'Marching to Hanoi' - a prophecy of victory

Musician Van Cao wrote "'Marching to Hanoi'' 5 years before the historic milestone of October 10, 1954, as a prediction of victory for the army and people.

In the program Cultural Festival for Peace On the morning of October 6, at Hoan Kiem Lake area, Hoan Kiem district, the image of artists reenacting the liberation army taking over the capital Hanoi moved many audiences. On the background melody of the song Advancing to Hanoi , each army entered Cau Giay gate, one of the five gates of Hanoi, amidst the warm welcome of everyone in a forest of flags and flowers.

After the show, on many social media platforms, audiences discussed the song, praising its heroic melody. Reader Pham Ha wrote: "Listening to music helps us feel the heroic spirit of the past." Audience member Nguyen Thu Hang said: "I cried when I listened to this song. I cried because of the liberation day and I missed my grandfather. When I was five years old, he taught me to sing this song."

Over the past 70 years, the lyrics and melodies of Heading to Hanoi still intact joy, national pride. In the memoir Van Cao - life and career , Musician Van Thao said his father, musician Van Cao, told him about the context in which the song was created. In mid-1949 in Viet Bac, Van Cao, who was working at the newspaper at the time, Arts - along with a number of artists were summoned to attend a meeting to listen to the Central Committee disseminate the policy of preparing for a general counter-offensive. They were assigned the task: "We need to quickly produce timely compositions to serve the resistance."

After the meeting, musician Van Cao and Nguyen Dinh Thi were assigned to return to work in zone 3. Here, he wrote two songs, including Go to Hanoi. The musician once described: " Advancing to Hanoi I did it on an autumn night, the sky was clear and full of stars, the space was filled with moonlight and the fragrant smell of ripe rice. I woke Bui Xuan Phai and Ta Ty up and sang for them. Ta Ty was so happy that he jumped up: Great! Great. I'll let Toa go and inform everyone."

However, at the end of 1949, the French army swept through the provinces of the Northern Delta, preventing the counter-offensive from being carried out. The group of musicians Van Cao, Ta Phuoc, and To Vu fled to Dong Nam, Thai Binh. Here, in early 1950, musician Ta Phuoc composed the song Heading to Hanoi and performed for the soldiers and people. Everyone clapped and sang along to each line: "The army marches like waves, the army marches forward in waves. We go and listen to the joy when the enemy surrenders, the flags of the past flutter in the streets." The scene moved the musician.

Musician and music researcher Thuy Kha said that besides recreating history, Heading to Hanoi valuable in its predictive nature. In the midst of the fire and smoke of bombs and bullets, the music of musician Van Cao resounded with the desire to live, arousing the belief in victory.

The musician depicted the scene that the army and people always longed for: "The five gates of the city welcome the advancing army. Like a flower platform welcoming the blooming of five peach petals. Flowing a sparkling stream of morning dew. We nurture the fragrant flowers of the distant days". On the way, the soldiers were given bouquets of flowers, hugs, and handshakes by the people. When the army advanced, musician Van Cao compared it to spring coming, the night gradually fading, so that "Hanoi bursts into the song of marching troops".

Five years later, on October 10, 1954, the beautiful vision in the song became a reality, when the people of Hanoi witnessed the return of troops. Van Cao's work was also widely published in the joy of the Capital Liberation Day. However, according to musician Van Thao, at that time his father followed the first Vietnamese Cultural National Salvation Delegation to visit the Soviet Union and China, so he did not witness it.

In the article in the book Van Cao season of words, season of people , Writer Cao Ngoc Thang commented: ''When creating the urgent marching rhythm in the song, Van Cao expressed his prophetic nature and his desire for the day of victory to return with joy and a triumphant song, even though there were still 5 long years of facing bullets and bombs, close to death''.

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