Maestro Nguyễn Vĩnh Bảo
ĐỜN CA TÀI TƯ NAM BỘ
Music of the Amateurs.
I hope that the following text will prove both informative and entertaining to you who are attracted to Vietnamese music.
The music of Vietnam and its history are too complex to be described briefly.
The word Tài Tử, popular meaning designate someone learning or doing something for amusement, unskil. No one cary on it to earn living.
Although comparable to Western Chamber music, this type of music is of a stricly private nature to be heard by a small audience, performed by some professional, non professional musicians and singers for their enjoyment with a repertoire which includes mainly songs accompanied by one, two, three, four instruments such as Đờn Kìm (Nguyệt) (moon shaped-lute), the Đờn Tranh (17 stringed-Zither), the Đờn Cò (2 fiddle bow instrument), the Đờn Độc huyền (Bầu) (monochord).
Đờn Ca Tài Tử (Music of the Amateurs) is Modal music. It has 4 Modes and consisting of 20 main pieces.
Instruments tuning, there are several scales depending on the mode, composition or genre.
BẮC MODE expresses joyful, cheerful
6 pieces:
scale:
Hò xự xang xê cống
Do ré fa sol la
Lưu thuỷ trường
Phú lục chấn
Bình bán chấn
Xuân tình chấn
Tây Thi
Cổ bản
NHẠC LỂ MODE ritual ceremonies, funerals
7 pieces
scale:
Hò xự xang xê cống
Do ré fa sol la
Xàng xê
Ngủ đối thượng
Ngủ đối hạ
Long ngâm
Long đăng
Vạn giá
Tiểu khúc
NAM MODE
Nam xuân serenity
Nam ai grievances
scale:
Hò xư xang xê công
Do mi fa sol si
Đảo ngủ cung solemnity
Hò xự xang xê công
Do ré fa sol si
OÁN MODE, profound sadness.
scale:
17 stringed Anh Thuý Đàn Tranh
string:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Hò xê công Liêu xư xg xê công
Do sol si Do mi fa sol si
Tonic: LIÊU string 4.
Similar to the Western, Vietnamese music has 7 notes.
Hò xự xư xang xê cống công approximately correspond to Do ré mi fa sol la si.
Observations must be made about the pith of Vietnamese Mi and that of the Si.
The pitch of Vietnamese Mi varies between the Ré fharp and and that of the Mi,
The Si is between the Si flat and Si.
Đờn Ca Tài Tửi Nam Bộ used the Pentatonic scale (5 notes scale with no semi-tones).
Hò xự xang xê cống
Do ré fa sol la
Among 5 notes Do ré fa sol la, the HÒ (DO) is considered as Fundamental note (Reference-note) to which instruments are tuned.
The concept of absolute pitch is not taken into consideration by traditional musicians, the pitch of the HÒ varies from musician to musican, no fixed basic pitch to which the instrumments are tuned. A fact that gives a certain impression of false notes to Westerner’s ears which are accustomed to the absolute pitch of the tempered scale notes.
If the HÒ takes the pitch of DO, the scale will have the aspect and pitch as the black keys Do ré fa sol la on the piano
Among 5 notes HÒ xự xang xê cống
DO ré fa sol la
3 notes Hò xang xê are fixed notes.
Xự and cống, auxiliary notes.
Xự (ré) and Cống (la) raised to Xư (mi) and Công (si).
ORNAMENTATION
Ornaments (Vibrating, Tapping, Bending, Appogiature).
Ornamentation is the predominant feature of Vietnamese music.
Each embellished note gets on an emotional feeling for which there exist no adequate word in any language.
Vietnamese language depends on tones for understanding. Speaking Vietnamese with a poor accent but good tones is preferable to speaking with a good accent but no tones, a fact that has created problems to foreigners learning the languague.
A word with a rising tone cannot be sung with a falling melody, and vice-versa.
ma Má mà mạ mã mả
Ornaments, determine the Mode and nuance.
Tones, the intended meaning of the word.
PERFORMANCE
Vietnamese music is built on melodic construction and single note colorations. Dense in ideas, its presents a real opportunity for interpretation. Similar to Jazz music, in order to bring new viatlity to the melody, the musician remains free to introducre different types of variations on it according to his inspiration at the moment. Thus, each performance of a known piece so carried out takes on a different aspect.
Very often, Vietnamese listeners are not listening to a composition, but to the rendering of music by such or such musician.
IMPROVISED PRELUDE
Before interpreting a piece of music, the musician has the habit to play some improvisation phrases of his own invention, in free rhythm.
The prelude allows the musician to check again the pitch of the strings, finding for himself the inspiration, and creates a good atmosphere for the listeners. The improvised prelude is very appreciated by the connoisseurs.
July 8, 2018
Vinh Bao