Quan Ho Bac Ninh - The traditional vietnamese music

For the Bac Ninh people, festivals not only allow them to highlight their own village's specialties, such as ceramics, folk painting, wrestling, kite parades, or bird contest, among a great many other things, but also their common prized heritage, the quan ho singing tradition.

From the past till now…

Ca quan ho, also called quan ho Bac Ninh singing, originated around the 13th century, and has traditionally been associated with the spring festivals that follow the celebration of the Vietnamese New Year. According to the tradition, only young people used to sing quan ho songs, as the major body of song texts centers on the subject of love and sentimental desire among young adults. Nowadays, many elderly singers participate in the singing as well in response to the quan ho movement initiated by the provincial government. Originally, quan ho singing were exchange songs between two mandarins' families. Gradually, it spread out and became popular among the northern people. Groups were formed just for singing, and many marriages were formed at these get-together. After centuries, it became the most significant Vietnamese folk-song type.

Characteristics.

Unlike the simple lullabies, which were inspired by daily works, quan ho was always searching for new content and new reforms. Virtually, all songs heard in festivals express personal subject like addressing the beautiful nature and the satisfaction after harvesting crops together. Love in quan ho is not sad and pessimistic as it is in lullabies (ru) or in calls (hò). On the contrary, the tune of this type is rich in tunes and rhythms because it received all the influences of lullabies, poem recitation, etc.

There are four major airs in quan ho singing:

• Giọng sổng (transistor air)
• Giọng vặt (diverse air)
• Giọng hãm (recitative air)
• Giọng bỉ (tunes borrowed from other sources)

The most popular quan ho songs, "qua cau gio bay", "treo len quan doc" (also known as "ly cay da"), "se chi luon kim", were sung in Giọng vặt. (transistor air)

If you did listen or watch a quan ho performance, you will see that it is an antiphonal singing tradition in which men and women take turns singing in a challenge-and-response fashion drawing on a known repertoire of melodies. In general, an initial "challenge phrase" (câu ra) is sung by a pair of female singers, followed by a "matching phrase" (câu đối) from the men, which repeat the melody of the challenge phrase. Once the order is reversed, the men will issue their own challenge phrase with a different melody.

One of the quan ho features that have endured through time is the proper verbal and poetic introduction to every tune. Quan ho singers are not only appreciated for their singing ability, but also for their skill in leaving an impression of their gracefulness and literary adeptness on the audience. Usually, one of the singers will say something to praise the opposing pair and express how fortunate her/his pair has been to be allowed to sing with them before reciting the verses of the song. Not only provides listeners with the basic content of the song, the rhetoric used in the introduction contribute to create the impression of a theatrical act.

The singers also imitated the musical sound, the sound of rice grinding, crying as well as replying in the tunes that their opposing pair had used. The singing ends with songs in the farewell category- a feature that has never been changed as a sense of a completion.

Instrumental accompaniment is welcomed by quan ho singers in some villages. The mono chord is the most common instrument, followed by the bamboo flute and the 36-stringed hammered dulcimer.

Trying to make cultural sense of the quan ho tradition as it is practiced today is not an easy task. Quant ho singing has undergone several changes with regard both to its context and content as its practitioners continue to search for ways to put the puzzle together, while realizing that missing pieces may never be found. Yet, the Bac Ninh locals believe that quan ho singing has always been the window through which outside people can see who they really are- the director of the quan ho troupe maintains.

If you want to hear of them directly, you can of Lim on 13 January every year according to lunar calendar in Tien Du district, Bac Ninh province. With popular games such as champion, wrestling, chess struggle, enough money, and weaving, cooking rice.
Lim of the Association is a heaven of sound, poetry and music space to the thought of fermentation. The new seven new clothes, the three important hats, fringe hanging at both side of a connical hat,silk camisole range of gravel, composed of six cells, turban, shirt pairs of Gam ... as containing all the hidden spring of life of people and create things. How's the game of their regional Lim also is a unique game, each gesture has to communicate it in a shade higher culture. The Lim always leave in the heart of what a beautiful area lam. Cac old man Lim, Lim said that Vietnam is still conservation of Lim's past, but alternating the mark of cultural market. Lim who still sing them on the hills and under the boat Lim, but singing with microphone through broadcaster. Space is no longer grace the "cramped" in a limited space for both the song galaxy, all of heaven and hear the spring.

