Composer Hoang Van (1930-2018)
Composer Hoang Van’s collection comprises more than 700 musical works composed between 1951 and 2010. With approximately 1,000 items, the collection includes music scores, recordings, handwritten or printed manuscripts, videos, articles, film music, interviews, books, and musical publications. The collection deeply reflects the transformations of the nation and the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people through various periods. With a harmonious blend of European classical music and traditional Vietnamese music, Hoang Van’s works not only possess artistic value but also serve as precious materials for research in culture, society, and the history of Vietnamese music.
Beyond its significance in Vietnam, the collection also holds international influence. With its academic musical language, artists around the world can easily access and perform Hoang Van’s works, allowing international classical music audiences to discover a genre rich in Vietnamese cultural identity and artistic value, thereby contributing to the enrichment of the global classical music treasury.
The symphonic poem “The Citadel of the Fatherland” by Composer Hoang Van
According to the assessment of the International Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, Vietnam’s nomination dossier fully meets the international criteria with outstanding values. The collection is well preserved and highly accessible through a multilingual digital platform (https://hoangvan.org), contributing to the dissemination of Vietnamese cultural values to the international community.
UNESCO’s inscription of Composer Hoang Van’s collection is not only a source of pride for his family but also a shared pride of the nation and the Vietnamese people. This documentary heritage will help raise public awareness of documentary heritage, spread Vietnamese cultural, historical, and humanistic values to the world, and thereby enhance the image and position of Vietnam and its people in the international community.
V.H