Peace in ancient art

During the day, Vuong Tu Ngoc works as an editorial chief for a TV quiz show; at night she plays phach (percussion) and sings ca tru (ceremonial singing) working as a ca tru teacher.
On other nights, she dons a traditional silk ao dai (traditional long dress) and wears her hair in khan vanh day (a rolled cloth headdress) while performing on stage.
For the past ten years she has performed with passion and enthusiasm.
"Ca tru has brought quietness to my soul, tranquillity to my mind and variety to my feelings," Ngoc, 25, says.
Ngoc was exposed to the art at 13, when her father began researching ca tru at Co Dam village in the central province of Ha Tinh. At the time, she decided to learn the art from village artisan Phan Thi Mon.
Drawn by the mysterious melodies, she travelled 30km from her hometown to the village to learn the most basic singing skills.
When she became a student of at the Culture College in Ha Noi, she joined the UNESCO Ca Tru Centre where she met people who shared her passion for traditional chamber music.
In 2007, she took part in a ca tru national festival and won a silver medal.
"Ngoc has a beautiful voice and is talented," says Nguyen Canh Tung, the club’s consultant. "Though she works at our centre as a volunteer, she is among the best singers we have."
Ngoc says she was initially drawn to learning ca tru out of curiosity.
"The way of performing ca tru is unique with three performers: the female vocalist, a lute player and a spectator (who also takes part in the performance)," she says.
The female singer provides the vocals while playing her phach (small wooden sticks beaten on a small bamboo box to serve). She is accompanied by a man who plays the dan day, a long-necked, three-string lute used almost exclusively for ca tru.
Lastly comes the spectator (often a scholar or connoisseur of the art) who strikes a trong chau (praise drum) in appreciation (or disapproval) of the singer’s performance, usually with every passage of the song. The way he strikes the drum is a commentary on the performance, but he always does it according to the beat provided by the vocalists’ phach. "But when I study further the art, I understand what people often mean by nhan tinh the thai (human feelings, social behaviour and morality)," Ngoc says.
And after many years practising, she has realised that ca tru is an excellent way to escape hustle and bustle of daily life.
But ca tru has also brought her sorrow. Classes at the centre are often full, but many students drop out before completing the course.
"I tried to find out why students tend to lose interest after just a few lessons and I was sad to find out that many come to learn ca tru because they thought that they would become famous quickly and earn lots of money by performing the traditional art," Ngoc says.
Sometimes the centre fails to get enough students for the higher course – either through lack of interest or because they are not good enough. However, the centre’s managing board and Ngoc, working as an administrative officer, continue to promote the course to attract students, and they have invited leading artisans to give lectures.
Since its establishment in 2006, the centre has held four basic ca tru courses and trained about 40 students.
Ngoc herself was in two minds about continuing with ca tru in 2007 because she could not earn enough money to make ends meet. However, she subsequently landed an editorial job for a TV quiz show at Hoang Gia Media Group.
The price of doing two jobs though has taken its toll on her art, which she has less time to practise. Her personal life has suffered, and she now feels more tense when performing before a live audience.
However, every time she decides to walk away from ca tru, she says the songs and the melodies always pull her back, bringing harmony to her life.
"I think ca tru is a hard art form. It has both academic and folk features. In order to sing a song or a melody well, the singer should understand the meaning of the words, the circumstances under which the words were written and the people who composed the songs," she says.
"Ancient melodies are quite challenging for young singers. Yet they are not too difficult if the singer understands how to sing them, and the rules of beating the phach, which are well-defined very clear and logical."
Ngoc believes the fact that many artists cannot live on the money they make from performing ca tru is the main reason the art is on the verge of dying out.
"The few ca tru artisans we have are getting older and we should act before it is too late," she says.
Ngoc confesses that she struggles hard to juggle working on the business quiz show Chia Khoa Thanh Cong (Key to Success), which is broadcast every Thursday night on Viet Nam Television’s VTV1 channel, and working at the ca tru centre.
"The quiz show is hard work and requires a high degree of accuracy," she says, "Sometimes it feels like I am a ca tru artist studying for an MBA."