by Nguyễn Quảng Tuân

We have called live Ca trù in order to distinguish it from re-performed Ca trù referring to Ca trù singing sessions where people perform the famous ancient songs of former poets.

This was done in Ca trù club of Hùng Vương University from 2000 to 2004 and has been carried out in Ca trù Lạc Việt club since 2005. All performances are usually divided into two parts: ancient Ca trù and today Ca trù.
When performing ancient Ca trù, we arrange that all quan viên (beater of praised drum) sit on a sập (sập used for sitting or lying is made of wood and was very popular in rich Vietnamese families in the old days) and hold the praised drum, Ca trù songstresses and instrumentalist sit on a flowered sedge mat spread on the floor. The audience sits opposite to performers. Songs are selected from the famous ones of ancient poets.
When performing today Ca trù, we arrange that all artists sit on flowered sedge mats opposite to the audience. The beaters of praised drum are artists. Songs written according to the contents of activities such as a commemoration to famous men, celebration of great holidays, celebration for longevity, wedding, meeting, extolment of the famous compositions such as The Tale of Kiều, The Tale of Lục Vân Tiên, and extolment of the famous landscape at home and abroad, etc.
For no reason that we just perform such songs as Chơi xuân kẻo hết xuân đi, Ngày tháng thanh nhàn (Leisure time), Nhân tình thế thái (The way of the world) by Nguyễn Công Trứ; Uống rượu tiêu sầu (To drown the sorrows in drink), Ngán đời (Tired of the world), Nhân sinh thấm thoắt (Human life passes quickly) by Cao Bá Quát; Ông phỗng đá (Mr. dumb-bell), Mẹ Mốc (Ms. Mốc), Anh giả điếc (The person pretends to be deaf) by Nguyễn Khuyến; Hồng Hồng Tuyết Tuyết, Gặp cô đầu cũ (Meeting the old songstress), Tặng cô đào Cúc (To offer a songstress named Cúc) by Dương Khuê, Hương Sơn phong cảnh (Hương Sơn’s landscape) by Chu Mạnh Trinh; Gặp xuân (Meeting the spring), Hỏi gió (Ask the wind), Lại say (Be drunk again), and Đời đáng chán (What a dull life) by Tản Đà Nguyễn Khắc Hiếu. We should perform the songs about the Temple of Literature, Confucianism, the famous scholars or Nguyễn Du, and the Tale of Kiều, then those songs become actually meaningful.
We have watched a re-broadcasted TV programme of a Ca trù singing chorus organized in the Temple of Literature’s yard and in the Nguyễn Du’s Commemoration House. The performers included 30 singers, 30 instrumentalists, and 30 beaters of praised drum. That performance is not called the chamber music. Ca trù is a refined ancient pleasure and a skilful combination of poetry and music. The audience should not be a crowd but a small group, and they must be absolutely silent for co-enjoyment.
In some editions of the Literature and Arts magazine published in 1957, Hoàng Cầm wrote a story about the praised-drum holding of Nguyễn Tuân in order to accompany the song Tỳ bà hành performed by Ms. Phúc. Some young writers in the audience talked and giggled, breaking the silence. Nguyễn Tuân writer lashed the roi chầu (a drumstick made of precious wood) into the drumhead as warnings. When Ms. Phúc finished singing, he was very angry, stood up pat and left without saying a word. The next day, Hoàng Cầm came to his house. Yet had he asked no reasons, did Nguyễn Tuân shout, “From now on, you should not invite those “monkeys” any more if you want to organize something having Ca trù”. Through the above story, we come to the point that Ca trù singing must be organized in accordance with the chamber music’s settings and we cannot organize it for a crowd in a yard. We would like to present some following examples:
On the occasion of Mr. Giản Chi’s 100-year-old longevity, the Center of National Culture Research organized a ceremony for congratulations, they invited Thục An artist to sing a song entitled Congratulation on longevity, the lyrics is as below:
Kính mừng bách tuế xuân này,
Xiết bao quý trọng tự ngày quen nhau.
Chân tình kính chúc đôi câu,
Còn nhiều hưởng thụ, phúc lâu dồi dào.
Kính mừng thượng thọ,
Tuổi tác kia hồ dễ có ai bằng.
Đã xứng danh nguyên lão chốn đàn văn,
Lại riêng thú Đường thi hằng ngâm vịnh.
...
Nhã nhân thâm trí diên niên vĩnh
Lão hạc trường thanh vọng tố phu .
Khó quên chăng những buổi hát Ca trù,
Đầy hứng thú tiếng trống chầu lão luyện.
Cảnh "thượng các" bao cảm tình âu yếm,
Đến nay còn nhớ mãi chuyện thời xưa.
"Mặn nồng một vẻ một ưa,
Ngày xuân đã dễ tình cờ mấy khi".
Vui thay bách tuế lương thì!

