Using technology to export Xoan singing to the world

"Falling in love" with Xoan

At the end of March 2024, researcher and musician Nguyen Quang Long happily announced that the project "Introducing the heritage of Xoan singing music " by him and his colleagues had been completed and would be posted on the YouTube channel "Folk songs & Traditional music" - a media channel managed by him.

The project “Introducing the heritage of Xoan singing music” includes 16 ancient Xoan songs, recorded in the traditional performance style of ancient times, of which 3 songs belong to the worship singing stage and 13 songs belong to the qua cach stage - the central and most important stage of Xoan singing. In addition, the crew also made a clip called “Returning to the Ancestral Land to Listen to Xoan”, recording a conversation with the artists of Xoan Thet guild. The images were recorded at 4 relics directly related to Xoan singing: Lai Len temple (Xoan Phu Duc ward), Thet communal house (Xoan Thet ward), Kim Doi communal house (Xoan Kim Doi ward), An Thai communal house (Xoan An Thai ward) of Phu Tho province.

Using technology to export xoan seeds to the world picture 1 — The Xoan Thet guild artists perform Xoan singing at Thet communal house.

Sharing about the project, Nguyen Quang Long said that he has a “fateful relationship” with Xoan singing, when in 2013 he made a 2-DVD set “Hat Xoan Phu Tho - 26 ancient Xoan songs” released by the Music Publishing House (Dihavina). Having come into contact with Xoan, he believes that this type of music has its own unique features, if Quan Ho is “charming”, Xam is “amazing”, then Xoan singing is “simple and close”.

After that trip of “falling in love” with Xoan, he continued to quietly accompany Xoan troupes in promoting and honoring this musical heritage. Also in the past 10 years, many units have had works and projects to preserve and promote the value of Xoan singing heritage. However, he still “felt that there was a lack of a product with the characteristic style of Xoan singing”. Therefore, it can be said that this project has been cherished by him for a long time.

“What I care about is the real value of heritage instead of superficiality and crowds. There are music trends that many people are interested in, but I see that there are many talented people doing it already, if I join in, I won’t contribute anything good. So I will do what traditional music is still weak in and I see as necessary, like Xam singing, Kieu poetry singing and now Xoan singing” - musician Nguyen Quang Long acknowledged.

Explaining why the project chose Xoan Thet ward, Mr. Long said that this is one of the four original Xoan ward with a particularly important position in forming, nurturing and promoting the art of Xoan singing. Xoan Thet ward has many prestigious artisans, born in families with a long tradition of Xoan singing. This place also clearly shows the inheritance and continuity when many generations regularly participate in performing activities. The group of elderly artisans aged 60 and over includes Meritorious Artisans: Bui Thi Kieu Nga, Nguyen Thi Nga, Le Thi Nhan; and artisan Nguyen Van Thuyet. Younger artisans include artist Nguyen Van Tuan, who is over 40 years old; especially drummer Nguyen Minh Tri, who is only 19 years old this year...

Search for ancient Xoan

In the two years of implementing the project, Nguyen Quang Long has traveled to the ancient Xoan land dozens of times. In addition to the Phu Tho Xoan singing artists accompanying him, he also received support from many other individuals and organizations. From there, he is confident that he has chosen the best things possible to include in the project. At the same time, the crew is also very "careful" when using Xoan singing without accompaniment, only drums and lyrics. The recording is done with a single microphone, not in the "new way". Because if we separate each person into separate tracks and then combine them together, the product will bring a very "electronic" feeling and no longer retain the intact emotions as in the ancient performance space of the village communal house.

“Recording ancient Xoan singing requires the most natural sounds, giving the audience the feeling of listening to the artists sing directly, that is our wish when carrying out this project” - crew member - musician and singer Phan Thanh Cuong shared.

Nguyen Quang Long added that this project is completely different from previous Xoan singing projects, as it was carried out with only one Xoan troupe. Previous projects often had the participation of all four ancient Xoan troupes: Phu Duc, Kim Doi, Thet and An Thai. The characteristic of folk music is the variation, it can be the same song, the same name, the same melody as well as the lyrics, but in each Xoan troupe there may be some unique differences. Therefore, the project only selected one Xoan troupe to contribute to creating a complete and unique song fund in the most important singing stage - hat qua cach. At the same time, this is also the first time the full set of 13 qua cach performed by a Xoan troupe has been widely introduced.

“We performed all 13 pieces performed by a Xoan troupe to create unity. With this project, we hope to bring standard Xoan pieces following the old style, so that the public can enjoy or exploit them as research materials,” said Mr. Long.

Spreading a precious heritage

According to the production team, the project's components will be uploaded to YouTube one by one from now until the end of March 2024. After being posted, the project immediately received positive feedback from Xoan wards. However, Nguyen Quang Long still expressed regret that the project only stopped at one Xoan ward. "The project is entirely implemented with socialized resources, so the budget is very limited. If all four Xoan wards each have a project like this, it will bring a more complete and comprehensive view of the Xoan singing heritage," he said.

Using technology to export xoan seeds to the world picture 2 — Music researcher Nguyen Quang Long and Xoan Thet artists share about the project "Introducing the heritage of Xoan singing music".

Musician Nguyen Quang Long said he was willing to share his project in the spirit of respecting the creative work of authors and artists. Because he also wanted more people to contribute their efforts to the preservation, promotion of values, and spreading Xoan singing to the community. He also did not expect this project to create a wave or anything like that, but the final result would be for the public to evaluate.

“Xoan singing was born to serve spiritual life and is closely associated with village and community elements, so this project does not aim to serve the musical needs in the daily life of the majority. Bringing Xoan singing to the internet makes access to Xoan singing no longer bordered, no longer limited by geographical distance. The project has created opportunities for those who want to learn about traditional Vietnamese music anywhere to discover a precious heritage; so that everyone has another reliable channel to exploit, to spread Xoan singing to the world ” - musician Nguyen Quang Long reaffirmed.

Khanh Ngoc

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