - these are just some musical examples.


Bac, Trung, Nam
Vietnam's three regions, bac (north), trung (central) & nam (south), on the dan tranh. Played by one of my teachers, co Uyen Tram. You can hear her 5-year-old boy in the background, and of course, the ubiquitous motorbike engines/honks in Saigon.
Bac, Trung, Nam

co Tram sings lullabyes, or ru con, of the north and south.
Ru Con

Hat Xam group in Hanoi
vocalist, dan nhi, dan nguyet.

Xam Cheng Bong

The woman is singing about her good-for-nothing husband who cheats & gambles while she works to pay off his debts and feed the family.
here are the lyrics:

the same vocalist sings a hat cheo song used during a mua roi (water puppet) performance.
Hat Cheo


Music of the Central Highlands Conference
Buon Ma Thuot
Both clips are performed by a group of Ede people.

Bronze Gongs



Bamboo Gongs

Dai-Lam-Linh
The folk-avant band rehearsing their song 'nhat thuc' (eclipse), in Hanoi. The instrumentation is piano, dan tranh, guitar, 2 vocalists, and percussion. see more pictures of them performing HERE and more about their percussionist, Nguyen Xuan Son HERE

Nhat Thuc (Eclipse)
this piece nhat thuc (eclipse) is neat because it switches meter-
5/4 to 4/4 to 5/4 to 6/8 to 5/4 again.

the pianist for Dai-Lam-Linh, Vu Nhat Tan, is also a composer. (see previous posts) Here is the ending of one of his pieces played by the Hoa Sen string quartet performed at L'espace in Hanoi.
Hoa Sen String Quartet

Tuong Theatre in Hanoi
Bamboo flute, dan tranh, dan bau, dan nguyet, dan ty ba, dan nhi, percussion.
Tuong Theatre