After enjoying that song, Mr. Giản Chi seemed to have recalled all the days of his youth. He was pleased to tell his singings, boasted that his friends called him the first-class talented beater of praised drum. The ceremony to celebrate his longevity took place in an informal atmosphere of a live Ca trù singing session.
In the ceremony to celebrate Prof. Trần Văn Giàu’s 90-year-old longevity on 28th October 2001, the Ca trù Board of Hùng Vương University organized to sing a Recitative that starts with some sentences as below:
Bác đây là hiếm,
Mới sinh ra đã được tiếng là giàu.
Nhưng tiền tài Bác chẳng kể vào đâu,
Vốn chữ nghĩa trong đầu kia mới quý.
(This is a rare case
Because he got reputation to be a rich person
when he was born
However, he has not cared about money
He just values knowledge).

Mr. Giàu showed his great interest after enjoying four beginning sentences although he is a Southern person and seldom has chance to enjoy ả đào singing. So-performed Ca trù was really live Ca trù.
In a ceremony to award prizes for Golden books, the Hồ Chí Minh City General Publishing House invited Ca trù Lạc Việt Board to perform a song entitled Cảm đề cuộc thi (Write about the emotion of contest) as below:
"Những cuốn sách vàng" bao quý hiếm!
Hỏi bây giờ hồ dễ kiếm đâu ra?
Nhờ cuộc thi, các thư hữu gần xa
Đều hưởng ứng tham gia nhiều sách quý.
...
Quyển hữu kỳ hương chiêu tuấn sĩ,
Thư tàng dị bảo xuất anh tài.
Mừng Hội đồng đã lựa chọn không sai,
Sách kim cổ trong ngoài đều có đủ.
Nào tự điển, nào thi văn, nào Hán Nôm, nào ngoại ngữ.
Buổi trưng bày không phụ khách vào coi.
Đúng là tạo một sân chơi,
Biết bao hứng thú cho người yêu văn.
Hai năm mong lại một lần.

(Golden books” are so valuable and rare!
How can we find them?
Thanks to this contest, many people contribute many precious books
We are very glad that the Council selected correctly
There were all kinds of books, such as dictionary, prose and verse, Hán Nôm books, and language books.
The display came up to the expectations of guests and visitors
This created a playing-field and inspired literature lovers
We expect the next contest will be organized in two years)

This Recitative was sung in accordance with the contest’s settings in which the audience was prizewinners, who therefore were very enthusiastic and everybody felt that it was a meaningful live Ca trù.
Especially, in a Ca trù singing session we chaired in 2004 in the Association of French-speakers in Lê Duẩn street, Hồ Chí Minh city, Mr. Đỗ Bội Quyết presented Ca trù in front of some French and Vietnamese people. He also mentioned the history and literature of Ca trù, and invited the artist Thục An to perform two songs: an ancient song composed by Cao Bá Quát and our new song composed when we visited Paris.
It was also a live Ca trù, since the subject Paris cảm tác (Write about the emotion in Paris) was completely suitable with this session of the Association of French-speakers:
Bấy lâu ao ước,
Đến bây giờ mới được tới Paris.
Thoạt nhìn xem phong cảnh cũng thanh kỳ,
Tuy xa lạ nhưng kém gì thân thiết.
Ngọn tháp ép-phen coi lẫm liệt,
Công trường Công-cóoc nghĩ vô song.
Bạn bè xưa gặp lại những vui lòng,
Nửa thế kỷ đã muôn trùng xa cách.
Thú vị nhất là tìm ra bộ sách
Truyện Kiều Nôm nơi khách địa trân thư.
Ngỡ đâu sớm đã tạ từ,
Làm sao kể hết tâm tư nên lời.
Bâng khuâng nhớ cảnh nhớ người.
(Now we arrive in Paris after a long time of wish
The landscape is very beautiful, which is both strange
and close
The Eiffel Tower and the Concorde is imposing
We were very glad to meet again old friends after half
of a century
The most interesting thing is that we found the Kiều Nôm book there
How can we show all of our feelings
Feelings dazed and remembering people and landscape
of the old days).

In order to make those French participants understand the song’s content, we translated into French as below:
Impressions de Paris
Me voici arrivé à Paris,
Ville que je désire visiter depuis longtemps.
Dés le premier regard, le paysage m'apparait dans
sa singulière beauté.
Et bien qu'il me soit inconnu, il ne m'en est pas
moins intime.
La tour Eiffel se dresse majestueuse,
La Place de la Concorde est peut-être sans égale.
Le suis heureux de retrouver mes amis d'autrefois,
Dont j'éteis séperé depuis un demi siècle par une si
longue distance.
Mon plus grand plaisir est de retrouver en cette terre
étrangère un livre précieux,
Le célèbre Kim Vân Kiều en caractères démotiques.
Pourtant le séjour est bref, déjà je dois repartir.
Je ne trouve pas de mots pour exprimer mes pensées
et mes sentiments.
En proie à une vague mélancoie, Je garde en mémeire
les paysages, je n'oublie aucun visage.

