We are the young soldiers of the years of marching and fighting in Truong Son. During the years we held guns, it must be said that the life of a soldier was very rich. Besides backpacks and guns, there were also countless songs, strong and full of love, as if reserved for us soldiers. Those songs were very exciting and full of spirit. One of those songs, which seemed to be sung by every unit and soldier before every meeting, activity or march... was Through the Northwest.
There is a strange thing that keeps singing, but few people know the author. Singing, feeling excited, seeing the fight more enthusiastically, and that is enough. The song was written about the days of fighting the French, written about the distant Northwest, but sung on Truong Son during the days of fighting the Americans, it is still close, intimate, just like the towering mountains thousands of miles away, many difficulties to overcome, it is this Truong Son, it is these days, even the sincere, simple expression of our soldiers obeying the Father's orders is still received with sincere, emotional feelings.
Musician Nguyen Thanh - Photo: NNT
I have a personal interest: finding the authors of songs rich in fighting spirit, strongly affecting the lives of soldiers. And so, one afternoon, I met Nguyen Thanh - the author of the song Through the Northwest...
Musician Nguyen Thanh said: "I wrote the song "Through the Northwest" in about an hour, on the top of Khau Vac pass, on a night of marching...".
One hour, but his songs have and will have vitality many times greater than that time. To have that one hour, he had at least twice marched to fight the enemy in the Northwest, and had a life in the National Defense Army since he was not yet fifteen years old. That was in 1945, the August Revolution broke out, Nguyen Thanh was a student in Hanoi. One day, the red flag with yellow star and the song Tien Quan Ca attracted him to join the protest marches, going from the Opera House, flooding into the Northern Department to seize power.
Nguyen Thanh's life as a soldier began that day, and soon after that he became the deputy platoon leader of a cadet platoon with a cap with a gold-bordered star, blue shorts and socks, and a yellow shirt. The echo of this soldier's life is the rhythmic tapping of yellow shoes on the road, and the clanking of the rifle on his belt...
The resistance war broke out. The young cadet followed the Western army to the front. He participated in battles against the army led by Curian with the legend they made up: guns that could not penetrate...
Cross the river, mountain, and cloud
The Western army marched forward.
The first battlefield, at least once, Nguyen Thanh with his immature musical knowledge from his student days wrote that song of the Northwest. That was in 1946, when he had just set foot in the Northwest. The melody of the song was as romantic as his romantic soul.
Then the years of fighting passed. He went to many campaigns, many other lands. In 1949, he became a cadre of the Vanguard Division's art troupe, the 308th Division. In the fall and winter of 1952, he and his art troupe returned to the Northwest to participate in the campaign. The night before the liberation of Nghia Lo, the art troupe of thirteen people stopped in the middle of Khau Vac Pass. Digging tunnels, lighting fires, sitting and discussing the campaign, then hugging each other and waiting for the morning, Nguyen Thanh could not sleep. His greatest emotion was: Uncle Ho's order to send troops to liberate the Northwest. In the letter Uncle sent, he talked a lot about the suffering of the people of the Northwest - the land and people that Nguyen Thanh had many memories of...
Troops march to the Northwest - Photo: Thanh Nguyen
The lyrics came rushing in. Mandolin in hand, strummed along, and Nguyen Thanh sat singing. Through the Northwest appeared on words, on paper that night, beside the flickering fire in the hastily dug tunnel, in the sound of footsteps pounding on the campaign, and in the long howling wind on the top of the pass... After writing, too tired, its author fell asleep. Waking up in the morning, he saw Hoan, Phung De, Vu Huong... his teammates singing enthusiastically. They had picked up his manuscript, from the fire! Luckily, the coal had cooled, so the paper did not burn...
That very morning, the song was immediately performed to serve the troops on the campaign, with mandolins, guitars, bamboo flutes... and the author and his friends stood and sang right on the top of the pass, serving the troops passing by. The song was like a fire, burning through each soldier. And that fire gradually spread throughout the troops, going from one campaign to another...
The buffalo herders, seeing the soldiers singing, also got into it and sang along to the sound of the buffalo gongs echoing throughout the liberated fields of the Northwest. There were even blind singers who used it to sing right in the inner city of Hanoi, which was still occupied by the enemy at that time. The song was also passed down to the next generations, that is, our Truong Son soldiers, who used it as a soldier's song during the years of fighting the enemy...
Musician Nguyen Thanh continued:
- In 1954, we were sent to serve in the Dien Bien Phu campaign. One afternoon, in the bunker of the General Command, General Vo Nguyen Giap asked me to sing two songs, including Through the Northwest. After listening, the General said: Whoever composed this song deserves a reward! Luong Ngoc Trac reported to the General that he was the author of Through the Northwest. The General squeezed my hand and asked about my life as a soldier. Shortly after, I was awarded a medal for military exploits...
