Đặng Hoành Loan

In the writing Some comments after the national ca trù festival in 2011” of Prof. Doctor of Science Tô Ngọc Thanh, spoken in that festival, there is a statement: “Although gender equality is popular now, the fact that women play instruments and beat praise drum causes confusion of how to call these women. Can they be called female instrumentalists or female praise drum players?” Some days after that festival, I received some phones call to consult me about this issue. In reality, because I was asked suddenly and I did not have enough time for deep thinking, I promised to answer this issue when possible.

It was time to answer that question now on the occasion of the coming of the first winter wind, sitting in front of the computer and sipping the coffee cup, I made some discussions about “Instrumentalists and praise drum players should be male or female?”

From the past on, many writings about ca trù have mentioned two words “đào singers” and “kép instrumentalists” to refer to ca trù performers in ca trù guilds or performance places. However, no books or writings state clearly that kép instrumentalists must be man and đào singers must be women. Implicitly, in Ca trù, people suppose that kép instrumentalists are men, who play the đáy three-stringed lute, and đào singers (ả đảo, đào nương, or nữ nhạc) are women, who sing and dance. The photo of đào and kép in ca trù guilds, which are kept in the cabinet of the theatre Duyệt Thị Đường in Huế in one performance in Hue Citadel at the beginning of the twentieth century, provide us with this information. In that photo, there were three male instrumentalists holding the đáy three-stringed lute, one male holding a nhị two-stringed fiddle, and eight female singers playing clappers. In the photo of a ca trù guild, taken by the doctor Hocquarde in 1984-1985, female singers danced with paper lotus and male instrumentalists played the đáy three-stringed lute and praise drum. These two photos foster the belief about the gender of singers and instrumentalists in ca trù guilds from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century.

Photo 1: bông dance of a Ca trù guild

However, those above adduced documents provide only the evidences of the usage of two nouns “đào and kép” at the end of ca trù blossoming. It may be explained that at this stage, ca trù art of instrument playing, singing, and dancing reached its peak; thus, there should be clear division so that artists could develop all of their performance talent. This caused the situation that men specialised in playing instruments and women majored in singing (except some thể cách such as Giai singing or Tầng singing, which were performed by both females and males). How about previous centuries? Did the nouns đào and kép refer to females and males?

As far as we are concerned, in the sixteenth Thuận Thiên year, the King Lý Thái Tổ created the position quản giáp. Only singers were called quản giáp. At that time, one singer, called Đào Thị, was rewarded by the King because she was very talented in singing. As a result, from that time on, all singers have been called ả đào. Afterwards, the word quản giáp was mispronounced into kép^[1]. As such, kép or quản giáp are two nouns, which are synonyms of ả đào, đào nương, or nữ nhạc (female singers).

In the Lê dynasty, after the court institutionalised nhã nhạc royal music, secular music returned to people and musical guilds were assigned to manage music. “Talent kép instrumentalists were responsible for managing the musical guilds”². This means that kép and guild leaders cooperated with female singers at this time, who were very expert in dancing, singing, and instrument playing. Regarding this issue, Phạm Đình Hổ wrote: “Among instruments of musical guilds, there were flat clappers, made of old bamboo. When all instrumentalists were present, one old woman played clappers to keep time. Each quản giáp (kép instrumentalist) held one trúc địch, one yêu cổ, or one đới cầm (the đáy three-stringed lute)”³. In his description, he provided us with very important information about labour division and musical harmony of guilds. With regard to labour division, one oldest female singer held the position of “the conductor” and other young female singers (quản giáp) were instrumentalists. As for musical harmony, when all instrumentalists were ready, the oldest female singer started to play clappers to keep time for singers’ singing. His description is very similar to a sculpture at the temple Tam Lang, ích Hậu commune, Can Lộc district, Hà Tĩnh province, which will be mentioned later.

