Go up high and shine

(QBĐT) - Musician Trinh Cong Son left this temporary world on the first day of April (2001). At this time, according to the lunar calendar, although the beginning of summer is still a long way away, everywhere the golden sunlight is shining like a gentle lullaby connecting spring to summer: "You enter summer, the sun shines high above/And every spring is absent-minded with new love" (I lull you to sleep).

Life is finite, death is uncertain. Living in this turbulent world, Trinh Cong Son certainly did not know, did not prepare for the day of his departure, but the fact that he unexpectedly left on the spring equinox made me believe that he was just on a long journey to go up high to light up his immortal songs, continuing to be a street singer "singing out premonitions" from dreams imbued with humanity about love, about human destiny, homeland and even about peace, as he once confided to everyone.

Image of musician Trinh Cong Son honored on Google search page in Vietnam (Screenshot)

Like other Vietnamese people, I always sympathize with Trinh's music, because in every emotion of mine, I find in his songs fables, gentle, soulful philosophies, but no less passionate, earnest about life. With my ability, I can only listen, sympathize and admire Trinh Cong Son's music, but cannot discuss it; however, his music is a happy and sublime "marriage" with something I know: Lyrics and the way to use lyrics in music.

Most of the researchers and artistic friends of musician Trinh Cong Son believe that the lyrics in his songs are themselves wonderful love poems, accordingly, besides the title of respected musician, they also affectionately honor him as a poet of the 20th century (1), moreover, musician Van Cao also called him a poet. And it is these poems-lyrics that I can rely on to express some superficial feelings about a certain aspect, for example: Sunshine in Trinh Cong Son's songs.

In the lyrics of poet Trinh Cong Son, the symbol "sunshine" appears a lot, "densely in 52/288 songs, accounting for 22.8% and becoming a unique and multi-meaning artistic symbol" (2). Musician Trinh Cong Son skillfully used the word "sunshine" in the lyrics of his songs, with many of its grammatical functions, very soft and natural: Combined with nouns (sunny river, sunny old garden...), with adjectives (full of sunshine, lonely sunshine...), with verbs (sunny sunshine, jealous sunshine...)(3)... These are diverse ways of metaphor, comparison, personification..., contributing to creating unique and individual musical values ​​and effects, making the symbol of sunshine in Trinh Cong Son's lyrics also have all the emotional levels of love, hate, joy, anger like humans, full of moods, but still very optimistic about life: Even though tears fall, my heart is not very sad/Startled awake, oh, the sun is up (Lonely life).

Only statistically analyzing and directly analyzing the symbol of “sunshine” in Trinh Cong Son’s lyrics from a reference perspective in order to compare and link with other natural phenomena that permeate his songs as cultural symbols: Sky, sun, rocks, mountains, sea, river, day, season…, is a necessary scientific operation and has the discovery value of linguists. When listening to Trinh Cong Son's songs from an emotional and enjoyable perspective, most of his songs that I know, whether gentle or intense, all radiate sunshine to the listener, radiate sunshine to life, although these songs do not mention physical sunshine but rather he has "sun-ized" his desire for love: "Sometimes the late afternoon sun has not yet risen, but a flower suddenly turns purple" (Afternoon alone passing the street), or: "Every day I choose to sit still/See clearly my homeland, sit and think about myself/I suddenly know why I live/Because the country needs a heart (Every day I choose a joy).

We have heard a lot about the circumstances of Trinh Cong Son's composition of the song "Mother's Legend". The image that inspired the musician to compose the song "Mother's Legend" was the photo of Nguyen Thi Suot, the heroic mother from Bao Ninh's hometown "the sand dunes of Quang Binh at noon" (To Huu) displayed in the provincial museum, with her hair flying in the wind, "fearless under the rain of bombs" , bravely rowing a boat to take soldiers across the river, which the musician saw for the first time (4).

Obviously, the image of the legendary mother that the author had to "stay up all night remembering/every story of the past" to build in this famous song is the result of generalizing from life, from the example of heroic Vietnamese mothers who silently sacrificed their lives for their husbands and children, for the people, for the country, condensed into lyrics, rhythms, and from there radiated immense sunshine, thus stirring up many generations of listeners: "Mother is the wind that winds around/In my life, I am silent/In the peaceful song/Mother is the fragile wind/Mother is the water that is full/Float away my sadness/For life to be forever pure/Mother sinks under hardships...

It seems that, besides the optimism, strength, and symbol of sunshine in Trinh Cong Son's songs, in many places we can also see a hint of Zen flavor, because in each lyric we hear a very close resemblance to Buddha's teachings on how to live: A person with personality is like the sun that can shine in all directions, a person's personality is warm and kind, only then will it be useful to life and to people. That is also the closeness and naturalness to the majority of Vietnamese people who listen to Trinh's music.

Up to now, it has been eighteen years since musician Trinh Cong Son made his long journey to the sky to light up the sun, and Trinh's music still resonates close and warm around us. It seems that the farther the musician goes into the past, the more radiant and irreplaceable his music becomes. Recently, on the occasion of Trinh Cong Son's 80th birthday (February 28, 2019), Google search in Vietnam respectfully honored the musician on its homepage as a musician with important musical contributions to the community and to humanity, with a portrait sketch of him with his familiar, spirited guitar.

Musician Trinh Cong Son is the first Vietnamese to appear on the familiar logo of one of the world's largest information search engines. This honor is a joy for those who love Trinh's music, but it does not surprise us too much, because we previously knew that he was the first Southeast Asian to be awarded the prestigious music award "For a peaceful world - World Peace Music A ward" (2004) by the United Nations. Trinh Cong Son's songs were translated, widely distributed abroad and widely received by the public; in addition, some European countries such as Italy, Canada, Germany also built Trinh Cong Son libraries... He is truly a Vietnamese musician with a wide international influence.

So, I suddenly realized that, besides the pure Vietnamese musical values ​​of musician Trinh Cong Son that each person, in their own way, passionately enjoys and feels, perhaps from now on, I have to practice listening more to the contemporary nature in his immortal songs.

(1) Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong, Prof. Hoang Ngoc Hien, Prof. Duong Viet A….

(2),(3) Bich Hanh: "Trinh Cong Son, a speck of dust in the eternal world" - Encyclopedia Publishing House - 2011.

(4) Musician Dan Huyen, “Dan Tri” newspaper , issue 7, March 8, 2014.

Source: https://baoquangbinh.vn/van-hoa/202504/len-cao-thap-nang-2225323/