Remembering Hanoi's autumn

According to many people, Trinh Cong Son visited the capital many times. One year after the country's reunification, in 1976, Trinh had his first trip to Hanoi to visit a musical talent who was a generation older than him - musician Van Cao. After that, Trinh Cong Son occasionally visited friends and interacted with admirers. But he still had not written a complete song dedicated to the capital...

In 1985, after a long business trip at the invitation of the Soviet Union Ministry of Culture, when flying back to Hanoi , a certain feeling made musician Trinh pick up his guitar, paper, and pen. And just like that, a stream of trembling, vague, clear, sobbing and passionate sounds flowed out like the autumn in Hanoi.

Illustration: Internet

The opening lyrics of the song are like the words of a singer sitting somewhere by West Lake, amidst the moss-covered rows of hundred-year-old tiled roofs: Hanoi in autumn, yellow rice plants, red-leafed banyan trees/ Lying side by side, old streets, old houses, dark brown tiled roofs…

And a graceful, beloved autumn Hanoi flows back in the song. It is the light scent of milk flowers in the wind, the scent of green rice wrapped in lotus leaves and the golden autumn surface of West Lake. A beautiful nature appears like a painting next to a human figure. Not seeing the face clearly, not knowing who it is, but still feeling wistful. It is because the scent of rice lingers on the small hand, on every step that passes by. Then the scene and the person melt into each other, a mist also knows how to miss, the birds flap their wings and fly up, also waking up the gentle autumn sun.

“Remembering Hanoi’s Autumn” is a short song, just like a three-stanza poem, each with four lines. Short, but with just a few musical strokes, it depicts the passionate, gallant autumn of the capital, depicts the human mood in a state of ambivalence, wanting to leave, wanting to hold on, wanting to break up and wanting to date.

If the first verse is a sketch capturing the autumnal soul of a beloved land with a thousand years of culture, then in the second half of the song, the author suddenly turns his gaze inward, a look full of mood and emotion: Hanoi in autumn, walking among people, my heart seems to silently ask, who am I missing? There will be a day, the autumn sky of Hanoi, answer me, there will be a day, each small street, answer me... Reading this verse carefully, you will see a slow four-beat of a quatrain, not long enough to hum, to chant, but not short enough to lack emotion. It is like the wandering footsteps of an artist along "the long streets rustling with the breeze" ( Country - Nguyen Dinh Thi), searching for the "beloved old streets of Hanoi" ( Advancing to Hanoi - Van Cao). A look, a question, a wait, a longing filled with wistfulness and contemplation.

Why is it said to be full of contemplation? Because musician Trinh Cong Son often leaves gaps with his lyrics. Readers and listeners project and feel according to their own personal feelings. Who do they miss, why do they miss without knowing who they are missing? And then, why does the autumn sky of Hanoi and each small street have to answer to the author? In fact, this short string of lyrics is an emotional thread with aesthetic, even philosophical meaning that the author saw in a moment. Don't explain, just see it as the mist of West Lake, like the wings of a bird landing and flying past in memory.

In a story, painter and musician Van Thao, son of the late musician Van Cao, said that the first person to hear musician Trinh Cong Son sing “Remembering Hanoi’s Autumn” was musician Van Cao. After listening, this talented senior musician praised the song but wondered why it didn’t end with the line: “There will be a day when each small road will answer me”. Also according to Mr. Van Thao, musician Trinh smiled and said that he added the two concluding lines: “Hanoi in autumn. Hanoi’s autumn. Remembering someone, to remember everyone” to express his admiration for the talent of Trinh and Van Cao!

When a work of art is born, it immediately belongs to the public. The above story is just an additional perspective on the work and the author. “Remembering someone” in Trinh’s memories could be Van Cao, could be someone or no one. Here there is a silence, a gap, a space… stopping and lingering, then opening up a surprising and stirring tone: “Remembering someone… to remember everyone”.

Everyone, meaning all of us were there, living with the author in the song. We went, saw, looked at, remembered someone and remembered everyone in a stunningly beautiful autumn day in the heart of the cultured and elegant Capital.

Nguyen Dynasty

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/van-hoa-du-lich-van-hoc-nghe-thuat/202509/nho-mua-thu-ha-noi-e0c0695/