I miss a quiet Hanoi

When mentioning musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien, people immediately think of famous songs that are bright, vibrant, youthful and full of love for people and life such as: Oh Beloved Life, Oh Spring, Flame of the Heart, If You Are a Lover... For Nguyen Ngoc Thien, music is a close friend who has been with him to freely roam and soar throughout this life.

With his passion and endless creativity, Nguyen Ngoc Thien passionately depicts life and love in music. With his contributions to Vietnamese music, musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien was honored to receive the State Prize for Literature and Arts in 2011. The musical journey of the talented musician has left a deep mark in the hearts of many generations of Vietnamese music lovers.

Musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien.

After years of hardship in his youth, overcoming the difficulties of life, musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien gave himself peaceful moments to immerse himself in his creative emotions in his private space in Ho Chi Minh City. Except for the times when he was sick or returned home from the hospital, after his health stabilized, every few days, the musician completed and showed off a new work to his friends.

Among those hundreds of works, recently, besides songs about Ho Chi Minh City, for the first time musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien devoted his heart to compositions about Hanoi.

In the historic autumn days, from the city named after Uncle Ho, the musician was immersed in indescribable emotions when recalling memories of his trips to Hanoi.

“I had many opportunities to go to Hanoi and walk around the streets. So many beautiful memories still live in me until now. I remember the times staying at hotels with Trinh Cong Son. The afternoons we went out to eat. The times meeting musicians Van Dung, Pham Tuyen, Pho Duc Phuong, Hong Dang, Trong Bang, Do Hong Quan, Duc Trinh, Pham Ngoc Khoi. My friends and I in Hanoi ate pho on Nguyen Du street on autumn days to smell the scent of milk flowers…

The days of wandering around Hanoi with friends left me with beautiful feelings. I miss a quiet Hanoi. Hanoi in the past, to me, was four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, quiet in poetic and romantic scenery, completely different from the noisy city with two rainy and sunny seasons where I lived.

Every time I go to Hanoi, I wander around Hang Bai to buy CDs about Hanoi. During my younger years, I had many times planned to write about Hanoi. But I wanted to write about Hanoi with special and deep feelings. Therefore, I was in no hurry.

Until recently, when I came across poems about Hanoi by Nguyen Hoang Yen, the nostalgia for a quiet Hanoi suddenly awakened, breathed and lived intensely in my musical soul. Quiet Hanoi, After the storm and my songs about Hanoi were born like that. For the first time, I wrote about Hanoi in a good relationship connected with the poetry of Nguyen Hoang Yen", musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien shared.

Musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien, musician Trinh Cong Son and friends during meetings in Hanoi.

After his most recent visit to Hanoi, musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien confided that, along with the development over the past 70 years, Hanoi has changed a lot. Around Hanoi, there are more wide roads, more high-rise buildings, and it is also noisier and more bustling.

He searched through his memories for the silence in every small alley of the autumn nights, the winter nights of the past. The musician hopes to express through music his own private, non-repetitive views and feelings for Hanoi. He wants to bring a romantic and lyrical song praising Hanoi from the eyes of a Southerner looking towards Hanoi with deep love.

The song "Quiet Hanoi" was arranged and performed by the Ho Chi Minh City Musicians Association, arranged and recorded by the Voice of Vietnam Orchestra under the direction and arrangement of musician Vu Manh Cuong, through the emotional performance of Sao Mai Tran Hong Nhung.

Song "Quiet, Hanoi".

Musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien shared that he was moved when the song Lang Yen Nhe Ha Noi was arranged and recorded by Voice of Vietnam. The arrangement was very full, full of Hanoi's character and singer Tran Hong Nhung performed the song beautifully, emotionally and impressively. This is a song that is very suitable for Tran Hong Nhung's beautiful and powerful chamber voice.

Singer Tran Hong Nhung.

Singer Tran Hong Nhung and musician Vu Manh Cuong spent a lot of time discussing and practicing Lang Yen Nhe Ha Noi . The singer shared that she was very happy to have the opportunity to perform the composition about Hanoi by musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien.

Poet Nguyen Hoang Yen.

Poet Nguyen Hoang Yen said, "Quiet Hanoi" is a poem she was inspired by a picture of Hanoi in late spring. It is an early morning with yellow leaves falling all over the path, the morning sun shining through the misty smoke covering the old town and a cool breeze. There is a Hanoi that is so quiet, peaceful and romantic when the streets are not yet awake.

The work After the Storm was written by her in the morning right after Typhoon Yagi ravaged Hanoi on the night of September 8.

Author Nguyen Hoang Yen emotionally shared: “When I wrote those lines of poetry, the smell of tree sap still lingered in the air. It was the smell of green blood. The smell of chlorophyll filled every street in Hanoi. Everywhere there were fallen trees. There were ancient trees associated with my childhood, standing tall for decades, now uprooted and blocking the road. Yellow butterfly trees fell down, glowing bright yellow in the rain. Hanoi was silent in an infinite sadness. Hanoi returned to its gentle autumn in the rain, calm, full of emotion, and with hopeful eyes, reviving the green from the ruins after the storm.”

Song "After the storm".

With the song After the storm, musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien said he was overwhelmed with emotions when he came across Nguyen Hoang Yen's sincere poems about Hanoi after typhoon Yagi. From Ho Chi Minh City, he followed Hanoi and the northern provinces during the time super typhoon Yagi made landfall and could not help but worry and grieve over the losses caused by the storm.

The musician said that the song After the Storm was written in a narrative style with a slow tempo of Slow Rock mixed with Romance. The song was performed through the emotional voice of singer Trong Thuong and the harmony of musician Trong Nam.

Not flashy calls to love Hanoi. Not superficial grandeur. Songs about Hanoi are carefully crafted by musician Nguyen Ngoc Thien with deep emotions, gathering silent memories throughout his youth, and tearfully recounting his thoughts about Hanoi during the days when the whole country welcomed the 70th historical autumn of the Capital.

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/nhac-si-nguyen-ngoc-thien-toi-nho-mot-ha-noi-lang-yen-ar900912.html