After 60 years of war and chaos, hat tho cua dinh, a genre of Vietnamese folk music, seemed to disappear except for mentions in encyclopedias and history books. Thang Long ca tru (popular folk music) club revived the endangered music form recently in Hanoi.
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| Foreign tourists watch the hat tho cua dinh show performed by Thang Long ca tru club in Hanoi. The type of folk music was almost lost. Photo by SGT. |
Hat tho cua dinh is a kind of offering ceremony in the North to worship gods and pray for good harvest, nice weather and a happy life.
The club staged a hat tho cua dinh show for the club’s fourth birthday in Hanoi. Before the show started there were some rituals then a trong ruoc (a drum procession) welcomed the gods.
“This singing group was started by Thang Long ca tru club to bring more variety to our shows and to entertain. Audiences can easily distinguish the singer’s voice and the sounds of phach [small wooden sticks beaten on a small bamboo platform]”, the club chairwoman Pham Thi Hue said.
Giang Vo Exhibition Center at 148 Giang Vo Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, has free shows of hat tho cua dinh on the first Saturday of each month. They also hold weekly folk music workshops.
