Vietnam TravelTravel Special FeaturesHanoi - The Ancient CapitalHanoi - Songs of a Thousand Years

Hanoi - Songs of a Thousand Years

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Another weekend night in Hanoi. You're wondering what to do. The endless lines of shops, the usual nightclubs. A world away from the street noise and expat entertainment is a small venue in the old quarter called Cau Lac Bo Am Nhac Sac Viet (Vietnamese Identity Music Club).

It’s a narrow space lined with bamboo screens and navy blue silk curtains that span from wall. The lighting is dim and the guests trickle in quietly, slowly filling the floor. You sit on wide square pillows and sip apricot wine or traditional tea (nuoc voi) and nibble on peanuts and candied ginger. Fell free to talk to the stranger next to you. It's a casual atmosphere, but don't be deceived. This is some of the best traditional music you'll find in Vietnam.

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the club features three genres: Ca Tru, Cheo and Chau Van. Music plays a hug role in Vietnamese cultural life - it's not just a form of entertainment, but a kind of language, an affirmation of one's ties, a marking of the seasons. Folk music in Vietnam has a long and meaningful history, whether it is a group of poets gathering for a visit and creating a Ca Tru piece, villagers celebrating the harvest with a Cheo performance, or an ailing person seeking spiritual help through a Chau Van chant, the music plays a central role.

Ca Tru music is balladic-measured, deep and sorrowful at times. The voice comes from deep within the throat to offer perfectly enunciated poetic lyrics. The singer is female and she plays a Phach, a wooden board that she taps with two wooden sticks. She's accompanied by a Dan Day, a long-necked lute with three silk strings and 10 frets, and a Trong Chau drummer. The lute player adds harmony to the singing and keeps time. In the old days, the drummer was a connoisseur who used the Trong Chau to either praise or chastise the singer depending on how he beat the drum, whether he beat it on the top or the side, tapped it quickly, or in succession.

The music is also known as A Dao (Female Singer), an allusion to a legend about a singer who helped defeat the foreign enemy with her singing. The genre dates back to the 11th century and became a popular court form of entertainment during the Le Dynasty in the 16th century and the Nguyen Dynasty in the 18th century. During the French colonial period, there was a street in the Old Quarter called Pho Kham Thien or Pho Co Dau, famous for it Ca Tru tea houses. These places were later shut down because of fears that they were hotbeds for prostitution and drugs. But in the Doi Moi era ("Renovation", beginning in 1986), the music has been revived and older artists are teaching young ones. At this club, you'll hear a 12-year-old singer performing mesmerizing 1,000-year-old ballads.

Whereas Ca Tru was the music of the royal court, Cheo came out from the villages of the Red River Delta. The singing can be quite pitched and the lyrics are more akin to colloquial Vietnamese. Drums, flutes and stringed instruments accompany the singer, whose stylistic hand gestures and facial expressions remind one of the operatic natures of the genre. Audience members show approval by tapping on a drum.

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