Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Lan Cuong, 83 years old: Riding his bike smoothly, passionate about science and music

Associate Professor, Doctor, leading Vietnamese paleontologist, musician Nguyen Lan Cuong has just released his latest composition, full of emotion, titled "The Lagerstroemia Tree in the Storm".

Waiting for me at a table by the window filled with autumn sunlight was a small man with a quick manner and bright eyes. He was Associate Professor, Doctor, paleoanthropologist, and musician Nguyen Lan Cuong. “I didn’t want to write a song of propaganda nature.” In response to the question “How did the musician come up with the idea of ​​writing the song Lagerstroemia in the Storm ?”, he immediately said: “On the night of September 7th and early morning of September 8th, my neighborhood (Nguyen Huy Tuong Street, Hanoi - PV) witnessed a terrible scene: trees fell down, pressing down on power lines, causing the entire neighborhood to lose power. Witnessing the devastation of Typhoon Yagi, I was determined to write a song about the strongest storm in the past 30 years that swept through Hanoi. I lit a candle, sat quietly at the piano, and my emotions were overflowing. I didn’t plan to write a song of propaganda nature, calling for help, but I wanted to compose a song that touched the hearts of listeners. That was not easy.”

In the song, the image of the Lagerstroemia tree appears throughout as a symbol of beauty, faith and hope. This is also a familiar tree to the people of Hanoi, the purple color evokes romance in love: "First love under the shade of Lagerstroemia...". He revised the song over and over again to make it perfect with the idea that although the musician cannot go directly to the "front line", he can use music to encourage people. Musician Lan Cuong expressed: "After sending the song to dozens of musicians and friends, I received many positive responses. Professor, Doctor, Hero of Labor Nguyen Anh Tri commented: 'The song is about floods but is not sad but enough to awaken, to feel compassion for the loss caused by natural disasters and especially to strengthen the belief that everything will pass, to live optimistically with life. The lyrical music is reasonable, not too dramatic but still awakens human emotions'".

Associate Professor, Doctor, musician Lan Cuong. Photo: Linh Dan

Sharing with VietNamNet , musician Lan Cuong said that he trusted his close friend, People's Artist Pham Ngoc Khoi, so he invited him to accompany the song "Cay bang lang trong bao" . People's Artist Pham Ngoc Khoi was the first person to listen to the song and gave many valuable comments to the author. Singer Le Anh Dung was also the name that the musician aimed for from the beginning because he has an emotional voice, does not show off his technique but easily finds sympathy from the listener. The recording process took place in just 2 days because both of them "absorbed" the song very quickly. Passionate about music, good at acting, beautiful in drawing but devoted to skeletons all his life When the reporter asked: "Is there any contradiction between the work of a researcher, an archaeologist who requires precision and detail and the soaring soul of an artist?", musician Lan Cuong smiled and recounted his fate in art. “At the age of 10, I went to China to study music, learning from Mr. Pham Tuyen and Mr. Nguyen Huu Hieu - the first person to conduct a choir in Vietnam and Mr. Nhan Nghiem Tuc (Chinese). When I returned to Vietnam, I was in charge of a 100-person choir and a 20-person orchestra at Ly Thuong Kiet School (now Viet Duc School) in Hanoi. My friend Phu Quang played the horn in the band and later became a famous musician. In 1960, when I was only 19 years old, I composed my first song , Tieng hat ban Muong , and then the choir, Tieng ca tren ra go , both of which won prizes in competitions for students in Hanoi. Because my family did not encourage me to pursue art, I chose to study Biology at the University of General Sciences. However, at the beginning of 1961, I secretly took the exam and was accepted into a drama team of 15 people (including my friend Trong Khoi, who later became a People's Artist and Director of the Vietnam Drama Theater) selected from several hundred candidates, from The Ministry of Culture sent the art troupe to study in the Soviet Union for 5 years. However, due to the international situation at that time, the drama troupe had to stay, so I was content to continue studying.

Some of musician Lan Cuong's musical works were inspired by arduous archaeological missions.

