The concern of preserving Ca Tru cultural heritage

For many years, artisans in Nghi Xuan district (Ha Tinh) have been working hard to preserve and conserve the Ca Tru cultural heritage, even though "bread and butter is no joke for poets".

Preserving heritage

As usual, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, Nguyen Cong Tru Ca Tru Club (CLB) organizes activities. The ca tru melodies are sung by the club members in the solemn space at the Uy Vien General Nguyen Cong Tru Palace Relic Site (located in Xuan Giang commune, Nghi Xuan district, Ha Tinh province). Nguyen Cong Tru (1778 - 1858) is considered the founder of Co Dam Ca Tru (Nghi Xuan). After a period of oblivion, since 1998, the cultural heritage of Ca Tru has been restored, many generations of Nghi Xuan artists and singers continue to preserve and spread it in life, among them, we must mention the couple of Meritorious Artist Duong Thi Xanh (Vice President of Co Dam Ca Tru Club) and Tran Van Dai (President of Co Dam Ca Tru Club).

A club meeting at the historical site of Uy Vien General Nguyen Cong Tru's Palace.

Born and raised in a land with a tradition of Ca Tru, the songs of ancient artists such as Phan Thi Nga and Tran Thi Gia have permeated the blood of Meritorious Artist Duong Thi Xanh. Her passion for her homeland's Ca Tru melodies has also "thickened" over the years. Artist Duong Thi Xanh is even luckier when her husband, Meritorious Artist Tran Van Dai, shares the same love and aspirations. In 2007, with a burning desire to preserve and promote Ca Tru culture, Artist Duong Thi Xanh and her husband closed their business, spent their own money to go to Hanoi to study and improve Ca Tru singing techniques to return and teach them to local singers. For 3 consecutive years of hard work, Artist Xanh and her husband have quietly worked together to realize the ideal of how to preserve, conserve and develop Ca Tru culture.

Meritorious Artist Duong Thi Xanh and her husband are the second generation of Ca Tru Co Dam.

In 2009, at the session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Ca Tru was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection. At that time, the couple of Meritorious Artist Duong Thi Xanh and a number of artists and singers were signed labor contracts by the People's Committee of Nghi Xuan district, supported with a basic salary level. Since then, the Co Dam Ca Tru Club and the Nguyen Cong Tru Ca Tru Club have had orientation and regular activities to preserve, conserve and teach to the young generations in the locality.

Profession can not support profession

In the solemn cultural space at Nguyen Cong Tru Relic Site, we enjoyed the melody of the Ca Tru song "Hong Hong Tuyet Tuyet" performed by the Club's artisans. The lyrics are profound, touching the depths of emotions. When the Ca Tru melody is played, it is also when the artisans' feelings are expressed. According to Mr. Le Xuan Hai, head of Nguyen Cong Tru Ca Tru Club, to preserve and conserve the homeland's Ca Tru cultural heritage is a process full of efforts of generations, artisans, and singers when "the profession cannot support the profession". The artisans and singers here are currently only receiving support for 1 basic salary level. They have stuck to the Ca Tru "career" for decades with the support policy from the years when a basic salary level was only 400,000 VND until now. Not to mention, Ca Tru is considered "scholarly music", an art form that is selective about listeners and performance spaces, making it almost inaccessible to the younger generation, so "a profession that cannot support a profession" makes it even more difficult to develop.

The artists have a burning desire to preserve and develop Ca Tru culture for the younger generation.

According to Mr. Hai, Nghi Xuan currently has Nguyen Cong Tru Ca Tru Club and Co Dam Ca Tru Club operating in parallel. The total number of members of the two clubs is about 50. Although, over time, both clubs have trained many generations of singers who love and are passionate about Ca Tru, there are very few "talented people" who stay in their homeland due to the lack of preferential treatment mechanisms. The life of "food, clothing, and money" also surrounds the rare artisans of Ca Tru Co Dam. Meritorious artisan Duong Thi Xanh also had to put aside her passion to go abroad to work. Or up to now, in addition to the moments of "living fully" with Ca Tru on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons when participating in the club activities, they - Ca Tru artisans - also have to struggle with food, clothing, rice, and money to serve their daily lives.

A performance by the artists of Nguyen Cong Tru Ca Tru Club at the "Vietnam's Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival recognized by UNESCO" held last November.

Mr. Nguyen Long Thien, Director of the Cultural - Communication Center of Nghi Xuan District People's Committee, said that there are many subjective and objective reasons that have threatened the existence of Ca Tru. With current political, social and economic conditions, the exchange of cultures, the development of mass media, changes in lifestyles, the attack on folk traditions of music and entertainment forms imported from the West with the support of technical means and the development of information technology, Ca Tru's position in the hearts of the people is shaking.

Ca tru is an art form that is selective of listeners and singers due to the difficulty in beat, rhythm, and rhyme.

"Although highly regarded as one of the scholarly music genres, Ca Tru is selective in its listeners and very limited in the number of people passionate about pursuing this art form. Therefore, after 36 years of the Ca Tru Workshop being gradually preserved and promoted, up to now, only 2 clubs have been established. The existing problems and limitations in preserving and promoting the intangible cultural heritage of Ca Tru art have many causes such as: There are no policies and priorities for preserving and promoting the value of Ca Tru heritage; Planning of cultural institutions and training of human resources are still inadequate, localities where Ca Tru heritage exists do not have a synchronous system of cultural institutions; Equipment and means serving activities to preserve and promote the value of heritage are still limited; The team of authors composing new lyrics for Ca Tru is almost zero, after 35 years, the whole district has only had a few new lyrics for Ca Tru art, partly because writing new lyrics for Ca Tru melodies is ineffective. It is very difficult, especially there is no encouragement and no proper attention for the team writing new lyrics for Ca Tru...", Mr. Thien confided. Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/noi-long-bao-ton-di-san-van-hoa-ca-tru-204241218105651885.htm