Quan họ
Singing quan họ at Hoan Kiem lake
Quan họ singing is a Vietnamese folk music style characterized both by its antiphonal nature, with alternating groups of female and male singers issuing musical challenges and responses, and by the fact that most of the songs in the repertoire deal with topics of love and sentimentality as experienced by young adults
Quan ho is recognised as the Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO in 2009.
The quan họ style originated in what is now Bắc Ninh Province and was first recorded in the 13th century, and has traditionally been associated with the spring festivals that follow the celebration of Tết (the Vietnamese New Year). Historically, the singing began on the evening before the festival, but today it is much more common for the singing to occur on the main day of the festival. In general, an initial "challenge phrase" (câu ra) from the known body of songs is sung by a pair of female singers, following which a pair of male singers will respond by selecting and singing a "matching phrase" (câu đối), which must repeat the melody of the challenge phrase. Once they are finished, the order is reversed, and the men will issue their own challenge phrase with a different melody. While in the past the singing was unaccompanied, it is common today for the singers to be accompanied by instruments, whether traditional Vietnamese instruments or modern ones such as electric keyboards.
Quan họ singing in festivals
Quan họ singing in festivals traditionally began either at the communal-ritual house or at the Buddhist temple as early as the night before the main festival day. Nowadays, only a few major festivals continue that tradition, while most villages carry out the singing on the main day. Visitors who channel their eye and tune their ear to quan họ singing at the festivals these days cannot help but notice several salient features shared by many quan họ singing activities throughout the region. Some aspects of traditional quan họ singing as it took place before 1945 have disappeared, either partly or wholly.
Following the textual content of quan họ songs within the festival reveals a striking contrast between the open, public setting and the intimate characteristic of the songs. Virtually all songs heard in festivals express personal subjects such as unfulfilled love, expectation, longing, and intimacy. Most researchers and even a good number of quan họ singers have steadfastly and rightly denounced any personal attachment between male and female singers, and insisted that mutual attraction is purely "musical" (Nguyễn Văn Phú et al 1962 and Đặng Văn Lung et al 1976). However, unfortunate stories of broken marriages and violent eruption of jealousy are not unreal either. Quan họ singers do not always try to hide the fact that they long for living together as husband and wife. Songs such as "Love But Resentfully Without Marriage," "Wish We Lived Together," and "If We Loved Each Other, We Ought To Marry Each Other" express a sentiment of longing commonly known to many quan họ singers.One of the quan họ characteristics that have endured through time is the proper verbal and poetic introduction to each and every tune. Quan họ 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 she/he goes on to recite the verses of the song. The poetic introduction also provides listeners with the basic content of the song text, which otherwise can be difficult to follow in singing. Not only that, the rhetoric used in the introduction is so polished that it gives the impression of a theatrical act. As a result, singers often try to imitate the speech tonality and pronunciation of official media announcers, even though quan họ researchers have asserted that speeches in the quan họ region vary from one village to another. The quan họ activities as they are carried out today reflect to a great extent the efforts of the Vietnamese socialist government to preserve and make use of what it perceives to be part of the people's national cultural heritage. Dialectically and ironically, the global Marxism introduced to Vietnam has since heightened the Vietnamese leadership's awareness of a Vietnamese distinctiveness, which privileges all the more a political assertion over cultural manifestation. In the next two chapters I will discuss the perception of Vietnamese identity and the institutional mechanism employed to implement and reinforce such a perception with regard to the quan họ tradition. |
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