Ca trù lover circle have always admired the poem Cầm giả ca of the famous poet Nguyễn Du, written about talented singers and instrumentalists in Long Thành. This poem was written on his trip to another country as a King’s envoy at the end of the eighteenth century. Followed dances and singings was silent time. Suddenly, he heard melodious instrumental music, which was different from other contemporary one. That instrumental music was performed only by the singer Cầm, which he heard passionately 20 years ago whenever he visited the residence of the governor of the Northern area beside Giám lake. He looked at the instrumentalist with concentration and startled when he recognised that she was that artist.  However, he wondered why her appearance changed a lot, skinny, dry, and black skin, and faded clothes. Melancholy overwhelmed his soul and many questions invaded his mind. “Why did I see her after very long time of 20 years while Long Thành was very near? Why was that instrumental music still enchanting while she was withered? Many why questions emerged, causing my confusion and concern”. He wrote Cầm giả ca with his distress. That poem consists of 50 sentences, some of which describe the instrument playing of Ms. Cầm when she was young beside Giám lake⁴:

Năm cung thánh thót tay ngà lựa

Êm như gió mát thoảng rừng thông

Trong như tiếng hạc giữa thanh không

Buồn như Trang Tích ngọa bệnh ngâm khúc Việt

Mạnh như Tiến Phúc đầu bia sét đánh tung

Người nghe khoan khoái đều không chán,

Chín khúc ngày xưa ở nội cung.

Meaning translation:

Instrumental music, performed by delicate fingers

Melodious like fresh breeze in pine forest

Sweet like cranes’ singing in the air

Melancholic as Trang Tích recited a Vietnamese poem
when he was diseased ⁵

Strong as lightning shattered Tiến Phúc stele ⁶

Audiences feel at ease

When listening to nine musical pieces in the imperial palace

There is a part, describing the instrumental music of Ms. Cầm with full of her tear in the party after 20 years of the mutiny.

Giọng mới cung xưa giọt lệ rơi

Lặng nghe tiếng hát não lòng người.

Present music is of tears

Listening to grievous singing

In the 1990s of the twentieth century, we visited the private house of the people’s artist Quách Thị Hồ many times to audio record her ca trù singing styles and recitation. Among those audio documents, the people’s artist Quách Thị Hồ sang the complete song of Tỳ bà hành with 92 poem sentences, among of which were four poem sentences, quoted in Thu hứng poem of Đỗ Phủ, translated by Ngô Thế Vinh and 88 poem sentences, cited in Tỳ bà hành poem of Bạch Cư Dị, translated by Phan Huy Vịnh. That whole song lasts 45 minutes. This audio is unprecedented. We visited her another time to audio-record her recitation and at this time, we discovered her talent of playing the đáy three-stringed lute. After finishing to audio-record her recitation of two ancient poems, we asked her during break: “When did you start to learn to play that instrument?” She smiled gently, placed the đáy three-stringed lute on the mat, and said: “I learnt it when I was young. I cannot remember the time. At that time, many artists wrote poems and literature compositions and they gave them to me for my singing and recitation. There was only recitation without instrumentalists in many performances. Poems could be chanted with many modal characteristics such as Sổng, Bắc, Nam, Pha, Bình, Sa mạc and Bồng mạc, etc. It was unnecessary to play clappers for recitation. Reciters could play instruments by themselves for their recitation, which many poets liked”.

To prove the phenomenon that women played the đáy three-stringed lute, I provide some evidences related to Ca trù and the đáy three-stringed lute players at some temples and villages’ communal houses.

At the communal house Lỗ Hạnh, Lỗ Hạnh village, Hiệp Hòa district, Bắc Giang province (the sixteenth century) was the half-length sculpture of a woman, playing a đáy lute. Behind was the image of a deer running. That sculpture is still undamaged. It is supposed that this sculpture describes a female instrumentalist or a fairy, riding a deer and playing an instrument. At the communal house Đại Phùng, Đại Phùng commune, Đan Phượng district, Hà Nội (the seventeenth century), there was the sculpture of a female instrumentalists carrying a đáy three-stringed lute in the procession of the first doctoral candidate’s returning to his village. There is a wooden sculpture of a female instrumentalist of the đáy three-stringed lute at the village’s communal house Tây Đằng in accordance with the architecture style in the sixteenth century at Ba Vì town, Hà Nội. A sculpture of a band of female instrumentalists (some people call them fairies) has the images of a female đáy instrumentalist and a female drum player at the village’s communal house Tam Lang, ích Hậu commune, Can Lộc district, Hà Tĩnh province (the eighteenth century). There is a sculpture of a female đáy instrumentalist (or a fairy) at the village’s communal house Lê Khôi, Thạch Kim commune, Thạch Hà district, Hà Tĩnh province (the eighteenth century). At the village’s communal house Xốm, Hùng Lô commune, Phong Châu district, Phú Thọ province was the sculpture of a female band including a female đáy instrumentalist (the seventeenth century). 

