Musician Ngoc Khue and memories of Quang Tri

In December 2023, Colonel and musician Ngoc Khue, author of the famous song "Spring in the Rice Village and Flower Village", one came from Hanoi (musician Ngoc Khue), the other from Ho Chi Minh City to receive a music award presented by the Quang Tri Literature and Arts Association. The song "The Warrior Named Thach Han River" - music by Ngoc Khue, lyrics by Chau La Viet, praises General Secretary Le Duan and his eldest son - Colonel Le Han, who used to be in the same unit of the Air Defense - Air Force Command with us.

Actually, the song only won third prize, but we made an appointment to be in Quang Tri, because after receiving the certificate of merit and the award, we wanted to go to the General Secretary Le Duan Memorial House to offer incense and "report our achievements", then bring the certificate of merit and the award to Ho Chi Minh City to present to comrade Le Han, the prototype of the song, who is 94 years old this year, to let him know the feelings of his hometown Quang Tri and the artists towards General Secretary Le Duan and his beloved son.

Musician Ngoc Khue and writer Chau La Viet (5th and 6th from right) received the Quang Tri music award - Photo: PV

In the afternoon we were in Trieu Thanh, in the evening we returned to Dong Ha, sat at a small restaurant by the Hieu River with journalist Truong Duc Minh Tu. He was a "big shot" than us (a Provincial Party Committee member, Editor-in-Chief of Quang Tri Newspaper) but his age and his years of studying at the General Literature School were in the later class. His last name was Truong - Quang Tri like my mother's, so I always loved him like a close younger brother.

Early this spring in Ho Chi Minh City, Truong Duc Minh Tu and I, along with other Quang Tri people working in journalism in the city such as Tran Trong Dung, Vice President of the Vietnam Journalists Association; Nguyen Khac Van, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper; Doan Minh Phong, Secretary General of the Ho Chi Minh City Literature and Arts Weekly; Bui Phan Thao, Editorial Secretary of the Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper... sat together to welcome spring.

In July, I had the opportunity to join the Ho Chi Minh City journalists in a working group of the Vietnam Journalists Association with editors-in-chief and deputy editors-in-chief of major newspapers, including comrade Truong Hoa Binh, former Permanent Deputy Prime Minister of the Government, to visit Quang Tri to pay tribute to the heroic martyrs, so I had the opportunity to sit with Truong Duc Minh Tu; Dinh Nhu Hoan, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper; To Dinh Tuan, Editor-in-Chief of Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper; Le The Chu, Editor-in-Chief of Tuoi Tre Newspaper; Nguyen Ngoc Toan, Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Nien Newspaper... and a beautiful flower, Le Ngoc Hieu - grandson of General Secretary Le Duan, deputy director of a Vietcombank company... sitting in the middle of Dong Ha chatting endlessly.

And now, I have the opportunity to sit with Truong Duc Minh Tu and Ngoc Khue and his wife, listening to the wind blowing in from Hieu River. Truong Duc Minh Tu is humble, simple, sincere, very polite and hospitable, so he is loved by his literary friends right from the first meeting.

As for Colonel, musician Ngoc Khue, I have been close to him since my military career. We were both high-ranking gunners fighting in the war. Then, when peace came, we joined together with the excellent artists Kieu Minh; musician Minh Quang, Deputy Director of the Army Music and Dance Theater; Nguyen Thanh Binh, a beautiful foreign language student, and the Art Troupe of the Air Defense - Air Force Command, to form a "friend", a group of soul-mates in the arts until today.

Musician Ngoc Khue and memories of Quang Tri

Musician Ngoc Khue won a Gold Medal at the 2023 All-Army Performance - Photo: TL

Ngoc Khue is gentle, simple, brave in battle and hard-working, responsible. He is an art troupe leader, an outstanding musical talent of the army. He is the author of the immortal love song "Spring in the rice and flower villages" sung by music lovers all over the country, making every spring bustling in every village. Colonel and musician Ngoc Khue was awarded the State Prize for Literature and Arts in 2012.

As for Quang Tri, Ngoc Khue, although his hometown is Hoai Duc, Hanoi, during the war he fought in Ham Rong, Thanh Hoa, but then with a strange fate, Quang Tri became a land of deep affection and affection for him. Since years ago, when he was in the Art Troupe of the Air Defense - Air Force, he often came here to perform. Furthermore, he and famous military musicians such as Huy Thuc (Le Anh Chien); Trong Loan (Huong Loan) ... are the military musicians with the most songs about my homeland Quang Tri.

As for Ngoc Khue, those are the songs: "Forever engraved with Uncle Ba Le Duan" (poem by Le Khanh Hung); "The warrior named after the Thach Han River" (poem by Chau La Viet); "Mother's song" (written about the singing of an artist from Quang Tri), "My grandmother" (poem by Le Khanh Hung) and "Song about Uncle Ba Le Duan" (poem by Chau La Viet)...

Musician Ngoc Khue and memories of Quang Tri

Musician Ngoc Khue and the Air Defense - Air Force Art Troupe perform in Quang Tri - Photo: TL

Because of my love for poetry and the personality of Truong Duc Minh Tu and the talent of Ngoc Khue, I invited another journalist from my village, Mai Xa, Ho Nguyen Kha, to sit by the Hieu River to enjoy the winds blowing from the Hieu River and the flavors of my hometown in Quang Tri.

I thought it was just a friendly reunion, but suddenly something miraculous happened. Just from a poem in Truong Duc Minh Tu's notebook, a creative lightning flashed in musician Ngoc Khue. A Quang Tri father came to his music, simple, beautiful and sacred, which the poet himself never thought of. It was his own poem, but in a moment it became a wonderful song, the poetic idea was still kept, only the magical music gave it wings.

Musician Ngoc Khue confided: “From that night by the Hieu River, I was quite surprised when I read the poem “Memories of Father” by journalist Truong Duc Minh Tu, when he spoke very emotionally about his beloved father. The father did not mind the long distance and rugged mountains to go all the way to the Pleiku highlands to visit his son. In it, I was very impressed with his feelings when he saw his father could not sleep at night because of the cold wind in the highlands, making his poem blurred with tears...

So emotional, I immediately started to give wings to the poem with melody. In which, the first part of the song has emotional melody, deep emotions, somewhat reminiscent of Quang Tri folk songs, but in part B, with the somewhat changed sound, the Gia Lai folk melody seems to light up, igniting feelings that are both passionate and immense, as if we are standing in the middle of the highland mountains and forests to sing about the noble love of our father, singing to the immense sky and earth of the majestic Pleiku plateau.

“I am proud of you, Dad” is a poem by Truong Duc Minh Tu, but that is also what I want to say about my father, about our fathers who are simple but have great love. And when I came to the verse “Tomorrow, Dad will return to the white sand countryside, the hot wind will blow on his back, looking at the shadow of the mountain, Dad will miss me again” I composed the poem with extreme emotion...”.

Ngoc Khue's song "Memories of Father" immediately received the response of singers from the North and South, with contrasting voices, such as Vo Thanh Tam - singer, music master of Ho Chi Minh City with a lyrical, bright and beautiful baritone voice and singer Mai Chi, an excellent soprano of the army, who performed this song very emotionally and very successfully.

In my opinion, this is an excellent song about sacred fatherly love, highly inspirational and educational, strongly affecting people's hearts. And for me, a Quang Tri native, it sounds like the wind of Hieu River and the wind of Ham Rong and Chu Nam peaks sweeping Pleiku in the song... Deep, lofty and extremely moving.

Chau La Viet

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