In 2003, we went to Hanoi and invited Ca trù Thái Hà club to perform some tunes such as Tình bạn học (Schoolfellow-ship), Mừng gặp lại bạn cũ (Be happy as re-meeting the old friends), and Mừng họp mặt (Congratulation on the get-together) in the gathering among friends of the same promotion in Bưởi school who at that time were at the age of nearly 80. After listening to the singing performed by Thúy Hòa artist, all of my friends said, “This is the first time we have listened to Ca trù and it is a live Ca trù". They were moved when listening to the below singing sentences:
Kể từ khi cùng khóa kết bạn hiền,
Trong trường Bưởi mấy năm liền theo học.
Bao kỷ niệm êm đềm bền trí óc,
Đến bây giờ mái tóc đã hoa râm.
Trải bao gió bụi cát lầm,
Ai ngờ Nam-Bắc còn cầm gặp nhau.
Thời gian nghĩ thực trôi mau.
(It is a very long time since they made friends in Bưởi school. Now that all of us are old, it is unexpected that we can meet each other after a very long time. Time has passed so quickly).

Ms. Aliénor Anisensel also participated in that Ca trù singing session in order to study more about Ca trù. She asked me to teach Ca trù literature through Recitatives. She returned back to Vietnam in 2005 and stayed in Hanoi for five months. She arrived in Hồ Chí Minh City in 2006 in order to study more about the past and today Ca trù activities in Saigon. We introduced her to Mr. Nguyễn Nhã, who founded the Ca trù club of Hùng Vương University (the present-day Ca trù Lạc Việt club). Mr. Nhã organized a past and today Ca trù singing session on the evening of April 02, 2006 at his private house, No. 191/1D Trần Kế Xương, Phú Nhuận district. Prof. Dr. Trần Văn Khê was also present in this singing session.
In the past Ca trù part, Thanh Hiền artist sang two songs, namely Hồng Hồng Tuyết Tuyết and Quan Âm Thị Kính, and Thục An artist sang the songs Xẩm huê tình and ả phiền. Ms. Aliénor also sang the songs entitled Gửi thư and Hồng Hồng Tuyết Tuyết, and won praise of people there.
In the today Ca trù part, Thục An artist sang the song entitled Hoài hương (Homesickness) composed by a 93-year-old overseas Vietnamese resident named Phạm Công Huyền. Thanh Hiền artist sang the songs we composed including Kính mừng Giáo sư Trần Văn Khê (Respectfully congratulate Prof. Trần Văn Khê) and Thân tặng Aliénor Anisensel (With compliments to Ms. Aliénor Anisensel).
We have published the Recitative Mừng Giáo sư Trần Văn Khê in a book entitled Ca trù - Thú xưa tao nhã (Ca trù - a refined ancient pleasure). This time we write four more Mưỡu (prelude) sentences as follows:
Mấy người đã được "giáo thai",
Đến nay nức tiếng khắp ngoài năm châu.
Chân thành xin có đôi câu,
Kính mừng sự nghiệp bền lâu với đời.
After listening to some Mưỡu sentences and the Recitative, Prof. Trần Văn Khê said, “Although this song is very short, it describes me correctly with my ambitions, aspirations, and the works I have done”.
Ms. Aliénor was moved when listening to the song we wrote about her, performed by Thanh Hiền artist:
Chính là cô "pa-ri-diên"
Khéo thay lại gặp mối duyên Ca trù.
Bấy lâu học tập công phu,
Hẳn rồi đậu đạt đền bù vẻ vang.
*
A-li-ê-no quý mến,
Từ Pa-ri sang đến Việt Nam đây.
Với Ca trù những nghiên cứu mê say,
Dễ mấy kẻ đã sánh tày cùng cháu.
Hát nói: lời thơ đà hiểu thấu,
Gửi thư: tình cảm khá ôn nhuần.
Mấy năm trời học hỏi những chuyên tâm,
Đậu "Thạc sĩ" chuyện vô ngần hiếm có.
Tài năng ấy đến nay đà rạng tỏ,
Rồi mai đây Tiến sĩ rõ vinh danh.
Bỏ công vất vả học hành.
We translated the above-mentioned song into French in order that she could understand every sentence.
After that Ca trù singing session, she also participated in another two performances: one organized in the stage of cloud space on 10th April 2006, and the other organized on 11th April 2006 in Bình Quới village, Bình Thạch Dist. near Saigon river.
It can be said that thanks to those live Ca trù performances, Ms. Aliénor and participants have enjoyed the pleasure to listen to Ca trù singing together with suitable, in-the-right-scene and in-the-right-sentiment subjects. If the audience had listened only to the re-performance of ancient songs, they would not have been able to live in a real scene, would not have had the literature enjoyment’s pleasure like the author, and not have felt the emotive singing voice of the artist who meticulously trained his voice, kept breath together with the sounds of the instrument, the bamboo slab, and the praised drum.
Ms. Aliénor could not imagine that she would be allowed to participate in the live Ca trù performances, and was offered the Recitatives written for her when she went to Hồ Chí Minh city. After the singing sessions organized to receive her, she wrote some poems in French in order to show her impressions. We wrote the following poem as a present to her when she left for Hanoi:
Thân tặng Aliénor
Để kỷ niệm ba tuần cháu ở Sài Gòn
"Ba tuần tích cực" trôi qua,
Đêm nay là một, nữa là bao đêm.
Bấy nhiêu kỷ niệm êm đềm,
Bác còn nhớ mãi, cháu quên được nào?
*
Thật là tuyệt diệu!
Gặp bao người đồng điệu ở nơi đây.
Với Ca trù ai nấy những mê say,
Đã trình diễn luôn mấy ngày liên tiếp.
...
Khước hoài huề thủ tam tuần hiệp,
An đắc luân tâm kỷ dạ hoan.
Nào giao lưu, nào phỏng vấn, luận bàn,
Các báo chí đều loan tin rộng rãi.
Đài truyền hình cũng quay phim chiếu lại,
Ai cũng nghe: "Một cô gái Paris
Hát Ca trù!" câu chuyện kể hiếu kỳ.
Tài gõ phách mấy ai bì sánh kịp.
Hát Gửi thư, hát Hồng Hồng Tuyết Tuyết,
Cũng ngân nga, giữ nhịp kém chi ai.
Mai sau Tiến sĩ toàn tài.

