Musician Hoang Van's collection is recognized as a world documentary heritage: This is a special type of heritage that Vietnam has never had before.

For the first time, the compositional "fortune" of a Vietnamese musician is included in the world documentary heritage, contributing to promoting and spreading Vietnamese culture across five continents.

Performance Reminiscence, Homeland Choir, Choir Leader Vu Thang Loi, Rouen Conservatory Orchestra (France), Conductor Claude Brendel, March 31, 2019

Collection formed over half a century

According to Dr. Vu Thi Minh Huong, expert of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program (MOW), Vice President of the UNESCO MOW Regional Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP), Member of the National Cultural Heritage Council, to date, Vietnam has owned 4 World Documentary Heritages and 7 Asia-Pacific Documentary Heritages recognized by UNESCO, including the collection of musician Hoang Van.

  The UNESCO recognition of the Collection of musician Hoang Van is not only the pride of the musician's family but also the common pride of the country and people of Vietnam. This documentary heritage will contribute to raising public awareness of documentary heritage, spreading the cultural, historical and humanistic values ​​of Vietnam to the world, thereby enhancing the image and position of the country and people of Vietnam in the international community.

(Dr. VU THI MINH HUONG)

“The nomination dossier is a special type of heritage that Vietnam has never had before, which is a collection of personal archives of a musician collected, preserved and maintained by his family, not managed by a state agency, and has applied information technology to promote its value widely. The content of the nomination dossier is extremely unique, rich and clearly demonstrates international significance, has a profound professional influence, is wide in scope domestically, regionally and internationally, and has spread to the community at home and abroad to know the quintessence of traditional Vietnamese music,” said Dr. Vu Thi Minh Huong.

Dr. Minh Huong also believes that the collection of archives of musician Hoang Van becoming a world documentary heritage will be a wake-up call for other artists' families to preserve and promote the value of works, masterpieces and personal documents of artists, artisans..., serving research, teaching and contributing to promoting Vietnamese culture to friends around the world.

An interesting story behind this journey is that Dr. Le Y Linh, the musician's eldest daughter, was the one who represented the family in making the nomination file for Documentary Heritage for UNESCO's Memory of the World Program.

After musician Hoang Van passed away in 2018, she collected, restored, and systematized all of the musician's works with her younger brother, conductor Le Phi Phi.

“I have a friend who is a historical researcher. When I shared that we were collecting, classifying and analyzing the musician's massive body of work, he told me to look into the UNESCO Memory of the World Program. Then I wrote a letter to Professor Luu Tran Tieu, former Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), who was a contemporary of my father and also knew my father, and is currently the Chairman of the National Cultural Heritage Council, to talk about my intention to build a dossier. He introduced me to Dr. Vu Thi Minh Huong, and everything started from there…”, Dr. Le Y Linh shared.

Also according to Ms. Linh, formed over more than half a century, the collection was started in the 2000s with about 100 recordings from VOV; about 100 other recordings were donated by many fans from 2018 to present, bringing the total number of recordings to about 200; about 100 printed music copies donated by individuals and organizations in 2019; more than 100 videos donated by VTV and artists.

In addition, about 300 handwritten manuscripts and about 50 printed music sheets belonged to Hoang Van's personal archive and never left the family until they were transferred to the National Archives Center III in 2022.

“In 2020, after comparing different sources and documents, the family listed and classified them to form a collection. All the works were catalogued, digitized and uploaded to the multilingual website https://hoangvan.org . The website has achieved more than one million visits by the end of 2024. The paper manuscripts have been deposited at the National Archives Center III since 2022,” said Ms. Linh.

To collect documents, Dr. Le Y Linh opened each carton, flipped through each stained page folded twice or thrice in a book, called, texted, wrote letters to agencies and fans, asked for everything from his autobiography to interviews and notes about the musician; collected articles, printed books, tapes, discs, soft files at libraries and archives...

“There are collectors who gave me the only printed copy he had, some gave us music, manuscripts, books… that they still kept after more than half a century, or sent us audio files that we thought would never be found again, so that the collection became an asset of today. We continue to search and restore to promote the values ​​of the collection in the future,” the daughter of the late musician confided.

Handwritten music sheet

Promote Vietnamese culture to the world

According to the assessment of the International Advisory Council of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program, Vietnam's dossier fully meets international criteria with outstanding values.

The collection is well preserved and highly accessible through a multilingual digital platform (https:// hoangvan.org), contributing to spreading Vietnamese cultural values ​​to the international community.

The collection of archives of musician Hoang Van includes 700 works, composed by the musician from 1951-2010. With about 1000 items, the collection includes music scores, audio recordings, handwritten or printed manuscripts, videos, articles, film music, interviews, books and music publications.

Formed and developed over six decades, the collection is not only a collection of valuable works bearing the mark of musician Hoang Van, but also reflects one of the historical turning points of Vietnamese music, the changes of the country and the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people through many periods.

With a harmonious combination of European classical music and folk music, his works not only have artistic value but are also valuable documents for research on Vietnamese culture, society and music history.

Symphony poem "Citadel of the Fatherland" by musician Hoang Van

The collection of documents is also a valuable source of scientific information, providing valuable information about a key period in the formation and development of contemporary Vietnamese music, as well as Vietnamese society in general.

Moreover, the collection is also a useful reference tool for researchers on the history of music in Vietnam, countries in the region and international researchers.

At the same time, the collection of documents is also considered to have international influence. With the language of academic music, artists around the world can easily access and perform the works of musician Hoang Van, discovering a music rich in Vietnamese cultural identity, with high artistic value, contributing to enriching the world's classical music treasure.

The collection of documents is complete, rich in content value and diverse in materials, creating favorable conditions for access, search and research, and is a typical example of preserving and promoting the value of the documentary heritage of an artist family.

Dr. Le Y Linh said that some important documents can be mentioned, such as the handwritten manuscript of “Reminiscence”, probably from the early 1960s, and the score of “Reminiscence” recorded by musician Hoang Luong in 1976, which is widely used today; the image of the Music Collection that won the First National Arts Congress in 1955, in which “Ho keo phao” won first prize, when musician Hoang Van had gone to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing (China); the recording in 1959-1960, probably the first of “Thanh dong to quoc”, one of the first poetic symphonies of Vietnam, performed by the orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing…

While many scientific or academic art documents are often specialized and difficult to access for the general public, the works of musician Hoang Van have a special vitality.

His compositions have become teaching materials at professional music training institutions, music schools and conservatories, and have always appeared close to the public in national and international professional music competitions, as well as amateur music movements.

The Department of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) affirmed that the collection of archives of Musician Hoang Van being recognized as a World Documentary Heritage is an important milestone in the work of protecting documentary heritage (in the field of music) owned by families and individuals, contributing to affirming the practicality and effectiveness of the Law on Cultural Heritage 2024, being a driving force for protecting and promoting the value of documentary heritage, contributing to affirming the position of Vietnamese cultural heritage on the regional and world map.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/day-la-loai-hinh-di-san-dac-biet-viet-nam-chua-tung-co-127694.html