Later, when working in science, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Lan Cuong was still passionate about composing. Therefore, over the past 60 years, along with important research projects on paleoanthropology, he also has about 80 musical works. Many of his compositions originated from hot diary entries about current events such as the victory of the Vietnam Football Team, the fight against Covid..., creating closeness with listeners as well as strong influence. The Geological Song consists of 3 chapters and won an award from the Vietnam Musicians Association. Musician Lan Cuong was inspired by arduous archaeological trips. Besides touching works such as: The General of the People's Heart, Come Back, Why Would It Be Like That, The Song of the Island Soldiers, After the Oath, The Feelings of the Imperial City. .. musician Lan Cuong also has many children's songs such as: My doll, Red light then stop, green light then go, What job do you like?, We celebrate Dien Bien's 60th flower season... "Once while riding a motorbike, I saw a father and son, the father sped up when the light had not turned green and the child grumbled: 'In class, the teacher taught me that when the light is red, stop, when the light is yellow, prepare, and when the light is green, go'. The idea came to me, I immediately parked the motorbike close to the sidewalk and wrote the music right on the food ticket, the only piece of paper I had on me at that time. Later, the song won the highest prize in the traffic safety contest with a prize of 25 million VND. I used that money to buy a piano right away, which made composing easier than the old organ", the musician recalled. Musician Lan Cuong recounted an interesting story when writing music for children: He added: “Writing children’s music is both difficult and inexpensive, but I still like it because I love children, love their honesty and innocence. The difficulty is that the musician cannot use the thoughts and perspectives of adults to write for children. The pitch must also be moderate, not too high or too low, it will be difficult for children to sing. Children are very innocent, so they will be the most impartial judges. If they don’t love it, they won’t sing it.” In particular, the book Diary on the Sol Clef by musician Lan Cuong contains the works, memories, and feelings of friends towards the multi-talented scientist. "Diary on the Sol Lock" is a work that contains a lot of passion from musician Lan Cuong. Photo: Linh Dan In addition to archaeological research and music composition, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Lan Cuong is also talented in painting. He has been painting oil paintings since 1962. One of his proudest works is the book What the Skeleton Tells You , which includes 320 illustrations of human skeletons drawn by the Associate Professor himself. "There are drawings that take about 4 hours to complete, I draw each detail very meticulously. Unlike drawing internal organs, drawing bones or teeth does not require color to distinguish, so I only use tiny black dots, which makes the work much more interesting," the Associate Professor said. "My wife always supports me wholeheartedly." Musician Lan Cuong got married and had children quite late. He got married at the age of 41. His wife is a strong support system, single-handedly taking care of the house and raising the children because he is constantly away on archaeological trips everywhere. Their first daughter was born on September 2, 1982, and was given a unique name by the couple, Hoa Cuong, and is living with her parents. Their son, Nguyen Lan Chuong, majored in English, then continued to study at RMIT, majoring in finance and banking, and studied abroad in Japan. Currently, he teaches and works as a programmer at a Japanese language center in Hanoi.

Family members came to congratulate musician Lan Cuong at the book launch of "Diary on Sol Lock". Photo: NVCC

“The interesting thing is that in Nguyen Lan’s extended family, all the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren… if they are male, have the word Lan after their last name. When all are gathered together, my extended family has about 80 people, forming a very special community,” he said.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Lan Cuong is an expert in researching the oldest human skeletons in Vietnam.

At the age of 83, the leading paleoanthropologist, who was awarded the title "The person who has researched the most ancient Vietnamese remains: 1,093 individuals" by the Vietnam Record Organization, still rides his motorbike at a speed of 50-55km to archaeological excavation sites around Hanoi. "I ride my motorbike regularly, but to ride fast, I have to train my eyes to be good and especially have the steadiness and flexibility of my hands to handle situations on the road," he happily boasted. Discussing his future plans, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Lan Cuong said: “In the near future, I will release the book Following the Traces of Ancient Tombs , but it will not only focus on professional factors but will tell stories in a vivid way. In it, I will share the journey to find the tomb of Princess Ly Kieu Oanh with the famous psychic Hoang Thi Thiem, or the compound tomb in Vuon Dao or two very majestic tombs of the Luc Trieu period in the Ciputra urban area (Hanoi). “I still jokingly tell my students that in the other world, I will still make music, teach, and do archaeology,” before saying goodbye to PV VietNamNet, musician Lan Cuong did not forget to say so.

Photo, clip: Linh Dan

Associate Professor, Doctor, Musician Nguyen Lan Cuong

Associate Professor, Doctor, Musician Nguyen Lan Cuong was born in 1941, he is the fourth son of the late People's Teacher Nguyen Lan. Associate Professor, Doctor, Musician Nguyen Lan Cuong is famous as a leading expert in paleoanthropology as well as the head of national projects on research, restoration, and repair of four Vietnamese bodies in pagodas: Dau, Tieu Son and Phat Tich..... He was the former Permanent Vice President of the Hanoi Music Association, now the Head of the Inspection and External Relations Committee of the Hanoi Music Association, General Secretary of the Vietnam Archaeological Association and conductor of the Hanoi Harmony Choir.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/pgs-ts-nguyen-lan-cuong-tuoi-83-hanh-phuc-ben-vo-con-van-hang-say-lam-viec-2326886.html