Those Recitatives have made the Ca trù singings more lively. The author was very satisfied when listening to the artist’s beautiful singing. The person to be offered with the singing was even more satisfied when listening to the fine lyrics written for her. The sound of the praised drum, the bamboo slab, and the instrument mingled with each other. In this way, the live Ca trù made the art lovers moved. Such Ca trù must be a chamber music only reserved for people who both love literature and music.
The Recitative usually has two vertical lines written in Chinese, people will not find it interesting if they do not understand the meaning. For example, many people often read and artists often sing two lyrical sentences in the song Hồng Hồng Tuyết Tuyết composed by Dương Khuê as below:
Ngã lãng du thời quân thượng thiếu,
Quân kim hứa giá ngã thành ông.
(Thời ta đi chơi bời thì nàng còn nhỏ tuổi,
Nay nàng đến tuổi lấy chồng thì ta đã già rồi.)
(I indulged in pleasure when she was still very young
Now I’m old when she is old enough to get married)

The two above sentences must be written as below:
Ngã nẵng du thời quân thượng thiếu,
Quân kim hứa giá ngã thành ông
(Xưa ta đi chơi bời thì nàng hãy còn nhỏ tuổi,
Nay nàng đến tuổi lấy chồng thì ta đã già rồi.)
(Formerly, I indulged in pleasure when she was still
very young
Now I’m old when she is old enough to get married)
If "Ngã lãng du thời", it is not right in phép đối (the symmetry in meaning, tone, and rhythm between the poetical lines): the word of kim means “now”, which must be symmetric with the word of nẵng (that means “formerly”). With regard to the beat of the Tang vertical line, it must be 2+2+3:
Ngã nẵng/du thời/quân thượng thiếu,
Quân kim/hứa giá/ngã thành ông.
If writing "Ngã lãng du thời quân thượng thiếu", the vertical line’s beat is:
1 + 3 + 3
2 + 2 + 3
Moreover, the word lãng du thời means the period of traveling for pleasure and leading a nomadic life. It is different from the word du thời, which means the period of indulging in pleasure at ả đào singing houses.
We would like to add that with regards to these two vertical lines, Phan Kế Bính wrote in the Việt Hán văn khảo (A research on Vietnamese and Chinese literature) as below:
Ngã vị khứ thời khanh thượng thiếu,
Khanh lâm trưởng hậu ngã thành ông.
(Ta chửa quá thì, nàng còn nhỏ bé,
Nàng vừa mới lớn, ta đã thành ông già.)
(She was small when I have not passed the age for marriage
I become an old man when she is in awkward age)
Therefore, a person does not only listen to a songstress’ performance but enjoys literature as well when listening to Ca trù singing. For that reason, Ca trù is a refined ancient pleasure of Confucian scholars that cannot be performed in front of the public or a crowd.
We have just presented a brief writing, in which if there is anything incorrect, we would be grateful if you could counsel us.
Thank you very much.