Reviving a forgotten Vietnamese music culture

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After decades of neglect and suppression, why is an ancient genre of female-led Vietnamese sung poetry – once tainted by its associations with illicit sex and drugs – only now making a comeback?

Goldsmiths ethnomusicologist Dr Barley Norton explains all in a new multimedia report, bringing together history, video, audio and lyrics, for the Smithsonian Institution’s Folkways Magazine.

In the first half of the twentieth century, the refined tradition of Vietnamese sung poetry known as ca trù was a popular form of entertainment in ‘singing bars’.

At the end of the Franco-Vietnamese war in 1954, however, the communist government led by President Hồ Chí Minh closed the singing bars due to negative associations with drugs, prostitution and gambling, and for several decades ca trù singing was largely silenced.

Writing for the Smithsonian Folkways Magazine, Dr Norton explains how the ca trù tradition – which was once at risk of being lost forever – has recently begun to re-emerge.

“Revival initiatives supported by state-run organizations like the Vietnam Musicology Institute and international agencies like UNESCO and the Ford Foundation have increased prestige and participation,” explains Dr Norton.

"The Vietnamese state has established a network of ca trù clubs across the country and organized large national festivals."

Sustaining tradition without stifling innovation

There are concerns, however, that musicians’ skills and audiences’ historical knowledge are not sufficiently developed to sustain a lively ca trù music scene and that the preservation of ca trù as a symbol of national cultural heritage is threatening musical creativity.

“The challenge for the international and national agencies that have shaped the revival process is to find imaginative ways of facilitating the stewardship of ca trù traditions without stifling innovation and change,” Dr Norton adds.

Dr Barley Norton is an ethnomusicologist and filmmaker with research interests in the music and culture of Southeast Asia.

He is the director of Goldsmiths’ Asian Music Unit and the convenor of the MA in Music (Ethnomusicology), a programme that engages with musical practices across cultures.

Visit the Smithsonian Folkways Magazine website to find out more about Vietnamese ca trù.