Source: Vietnam- beauty and some pages

Vietnam's Life On Wheels

One of the magazines I read on line which is truly fabulous is French and is called L'Internaute.

A photo they published this weekend caught my eye, of course, and I couldn't resist. It is so very typical of Viet Nam.

Bonjour VietNam

A stunning song with equally stunning lyrics...

One day, I will go there

One day, I will go find my soul

One day I will go and say hello

Hello Vietnam

And that's how most of us feel when we have been there. Except this child only remembers angry U.S. helicopters hovering overhead.

They remind me of home

Although home for me has been the city of New York for the last 40 or so years, part of my heart and soul still yearns for Alexandria, Egypt. I am told that as soon as I go back for the first time, I can expect the aching to abate. I was surprised, as I engaged in the game of mapping my travels, that I had been in some 350 cities in the world, and yet, one country managed to envelop its aura around me like a noose. And that is Viet Nam. Let me share with you, graphically, some of the things which became so dear as they were all too familiar from another place and time.
  
I was in Saigon when I spotted these; I thought I was hallucinating, as I hadn't seen them since I had left Egypt. Of course, I bought some!!
   
Though I never did see chickens travelling by motorbike, I do remember them in cages being sold in the markets.
  
The only word for this is "moknessa"....
 
 
Having dinner or after dinner al fresco is the thing to do, whether in Hanoi, Saigon, Hue, Sapa or wherever you find yourself in Viet Nam. At times, it is too hot to go outside in the evenings, so you have to be rescued in a room with a/c.
 
 
The Pat'a'Chou bakery was across the street from our hotel in Saigon. As soon as they opened, we were the first to get the croissants, petits pains, and brioches before anyone else.
 
 
Spaghetti with bolognese sauce; I don't know how they learned, but they did....absolutely fabulous.
 
 
I don't have to tell you that seeing these men playing immediately brought backgammon to mind.
  
Except maybe for the pink color, these balconies could be part of a residential street in Alexandria. And of course, we'd have to get rid of the Viet Namese signs....
   
The shutters in the cities, especially in Hanoi, drove me crazy. I wanted to take a picture of all of them. Especially the green ones, since our house in Egypt had green shutters in every single room.
  
Yes, the most delicious oranges here are green.....
 
 
At this point in time, I had to go native. It was already my second trip to Viet Nam, and let me tell you, this stuff is heavy to carry. My hat is off to the women as I see them scurrying around the city with quite a load on their shoulders.
 
 
Depending upon your locale, this is iced coffee in the North, and white coffee in the South. Whatever you call it, it is better than the "café glacé" we used to crave from the Brazilian Coffee Shop in Alex.
  
The balconies are everywhere, and every building, old or new has got one. Some have cement walls, while others look like this one. This particular balcony was part of our penthouse room at the hotel and was replete with plants, a clothes hanger, and a chaise lounge. One had a fairly good view of Hanoi from this vantage point.
 
 
These humongous incense joss sticks are not ordinary; they smell like the "bakhour" we used to burn in Egypt to ward off the evil eye. I brought some back with me from the last trip, and enjoy it immensely.

 
And who can forget this sight? The wall which surrounded our garden in Alexandria was adorned with similar pieces of broken glass to deter thieves. This is very common in Viet Nam.
 
 
Sugar cane is available in Viet Nam just about anywhere, and you can often see people chewing on a section. What they have not yet learned to do, or at least I didn't see, is the art of sugar cane juice, which we loved so much in Egypt.
 
 
The trains and the railroad tracks; I remember when we lived in Alexandria, the rear of the house had balconies which faced the train tracks, just like these, and sometimes, I'd see kids playing or walking alongside them. And of course, the passing of the train was always a thrill for me, as I wondered what it was like to be inside. I made up for lost time; we traveled over 1500 miles by rail in Viet Nam.
  
This immediately struck me as déjà vu; looking down the stairs from the 5th floor where there is no elevator.
 
 
There are no closets in hotel rooms in Viet Nam; only very ornate armoires like this one, or larger. In my parents' room, there was an armoire similar to this one in color, but it was huge, with doors on both sides of a mirror which was in the center.
   
The chaise longues on Ha Long Bay are so reminiscent of the ones we used to have in Alexandria, though some had the actual seat made of very strong canvas instead of wooden slats.