Seven generations of Ca Tru singing

The small house in a narrow alley in Thuy Khue Street, north of Hanoi, has always been resounding with sounds of drums, castanets and sing voices of Ca Tru, an ancient genre of chamber music. It has become a popular place for visitors at home and abroad.
Artist Nguyen Van Mui, 80 years old, has been living there for all his life, and so did his seven generations of ancestors who have been closely associated with this genre of music. His clan has contributed a number of artists to the Court music band. His grand mother, Nguyen Thi Tuyet, was in charge of the Court’s music and dances under the Nguyen Dynasty.
Ca Tru and Quan Ho (love duet) folk music have been recognised by UNESCO as the World’s Cultural Heritage. In the concert to honour Quan Ho and Ca Tru artists, the whole family of artist Nguyen Van Mui were there to perform and made good impressions on the audience.
Nguyen Van Mui is considered as the best Ca Tru artist who plays the accompanying tomtom at the present time. His beats have always been a good guidance for the other musicians to follow.
His sons, artists Nguyen Van Khue and Nguyen Van Tam are professional at playing Dan Day – three-stringed lute with rectangular body which is another special musical instrument of Vietnam that creates a deep sound to blend into the voice of the singer.
His daughter Nguyen Thi Hoa is an excellent student of People’s Artist Quach Thi Ho, the leading artist in Ca Tru. Hoa has a beautiful voice, great skills as well as a style that can be considered as norms for Ca Tru music that have earned her various awards in Singapore, China, Japan, etc.
Teaching children to play Ca Tru is one of the way to preserve the art.
There was a period when Ca Tru was fallen into ignorance, but Nguyen Van Mui’s family had kept on practicing and keeping the tradition. Until the end of the 80s, Ca Tru made the start of its resurgence, and was later recognised by UNESCO.
In 1987, Nguyen Van Mui set up the Thai Ha Club for Ca Tru singing, so that he can transfer the music to the young generations. By now, he has participated in trainings for at least 20 other clubs across the country.
Nguyen Van Mui’s grand children, Nguyen Kieu Anh and Nguyen Thu Thao are now studying at high school, but already are showing potential signs for a singing career.
They started learning Ca Tru when they were only six years old, very hard for them at that age as Ca Tru singing requires the singer to practice every word, every sentence and every tune until perfection.
After several years of learning, the two young singers have learnt many old tunes as well as songs composed by their own family members. They have performed at various festivals and have won many prizes at traditional singing contests.
Currently, the Thai Ha Club retains 30 traditional Ca Tru songs, and is researching into the recovery of many other old songs which were almost disappeared due to the years of getting lost. The club is famous nationally and internationally, and has been touring many countries to perform the art.
They have received applause wherever they give performance, which in turn, is a reflection of the fact that Ca Tru deserves to be a world cultural heritage. The Thai Ha club has been playing its role of keeping Ca Tru alive and developing it.
Ca tru is an ancient genre of chamber music featuring female vocalists, with origins in northern Vietnam. Ca Tru is inscribed on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2009. The most widely known and widely performed type of Ca Tru involves only three performers: the female vocalist, lute player and a spectator (who also takes part in the performance
The female singer provides the vocals whilst playing her phach (small wooden sticks beaten on a small bamboo platform to serve as percussion). She is accompanied by a man who plays the dan day, a three-stringed lute with rectangular body used almost exclusively for the Ca Tru genre.
Last is the spectator (often a scholar or connoisseur of the art) who strikes a trong chau (the accompanying tomtom) in praise (or disapproval) of the singer’s performance, usually with every passage of the song. The way in which he strikes the drum shows whether he likes or dislikes the performance, but he always does it according to the beat provided by the vocalists’ phach castanet percussion.