Although the above evidences are few, they are strong enough to make us believe that throughout the Lý, Trần, and Lê dynasties, ả đào used to be the owners of the đáy three-stringed lute and be in the position of quản giáp in Ca trù guilds. Nevertheless, I do not have enough adequate knowledge to explain when the roles of đáy-instrument playing and quản giáp were transferred to men, which is waiting for the opinions of scholars.

How about women playing praised drums (known as cầm chầu)?

From the past on, the documents show that playing praised drum has been the task of mandarins or high-ranked people in villages or districts. There are no documents mentioning that women are responsible for performing the praised drum.

In the book Ca trù bị khảo (Research on ca trù), which is concerned with the origin of playing praised drum: “When the King Trịnh governed, the female musical band were in his residence for his every party celebration. The King appointed one mandarin, who was expert in music, held the position of Cổ lệnh. This mandarin beat the drum with a drum stick at the yard to signal the female band to start their performance. They could be punished or awarded depending on they performed well or badly. Because this mandarin played the drum at the yard, called sân chầu, people called this person “cầm chầu or đánh chầu”⁷.

Regarding the habit of playing the praised drum, Phan Kế Bính wrote: “In the sacrifice ceremony, instrumentalists and singers sang to send their regards and wishes to Gods and then they sang throughout night. The whole village sat and enjoyed the performance and high-ranked people took turns to play the praised drum” ⁸.

Many documents are clearly concerned that the praised drum players were mandarins or literate high-ranked people in villages instead of people in musical guilds. In accordance with the habit of Vietnamese rural areas, these high-ranked people must be males, instead of females.

From the above evidences, it can be summarised that:

-          Firstly, the phenomenon of women, playing the đáy three-stringed lute, is the repeat of what used to happen in the past, giving equality back to women in the art of musical guilds. We should support it. In addition, at present, few people spend their effort in learning to play the đáy lute; accordingly, the community should accept and highly appreciate this issue.

- Secondly, in the past, females were allowed to play praised drums and recite poems and at present there are more female poets than male ones; thus, they should be allowed to do that too presently. If female poets play praised drums and recite poems, ca trù will be more colourful in modern time.

*

My above discussion about females’ playing the đáy lute and praised drums is my answer for my friend’s question in the recent conversation. If there are any mistakes or deficiencies, please forgive me.

[1]. Đỗ Bằng Đoàn, Đỗ Trọng Huề: Vietnamese Ca trù Study, Ho Chi Minh Publisher, p. 34.

2. Đỗ Bằng Đoàn - Đỗ Trọng Huề: quoted book, p. 35.

3. Phạm Đình Hổ: Vũ Trung Tùy bút. Văn nghệ Publishers, Hồ Chí Minh city, p.62.

4. Quoted from the poem ofNguyễn Du and the writing Long Thành Cầm giả ca of the scholar Nguyễn Quảng Tuân. The scholar Nguyễn Quảng Tuân sent this writing to me for the publishment in the book One thousand years of Thăng Long Hà Nội. Nevertheless, the Music Publisher excluded this writing after their censor.

5. Trang Tích: He was Vietnamese and a mandarin in Sở country. When he was sick, the King of Sở country asked the physician Trung Tạ: “Does Trang Tích still miss the Vietnamese country?”.  Trung Tạ responded: “Sick people often miss their home towns”. The King of Sở country asked a person to keep close watch of him and that person heard Trang Tích sing a very melancholic Vietnamese song.

6. Tiến Phúc stone stele: One poor friend asked Phạm Trọng Yêm for his words to sell it to get money. Phạm Trọng Yêm said: “I will help you with money to buy paper and ink so that you can copy the words on the stele at Tiến Phúc pagoda to sell them to wealthy people for money”. That friend followed his instruction and went away. Tomorrow morning, it suddenly rained heavily and lightning shattered Tiến Phúc stele.

7. Đỗ Bằng Đoàn, Đỗ Trọng Huề,  p. 34

8 . Phan Kế Bính: Vietnamese customs. Literature Publisher, p. 81