Carrying the luggage of love and burning passion along for folk music, The Dan, a fourteen-year-old boy, left his hometown (a countryside of Thanh Hoa Province) to Ha Noi. That boy was admitted and then attended the Erhu class at Vietnam Music School (now the Vietnam National Academy of Music). People’s Artist The Dan’s life was attached with to the ethnic musical instrument since then. During his school years, he also explored and learned from friends concerning other traditional musical instruments. As the matter of fact, People’s Artist The Dan is a true master in terms of playing Monochord, Zither, Sanxian, Pipa, Bamboo flute, etc. He won the Gold Medal at the National Music and Dance Festival in 1980 with the Erhu solo performance while still studying at the Academy. In 1982, he was a graduate of the first official course from the Department of Traditional Musical Instruments, Vietnam National Academy of Music and was appointed as a retained college lecturer. From then on, the People’s Artist The Dan has been continuing his journey with the sound of ethnicity as a teacher with the responsibility to spread the flame of love for traditional music to the descendants. Currently, he is the Head of the Erhu Department and the Department of National Orchestra Concert, Vietnam National Academy of Music.
The artist with a wholehearted love for art
Standing on the lecture hall, People’s Artist The Dan realized that in fact there were not so many musical compositions composed for Erhu in particular and for the Vietnamese ethnic orchestra in general. He was, therefore, always showing concerns for the way to get the compositions made especially for traditional musical instruments. By learning how to compose songs and instrumental combinations, People’s Artist The Dan wrote a number of musical works for the Erhu, arranged and air-mixed many musical compositions for solo performance of traditional instruments and folk orchestra’s symphonies, typically as: “Bè xuôi về bến”, “Nét đào ngày xuân”, “Âm vang núi rừng”, etc. Most of his compositions have won several awards, used to teach at professional music training schools and advertise and broadcast as well on television at home and abroad.
The People’s Artist The Dan’s strong desire is to honor and bring folk music to the flow of the world music as well as bring traditional art closer to the audience. He and his colleagues have pulled a lot all-nighters studying and experimenting in order that the sound of Vietnamese national instruments could be played in harmony with other instruments such as violin, cello, contrabass, etc. in the modern orchestra of the world. The sound of his instruments had stamped its unforgettable mark on the audiences through tons of outstanding performances: Erhu solo “Thăng Long ngàn năm hội ngộ (Thang Long thousand years of reunion)” along with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at the second “Asia – Europe” Music Festival; Erhu concert “Ước vọng (Desire)” with the international symphony orchestra and the one and only – conductor Le Phi Phi, etc. The classic musical compositions and internationally recognized melodies were presented by People’s Artist The Dan’s Vietnamese traditional erhu such as “Sambario” (Italian music), “Tình ca du mục (Love song of nomads)” (Russian music), “Top of the world” (American music), “Hana” (Japanese music), etc. Thereby, the sound of the unique Erhu increasingly became familiar and closer and also more popular with more and more audiences, especially young ones. Performances of the teacher (The Dan) and his students of the Traditional Musical Instrument Department, Vietnam National Academy of Music taking place at the walking street around Hoan Kiem lake on the weekend draw attentions to a large number of local lookers, music lovers and even foreign tourists as well.
The People’s Artist The Dan is playing Erhu with the Modern symphony orchestra
By innate talent, People’s Artist The Dan has invented a special instrument made from ivory bamboo and named it “Bamboo” instrument. It has the same shape and structure as the K’ni – an instrument of ethnic groups in Truong Son – Tay Nguyen. His “Bamboo” instrument is well made and delicate with every single detail, from the board, strings, bow stick, bamboo pieces, etc. The instrument consists of two parts which are able to be disassembled separately and connected together by a joint, it really looks like a knot of an ivory bamboo. He used to say humorously, “My bamboo instrument can do the tricks like unstick and stick together!” Along with Erhu, the “Bamboo” instrument itself carries Vietnamese soul, The Dan played an important part in introduce widely the traditional music of the nation to many other countries: England, France, America, Russia, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, etc.
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The People’s Artist The Dan with the “Bamboo” instrument made by himself
In the nearly fifty years of accompanying with folk music, The People’s Artist The Dan was honored to receive the title “Elite Artist” in 1997, and then came to the title “People’s Artist” in 2016 along with many certificates of merit at all levels and noble awards in the field of art.
Several foreign audiences raised questions that the origin of musical instruments like Erhu, Zither or Bamboo flute weren’t stemmed solely from Vietnam, they were also available in China, Japan or Korea. At that time, with the hometown melodies, the People’s Artist The Dan confidently responded to international friends that instruments were just a mean to convey emotions. But Vietnamese people play them with our own souls with and the sound of the instrument itself embracing the melody and rhymes of the Vietnamese quintessence, which is the Vietnamese character: ‘bold and unique, and cannot be mixed with other cultures in the world”. The journey of nearly half a century has passed and witnessed the whole-life dedication of the People’s Artist The Dan in order to preserve and spread the beauty of Vietnamese culture in national sound.
Minh Trang