Songs for the ages

On a weekend evening on the Hoan Kiem Lake walking street, at the corner of the Trang Tien-Dinh Tien Hoang intersection, the singing voices blending with the melodies of the song "Hanoi-Hue-Saigon" by a group of young people attract quite a few tourists to stop and listen. "Hue holds Saigon-Hanoi's hand, beside the Truong Son mountain range shining with love/ Oh! Saigon echoes the indomitable song of the South that goes first and returns later..." - the refrain was sung by the group of young people and they raised their arms to show viewers the painting hanging solemnly on the facade of the Hanoi City Information-Exhibition building - long known to everyone as " Uncle Ho with children".

Speaking a little more about this famous propaganda painting on the shore of Hoan Kiem Lake, the art world once considered it the most successful work and left the deepest impression and emotion of artist Tran Tu Thanh. The artist once said that after April 30, 1975, when he was a lecturer at the College of Industrial Fine Arts (now the University of Industrial Fine Arts), he cherished painting a work about Uncle Ho's wishes in his Will, in which Uncle mentioned many things about youth, teenagers, children, mentioned peace, independence, and national unification... And the resulting work had the original name "1976", later changed to "Independence-Unification-Peace-Happiness", for nearly half a century now, the public familiarly called it "Uncle Ho with Children".

The song "Hanoi-Hue-Saigon" performed in the art program celebrating the 60th anniversary of the twinning relationship between Hanoi-Hue-Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Photo: BAO TRUNG

With music, perhaps musician Hoang Van (birth name Le Van Ngo) realized his journey of "Hue holding hands with Saigon - Hanoi" when he came across the poem "Hanoi-Hue-Saigon" by poet Le Nguyen and in 1961, the musician was inspired to compose music to create this song. In the song is the wish that Saigon will be named after Uncle Ho as a prophetic prediction of both the poet and the musician, and by 1975 it became a reality: "This is the South, the Bronze Citadel of the Fatherland/ The Mekong River is resplendent with the golden name/ The glorious city of Ho Chi Minh/ The voice of the person is carried in the heart". Half a century since the country's reunification, the melodies still radiate the warmth of the joy of reunion.

In more than half a century of composing, musician Hoang Van left behind about 700 works in almost all genres and forms of music. After his passing (in 2018), his family has worked hard to compile, archive and preserve the musician's legacy. His songs have many forms and diverse themes, from art songs to current affairs songs, from heroic songs to praise songs, from industry songs to provincial songs, from love songs to folk songs, from folk songs to songs with strong international sentiments from five continents, from miners to farmers, from youth to children, all topics that seem very far from art have been sung with the most emotional ranges. The works whose motto is creativity, upward orientation, a journey in search of beauty, and above all is love for the Fatherland.

Particularly in his monumental composing career, composer Hoang Van reserved an important position for academic music. These are the symphonic poems "Thanh Dong To Quoc" (one of the first symphonic poems of Vietnam written in 1960); the grand choir and symphony orchestra "Hoi Tuong" (1961-1962) and the choir and symphony orchestra "Dien Bien Phu" (2004) are three milestones marking works that have been widely popularized. Besides, the ballet "Chi Su" (1968), the four-movement symphonic suite No. II "Tuong Niem" (1991), the symphonic poem No. II (1994) and No. III "Tuoi Tre Cua Toi" (2000) are milestones for exemplary academic works in the Vietnamese academic music scene, but are also extremely close to the public.

According to the assessment of the Department of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), the music collection of musician Hoang Van, formed and developed over more than half a century, is not only valuable works bearing the musician's mark but also reflects one of the historical turning points of Vietnamese music, the changes of the country and the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people through many periods. With the harmonious combination of European classical music and folk music, his works not only have artistic value but are also valuable documents serving the research of culture, society and history of Vietnamese music. The International Advisory Council of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program affirmed that Vietnam's dossier fully meets international criteria with outstanding values. The music collection of musician Hoang Van is well preserved, highly accessible through a multilingual digital platform, contributing to spreading Vietnamese cultural values ​​to the international community.

The UNESCO recognition of musician Hoang Van's collection is not only a source of pride for musician Hoang Van's family but also a source of pride for the country and people of Vietnam. This documentary heritage will certainly contribute to raising public awareness of documentary heritage, spreading the cultural-historical-humanistic values ​​of Vietnam to the world, thereby enhancing the image and position of the country and people of Vietnam in the international community.

According to People's Army

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/nhung-ban-nhac-danh-cho-muon-doi-sau-a419424.html