The journey to Soong Co and becoming an artisan of Ms. To Thi Ta (Binh Dan commune, Van Don district) is a combination of passion and hard work to learn and collect cultural features of her homeland with lands rich in cultural identity of the San Diu people.
Artist To Thi Ta, born in 1954, in Cong Hoa commune - now Hai Hoa (Cam Pha city). As a child, Ms. Ta loved and enjoyed the Soong Co tune of her ethnic group. "In the past, singing Soong Co was a tradition, a favorite regular activity of the San Diu ethnic group during off-season farming, Tet, weddings, and social gatherings... Those smooth, gentle and passionate tunes closely associated with life have been deeply engraved in my soul" - Ms. To Thi Ta recounted.
According to Mrs. Ta, since she was 9-10 years old, she liked to follow her brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, listening to the songs coming from the hamlets, from house to house and from village to village. After each time returning home, whenever she had time, she would recite and memorize the songs. When she was 15-16 years old, Mrs. Ta officially went with her brothers and sisters to other villages to sing and exchange songs.
In 1974, Ms. Ta got married and moved to Dam Tron village (Binh Dan commune, Van Don), a commune with a large population of San Diu people. Therefore, here, Ms. Ta had the opportunity to interact and learn more about Soong Co songs and melodies from the best Soong Co singers in the village. Now over 70 years old, she still knows dozens to hundreds of Soong Co songs by heart.
In 2014, Binh Dan commune established the Soong Co Singing Club, and Ms. Ta and a number of others became active members of the club. Ms. Ta and many members of the club had the opportunity to exchange, learn, expand their knowledge, and collect many Soong Co songs in and outside the province such as: Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, Thai Nguyen...
During those exchanges, Mrs. Ta added many new songs and melodies to her collection. All of them were collected and recorded in books for easy storage. Thanks to that, she had a treasure trove of hundreds of Soong Co songs.
With her knowledge of Soong Co, Ms. Ta and the members of the Club have opened classes to teach Soong Co singing to the people, especially the youth. Up to now, she has taught over 36 people to sing fluently. Not only that, she and the members of the Club regularly participate in performances to introduce and promote the singing art of the San Diu people in competitions and performances for tourists visiting the commune...
Mr. To Van Luu, Chairman of Binh Dan Commune People's Committee, commented: Ms. Ta is an artist who preserves many valuable traditional Soong Co melodies and is enthusiastic about teaching the community and young people, actively participating in activities to introduce and promote this unique cultural feature.
With these positive contributions, she was recognized as an artisan in 2016. This is what encouraged her to be more and more passionate about researching, collecting and passing on the singing art as well as the unique culture of the San Diu people to the community.
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