The oldest dedicated Court Musician in Hue

Lu Hu Thi, the oldest musician playing Hue Royal Court Music and the last living member of the Hoa Thanh ceremonial orchestra in the Nguyen Dynasty, currently lives in a small house in Hue City.
Every night in his house, four generations of his family get together and play the country’s traditional music. The Hue Royal Court Music, now an intangible World Heritage, has been kept alive by his family for centuries.
In a meeting with a VOV reporter on the sidelines of the 2010 Hue Festival, Thi said he took up playing music when he was just four or five years old. At that time, his family was very poor, so his father wanted Thi and his brothers and sisters to learn music so they could earn a living.
“We couldn’t go to school because my family was very poor and everybody had their own work,” he said in a thick Hue accent, adding that his father asked him to learn the music at home and he started to learn to play the drum when he was about eight or nine years old.
During one of his shows in An Dinh palace, the Nguyen Royal family were impressed with his excellent performance and he became a member of the royal orchestra until king Bao Dai abdicated.
Lu Hu Thi is very famous in Hue for playing the two-chord fiddle which has helped him support his whole family.
The very first thing the old man does every day is to smoke a hand-rolled made cigarette. In the afternoon, he usually burns incense to worship his ancestors. He has kept this routine for nearly 80 years.
He has been associated with court music since he became a musician in the Hoa Thanh orchestra. He said it was very difficult to learn the extremely complicated royal rituals.
“We had to train very hard for the rituals. Sometimes we had to pose for an hour waiting for the King to arrive for the performance despite being bitten by ants and mice,” said Thi.
Although he is now over 100 years old, he teaches his children and grandchildren court music every day. He really wants to inspire everybody in his family to take up traditional music and said he will teach them all he knows.
In his free time, he usually goes to Duyet Thi Duong Royal Theatre within the grounds of the Hue Citadel to teach there. He said he will continue teaching as long as he is still healthy.
Lu Huu Ngoc, Thi’s eldest grandson, said that like his grandfather, he is interested in preserving their heritage and that his family always considers Court Music as hereditary music.