Remember 'Hue holding hands with Saigon Hanoi'

Singer Thanh Huyen (left) and musician Hoang Van - Photo: GĐCC

This collection is archived and digitized by the musician's daughter, Dr. Le Y Linh, on the website hoangvan.org in many languages: Vietnamese, English, French. Covering a wide range of topics, urban or rural, adults or children, Hoang Van's music has it all.

Honoring the working people who overcome difficulties and hardships is not a new thing in propaganda music, but when necessary, Hoang Van still knows how to make the honor elegant, youthful and truly a bit charming and romantic in the style of Hanoi people.

NGUYEN TRUONG QUY

"The person I love so much"

"On the motherland, the sun is as rosy as silk, through thousands of years the two regions are bound together. Like branches growing from the same root, like brothers of the gentle mother Vietnam... Hue holds hands with Saigon, Hanoi, beside the Truong Son mountain range shining with love and trust...".

The lyrics of the song Hanoi - Hue - Saigon were born in 1961, and were adapted from a long poem by Le Nguyen, a cousin of Hoang Van, who was also a comrade in the Dien Bien Phu campaign.

Hoang Van was born in 1930, only one year older than Le Nguyen. They were both from Hanoi's Old Quarter, living a few houses apart on Hang Thung Street.

The poem was published in 1960, responding to the movement of twinning provinces and cities of the two regions. Hanoi - Hue - Saigon became a great symbol of the desire for unification.

Poet Le Nguyen, photo taken in Hanoi in 1955, during his first leave after the Dien Bien Phu campaign. He later returned to Dien Bien Phu to collect documents for the Army Museum (Family photo)

The largest national literature bookstore in Hanoi located on Trang Tien Street also has a very large embossed line on both sides of the street: "Hanoi - Hue - Saigon sister bookstore", which is still present until the renovation period.

The phrase "Hue holds Saigon Hanoi's hand" makes everyone remember it for a long time, along with the magical lyrics like "in the love of the homeland there is a heart, reserved for you, the one I love so much" (Love song of a miner), which motivated the writer of this song to meet musician Hoang Van 21 years ago.

The interview with Hoang Van at the attic of 14 Hang Thung gave me the feeling of a discreet, wise, knowledgeable Hanoi intellectual, but also full of mysteries like the Chinese calligraphy he was writing.

20 years later, the even number of years celebrating major holidays gradually grew larger, until I suddenly thought, I have touched the beauty that connects many generations, but have not yet fulfilled my desire to hear the whole journey of creating that beauty.

I talked to artist Le Thiet Cuong about the song composed by musician Hoang Van based on the poems of his father - poet Le Nguyen. This poem, along with another poem, Poem to Thai Nguyen, was composed by Hoang Van into two epic poems in the same year 1961, which, as he said, were written by Le Nguyen while in Thai Nguyen, while he was courting Thao - who would later become his mother.

The two poems have become songs of family memories, of people born in old Hanoi in the era of building hopes for a new life.

If Poem Sent to Thai Nguyen was only recorded once by Tran Khanh, the number 1 singer of Voice of Vietnam Radio, and no one has ever sung it again, then Hanoi - Hue - Saigon was luckier, performed by many famous singers and became a song that truly goes with the years.

After Kim Oanh's first recording, Hanoi - Hue - Saigon became a golden standard with Thanh Huyen's voice.

Hanoi, Hue, Saigon People's Artist Thanh Huyen

It can be said that Hoang Van's music is the place to showcase the beauty of the leading voices of Northern music during the war years: Kim Oanh with Quang Binh, my homeland; Tuyet Thanh with Rise up the drums in the mountains and forests; Bich Lien with Hello, liberation army, hello, great spring victory; Tran Khanh with I am a miner, That soldier; My Binh with Song of the people's teacher...

Children of my generation knew by heart the songs "Mua hoa phoenix" (The season of blooming royal poinciana flowers), "Em yeu truong em" (I love my school) or the song in the movie "Em be Ha Noi" (1974).

Hanoi - Hue - Saigon record cover

Songs make voices

People's Artist Thanh Huyen is 83 years old this year. Almost all "red" music lovers have listened to her extremely popular recordings at least a few times. Coming to Thanh Huyen's song Hanoi - Hue - Saigon is as simple as the artists at that time, it was an assigned task, among many other songs.

Ms. Thanh Huyen said that she practiced the song very quickly and also tried to refine her voice so that besides the soft parts with folk melodies, there was a steel quality of fighting spirit: "Saigon echoes with indomitable singing, of the South that goes first and last."

The song has the stature of a long poem, the successive segments are full of epic character when depicting the symbolism of three cities representing three regions, but overall still brings lyrical emotions that make the philosophical lyrics become soft, shiny, luxurious, typical of Hoang Van's writing style.

Looking back at the notes and recordings from an interview with musician Hoang Van from more than 20 years ago, there are interesting details.

Hoang Van said that a few years after the unification, Mr. Tu Truong (Truong Binh Tong - author of the opera Cay Durian Tro Bong), deputy director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City, came to see Hoang Van and told him to write a song for the youth: "Mr. Van, I'm doing a music program, the girls are hunting you down so much, they're fighting over the song Ha Noi - Hue - Saigon, do you have any new songs?".

Hoang Van was originally known as a musician of "local songs, industry songs". Whenever he wrote about a province or industry, the movement there would boom, so he was constantly commissioned.

In 1977, while doing field work in the field of oil and gas geology in Vung Tau, Hoang Van released a "popular" song: Vung Tau Love Song.

The song also introduced a young singer and she immediately became a star: Nha Phuong. Hoang Van said: "Nha Phuong was only 17 years old that year, wearing a red shirt, jeans, singing and playing the violin, so beautiful!".

Nha Phuong also successfully performed other songs by Hoang Van, besides the familiar Hanoi - Hue - Saigon, there are also Hat ve cay lua hom nay (1976), Tinh yeu cua dat va nuoc (1980)...

I was very surprised when Song about rice was written in O Mon, which was then in Hau Giang province. Hoang Van mentioned his efforts when writing: "The small, shaky bamboo bridge could not carry a person carrying a heavy load of rice.

The big road has opened to the future, tomorrow is starting from today". Bamboo bridges are available in the Mekong Delta and he cleverly suggests a great harvest and future "construction of the country".

Hoang Van himself realized his journey of "Hue holding hands with Saigon and Hanoi" when he went to the field after the reunification day, writing songs about the new life, uniting people to join hands to build the country. Half a century since the reunification day, the melodies still radiate the warmth of the joy of reunion.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nho-hue-cam-tay-sai-gon-ha-noi-20250415085558417.htm