The set of vinyl records which won German and French prizes.

Recognition of Nha nhac Hue city as an intangible world heritage by UNESCO has sparked renewed interest in the traditional music form.

He made the statement at a press conference recently, announcing the successful conclusion of a five year project to restore and promote Nha nhac Hue, the first intangible heritage of Vietnam to be recognized by UNESCO.

Khe, an honorary member of UNESCO’s International Music Council, stressed that Nha nhac Hue had achieved international recognition even earlier, but this had not garnered much public attention.

In 1969, a Nha nhac Hue set of records won the German Deutscher Schallplattenpreis prize – called the ECHO prize since 1992.

A year later, the music won the French Music Academy Award. It won both honors in the ethnology music category.

Making the cut

When doing his Ph.D in musicology at Sorbonne University in 1958, Khe was advised by Prof. Gaspardone – renowned for his understanding of Nha nhac Hue – to find in the French National Library two books; Uc Trai thi tap (Collection of poems by Nguyen Trai (1380– 1442), a Vietnamese Confucian scholar, politician, strategist and poet, who was also known under his style name Uc Trai) and Kham dinh Dai Nam hoi dien su le (the Vietnam’s first encyclopedia on various aspects including official ceremonies) to perfect his doctor thesis on Nha nhac Hue.

The documents provided valuable information on the value of this form of music and how it was used in the past royal courts, says Khe – then a post-graduate researcher – now a traditional music expert, who has helped bring Vietnamese music to the world stage.

But at that time, he had not listened to any records of the court music of Hue.

Khe’s search took him to the director of the French Radio Station’s archives at the time, who helped him find some records of Vietnamese Buddhist music inspired by royal music of the court.

The music discs were recorded by French correspondents who’d made radio programs about Vietnam during the colonial period.

The French radio station at that time considered only court music worth recording, Khe says.

In 1963, Khe and musician Nguyen Huu Ba were sponsored by the Berlin Institute of Music Research to record and video tape Hue royal court musicians playing Nha nhac Hue and Buddhist music in the former capital in an attempt to create a collection of sounds and images related to Hue royal court music, Khe recalls.

A foreign countess who went to Vietnam to visit her rubber plantation lent her high-quality audio recorder to assist the recording.

The record was first released in 1969 on Barenreiter Musicaphone label based in Germany then as Collection de L’Unesco disc in France.

In 2003, UNESCO Council evaluated Nha nhac Hue as ‘refined music,’ a national musical heritage, and for that reason, recognized it as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.”

One year later, Le Phuong, the Vietnamese consulate to UNESCO from 1979 to 1985, presented the Hue Relics Preservation Center a series of records of collected Hue royal court songs, which Phuong had bought in 1968 when he acted as the Vietnam Southern Liberation Front’s representative in Northern Europe.

A copy of the series has been made for storage while the master disc is being displayed at the Hue Royal Citadel Antique Museum.

The records carry royal court music, Buddhist music of Hue, a Hue song and an extract from Hue classical drama, performed by Hue royal court musicians in the exact royal court fashion, Khe said.

“It’s not only the content that makes it special, but also its origin and contribution,” says Khe.

Professor Dr. Tran Van Khe, one of the greatest masters of the traditional Vietnamese music. Nha nhac Hue in its most traditional form is a musical tribute to gods and kings. It was usually performed by highly skilled royal artistes at formal ceremonies and during religious holidays numbering about 100 each year. Many performances also had intricate court dances. The musicians and dancers wore elaborate costumes during their performances. A typical Nha nhac Hue orchestra included the ken bau (conical oboe), dan ty ba (pear-shaped lute with four strings), dan nguyet (moon-shaped two-string lute), dan tam (fretless lute with snakeskin-covered body and three strings), dan nhi (two-stringed vertical fiddle), sao truc (bamboo transverse flute), trong (drum played with sticks), and other percussion instruments. This traditional art was first introduced in the 13th century, and reached its peak under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). It symbolized the strength and longevity of the monarchy and was an indispensable part of all royal ceremonies including coronations and funerals. Nha nhac Hue performance with artists dressed in traditional attire.

Reported by Bui Ngoc Long