LookAtVietnam – Years on the road studying traditional music and culture have resulted in a second epic composition from musician Nguyen Minh Chau, this time with the theme of Dan Viet (Vietnamese People).

Epic: Musician Chau will release an epic composition, Dan Viet, to the Vietnamese people.

Chau began composing the epic in 2003 using traditional music and recorded it in Ha Noi and HCM City, for release soon.

Dan Viet

includes five parts, a symbol of generations of Vietnamese people with various happenings and sentiments. It has a mixture of folk, symphony and concerto, with help from musician Phan Cuong. Musical instruments, especially traditional ones, are recorded live from leading artists. Vocals are provided by Tung Duong, Five Lines (Nam Dong Ke) girlband and a group of children.

Chau released his first epic, Buc Tranh Non Nuoc (Picture on the Country), in 2003 after three years composing.

It includes many ditties with folk melodies.

“Both epics have traditional music,” he says. “Buc Tranh Non Nuoc features geological, historical and cultural characteristics of the three regions of Viet Nam; Dan Viet reflects Vietnamese people’s souls and innermost feelings during the fall and rise of the nation.”

Chau says that for six years he pondered how a musical work could express Vietnamese souls profoundly and truthfully.

His passion for music stemmed from childhood, and his first songs were folk melodies, he says. Later, with a chance to travel throughout the country and efforts in studying traditional music and culture, he gained more knowledge and refined his composing skills, tending towards epics.

“The epic genre needs musicians to practise for a long time, which requires effort and investment. That’s why few composers tackle it,” Chau says.

“However, an epic is a great work. It can express what a song can’t.”

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News