The years in the Northwest left many impressions on Nguyen Thanh until today, even though more than thirty years have passed. His face is innocent and profound. The most intense things are often kept inside, rarely expressed in words. He talks about his hardships, but when he does, he is honest, sometimes innocent, easy to love and easy to like. His life as a soldier, his artistic life from then on. And his whole life from then on. His wife, Ngoc Thao, a dancer, a television director, is also a cultural actress of the 316th Division, and the first time they met was because of memories of the Northwest, a battlefield that they were attached to.
I met Nguyen Thanh again one afternoon in the Northwest. A new battle had come to the mountains and forests here. And Nguyen Thanh was there again. In front of the mountains and forests, he returned to the innocence and emotion of his fifteen or sixteen years old in the Western Army...
- It's been two wars since I've returned here - He said, his voice slightly regretful.
I sympathize with what is deeply moving him. After peace, he returned to Hanoi, in the Song and Dance Troupe of the General Political Department. During the resistance war against the US, he was present in Truong Son, leading a troupe of artists on this front. When he was assigned to be in charge of the music section of the military propaganda programs of the Voice of Vietnam Radio, the Northwest returned once again with the song he wrote in 1956: The Cat's Flute to the Soldier (Lyrics: Khac Tue).
For military musicians, the land and the battlefield are the hottest and fiercest. Truong Son to Nguyen Thanh is as attractive and ideal as the old days when he was a calo troupe heading to the Northwest. But during this period, with the work of a performing arts troupe, Nguyen Thanh had very little time to compose. Although he had not composed yet, his musical soul was already intertwined with Truong Son, and he had quietly accumulated quite a lot of emotions and materials.
Until the time of farewell and taking on a new mission, all the memories and attachments... flared up strongly. For many years after, despite having many other attractive topics, Nguyen Thanh still devoted much of his affection and time to writing about Truong Son: Lion No. 3 (lyrics: Ta Huu Yen); Star, Lamp, Eyes (lyrics: Luu Quang Ha); I Have a Truong Son (lyrics: Chau La Viet) and the entire symphony Truong Son Memories...
Nguyen Thanh is probably the type of musician who is afraid of superficial, fleeting emotions. He usually only dares to pick up a pen or a guitar when his emotions are deeply ingrained and settle into his soul. This way of working hardly gives him a high number of works, but it excludes him from compositions that are easy to write and easy to forget. That was also the case when he made October Emotions (lyrics: Ta Huu Yen). It was not until more than twenty years later that he wrote about the 308th Division, which he had been close to since his days of fighting the French, with the inscription: Dedicated to the Vanguard Division.
Night, the night he flew under the bridge
I have promised to come back tomorrow
The waves of the Red River beat the distant shore and sing forever
Beautiful lyrics, beautiful melody, rich in soulful resonance. Through October Emotions, we see Nguyen Thanh's diversity. He writes lyrically, passionately, but strongly in the marching rhythm. The consecutive 6/8 and 2/4 beats help him express those feelings well. When he finished writing the song, Nguyen Thanh played the piano, sang, and tears streamed down his cheeks. The fresh memories of his fighting life, deepened over the years, how could they not make him so moved and nostalgic! October Emotions deserves the award it received: the love and spread of many listeners.
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Memories of his life and years of fighting once again resurfaced in him, as this afternoon he and we sat in the middle of the Northwest front.
Through the Northwest mountains towering far and wide...
Thirty years of marching in song
Early this morning, I passed through the Northwest.
The musician wrote the song "The hair on the head is now silver"
Gone since the days of the Green-Haired National Guard
Marching through many waterfalls and rapids
Thirty years later, the soul is still blue in the Northwest sky.
A young poet who was sitting with us that afternoon wrote these lines for Nguyen Thanh, when Nguyen Thanh told the above story. Once again, guns were fired at the border, and military musicians marched to battle. Nguyen Thanh was here very early. He had time to write for the troops going to battle today, March to protect the Fatherland's border (Poem by Tran Dang Khoa):
The troops set out again in droves.
I'm used to long-term hardship.
Thousands of years of fighting...
Our fathers' land is our flesh and blood.
Bach Dang country, Dong Da country
Open Bach Dang again, open Dong Da again...
The song had just dried the ink, and was already being passed along the trenches by the troops. I think, March to Protect the Fatherland's Border is a continuation of Through the Northwest and will also be a "soldier's song" of the years of fighting to protect the border. And from Through the Northwest to March to Protect the Fatherland's Border today are two milestones, in between which is an artist's life, simple, rustic, profound, like the life of soldier Nguyen Thanh...
Chau La Viet
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