Sunny…

There are many songs written about rain, but very few songs written about sunshine. The sunshine here is the morning sunshine, beautiful sunshine, the sunshine that everyone needs in life... sunshine!

I also had days waiting for the sun. The song “Nang len xom ngheo” by the late musician Pham The My left an indelible mark on me: This is the “sunshine” that a poor neighborhood really needs, warming the children herding buffaloes, people are no longer bothered by the rain. The sun peeks out from the clouds, the fruits seem to have a chance to breathe, the young shoots emerge, the countryside seems to awaken… that is the image of the countryside of the old years, far away from the city, lying quietly and desolate but not lonely, peaceful since 1950 and there many village cultures were born, and customs were formed.

“Nang len xom ngheo” has a Rumba melody, but people are used to singing it to the Bolero rhythm, which is not wrong, because that is the habit of “country” people who like Bolero!

At the beginning, in the Prélude (opening piece; self-played piece): “The sun is up! The sun is up! The sun is up! The sun is up, my brothers!”... Composer Pham The My made the listeners pay attention, it seemed that the poor neighborhood had been darkened by the sky, the sun had disappeared for many days, now that the sun was shining, people were shouting: The sun is up!

The song was released in 1950, published by Tinh Hoa Mien Nam. It seems you sold the copyright to Tinh Hoa? During the days I visited you in District 4, I forgot to ask you, and there weren't many original copies left, so I borrowed a photocopy.

“Nang len xom ngheo” is so beautiful! At that time, as well as now, it would be difficult to find a similar song? Try singing it again, listening to it again, and try to imagine the poor neighborhood where everyone had a time of happiness together under the morning sunlight, the afternoons watching birds flying back to their nests, the rainy nights sitting by the lamp studying… those years seemed peaceful and happy throughout life: “This is my poor hometown neighborhood when the sun rises/ The sweet scent of rice makes the love of the countryside more affectionate.

A pair of yellow butterflies fluttered in affection/ And a village girl absent-mindedly dreamed of love…” (Sunshine over the poor neighborhood). And a sunny Boléro by Lam Phuong, that is “Beautiful Southern Sunshine”, a love song that touched the hearts of people during the war: “Here the sky is vast, the morning sunlight peeks over the cliff/ Gradually spreading to the green fields…”.

And it is also difficult to compare “Sunshine in the Poor Neighborhood” and “Beautiful Sunshine in the South”. Each poem has its own beauty, but in general, there is the presence of rice plants. “Sunshine in the Poor Neighborhood” is a “scenery description” essay wrapped up in a neighborhood, while “Beautiful Sunshine in the South” “describes the feelings” of a fertile Southern land that brightens up with a dawn that dispels the darkness: “… Thousands of shadows of night have faded/ The sun rises to illuminate life/ Our village is now radiant…”.

The musicians of the post-1954 armistice period often wrote their first compositions about rice plants, and in fact, it was the music of rice plants that made the villagers appreciate music and love the rice plants that they had plowed and hoeed deeply. And after peace, old and new musicians sought other topics that they thought were more attractive and interesting than the poor countryside, rice plants, buffaloes, fields and gardens… where some people were born and sometimes they “killed” their hometowns just because the name… wasn’t nice?

And there is a song that only has a little bit of sunshine in it, but it creates the beauty of rural girls in small villages during the war: “… There are afternoons/ The sun tilts over the mountain top/ The sun shines down on the village, making your cheeks more crispy…” (The Way Back to the Small Village - Trinh Hung).

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