Assoc. Prof. - Dr. Nguyễn Thụy Loan

Ca trù is one the rare traditional music and singing genres that has a rich documentation store written in Hán Nôm (Chinese – Vietnamese) and Vietnamese scripts as well. From the last centuries to the early 21th century, there appeared many documentations such as some brief informations or even hundreds-of-pages projects writing about or relating to Ca trù. That is actually the valuable documentations, in particular the Hán - Nôm ones with significant historical values, those contribute to clarify many former details about a genre that seems to have disappeared from the cultural and spiritual activity environment of Vietnamese people.

 Although there are quite many aspects in need of discussion and more profound study, many Ca trù issues can be supposed very clear. Recently, some concepts and information relating to the musical instruments used in Ca trù, which were introduced in Bulletin Vol. 15 and Vol. 16 (two special issues about Ca trù published in 2005) of the Vietnamese Institute for Musicology, made many people who don’t know or know little about Ca trù astonished. I would like to take this occassion to exchange some ideas about a singing form that has ever been and is being listed in Ca trù form according to some authors. Hopefully, those exchanges and responses will provide information in order to clear up some questions and to understand more about quite many aspects of Ca trù.
I. About some musical instruments used in Ca trù
Whether there is chũm chọe (a kind of cymbal) in Ca trù performance or not?
There is a new information about the musical instruments used in Ca trù performance, namely chũm chọe (About the history and development of Ca trù Việt Nam ). The above paper’s author presented this information when he introduced Ca trù in 17th-18th centuries via the scuplture of villages’ communal houses and temples of Vietnamese people. However, the author did not write clearly that the musical instrument is availble in what sculptures of village’s communal houses and temples among those quoted vestiges.
Via photos (collected by the Institute of Fine Arts) of the engravings related to Ca trù (including đàn đáy (the three-string lute)) in villages’ communal houses and temples in 17th-18th centuries, we did not find any musical instrument similar to chũm chọe. Only the engraving in Tam Lang temple shows two round-shaped objects held by a folk artist, however, it is a pair of trống mảnh (the single-head drum) (we wrote a paper about this issue entitled What are two round-shaped objects in the engraving in Tam Lam temple?).
With respect to the document, we have not found any offical documentation mentioning that chũm chọe is a musical instrument of music guilds and Ca trù as well in 17th-18th centuries.
Whether there is chũm chọe in Ca trù performance or not?
About sênh and phách
There are two new informations:
- “Phách (the bamboo slab) and sênh tiền (the castanets with coins stringed) are two parts making up a musical instrument. (...) A songstress beats two phách into the sênh when singing. (...) Although those are two equal parts, people usually call phách in order to refer to the sênh and phách” ?
- “From our point of view, sênh and phách are two different percussions, both of them are played in ả đào singing. Sênh is made from two pieces of trắc wood (a kind of wood), is two centimenters wide and twenty centimeters long. A songstress stands and beats these two pieces into each other when playing the sênh. Phách comprises lá phách (a wooden stick) and bàn phách (a bamboo slab). Lá phách consists of a single and a double wooden stick. (...)” .
Via two above informations, we would like to exchange as below:
a) Phách - sênh tiền and sênh tiền - sênh: Does each name in each above pair refer to one or two different musical instruments?
We can give the answer as follows:
- Phách and sênh tiền (sinh tiền) are two independent musical instruments.
Seemingly, it is not neccessary to discuss since there are many documentations writing about these two musical instruments. What is called sênh tiền among the masses is both an instrument and a prop as well used in sênh tiền dance that still exists up to now in many festivities of many villages in Northern Vietnam. It also appears in many Vietnamese Court orchestras. Phách used in Ca trù has been described by many people. Although some documentations do not reach concensus with regard to the name of sticks, most of them agree that phách used in Ca trù comprises a bamboo slab and two sticks. We do know on what base an explanation relies to present that “Phách and sênh tiền are two parts making up a musical instrument.” ?
- What about sênh tiền and sênh ? – Those are also two different musical instruments.
Mr. Phạm Đình Hổ presented a very clear information as follows: sinh (i.e. sênh) and sinh tiền (sênh tiền) - or phách and phách quán tiền are two different musical instruments. The understanding-way of the masses and the Court in 20th century towards the sênh (or phách) and sênh tiền (or phách quán tiền, phách tiền) is also unanimous like that. For example, the typescript entitled “History of two ban Ba vũ (Singing-Dance-Music) and ancient music of Huế royal palace” that we read in the Second National Library provides some information about Small music, in which it mentions about two kinds of phách, namely “phách tiền” and another kind of phách.
Accordingly, was the author of the first quotation paragraph wrong when identifying the sênh tiền and sênh?
b) Does the name of sênh and phách refer to one or two musical instruments?
This issue is more complicated. We should resolve the relating aspects each by each.
If sênh and phách are two different musical instruments, how should we understand when comparing with the documentation given by Mr. Phạm Đình Hổ?
“Musical instruments of music guilds include (...) phách so-called sinh; and phách quán tiền so-called sinh tiền” .
What should we understand? - if sênh and phách are two different musical instruments – when comparing with the calling-way handed down in the art and culture life of Vietnamese people until 20th century: some places / some people call a musical instrument phách while some others call it sênh, we can see some cases as below:
First case: Introduction part b (Thi Sơn commune, Kim Bảng district, b), Tân Huyền and Sơn Tùng present about Dậm singing, “the accompanied instrument just includes a xênh” (they write in the summary paragraph as follows: “a pair of made-from-wood xênh”). Performer is the trùm (head of a music guild), he stands in the middle and beats into the xênh “creating the rhythms” when dậm performers sing before altar .
With regard to this genre, Nguyễn Hữu Thu calls the instrument used by trùm “a set of phách”. Literally, “a set of phách reserved for trùm is played to beat time” . According to the author of the quoted paper, not to mention the hát kép part, performers also “beat phách to create rhythms” (pg. 24).
We can believe that the name of “phách” given by Nguyễn Hữu Thu to refer to the instrument used by trùm in this folksong genre is the calling-way of locality, since there is also this word in the lyrics of hát kép:
Đứng ở ngoài nghĩ mà cũng tức
Bực phải vào gõ phách, ngâm thơ
(Meaning translation: Standing outside and feeling irritated, thus, I must come in to beat phách and recite the poem)
Second case: in tàu tượng singing in Tân Hội commune, Đan Phượng district, Hà Đông, a person creates rhythms by beating two wooden pieces while performing. Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Lục in Tân Hội hamlet, Tân Hội commune, Đan Phượng (she still has a sound mind despite her 91-year-old age) provided us with that instrument’s name. She still remembered that her father was a chúa tàu (the manager of a tàu tượng singing session) when she was 12 (It has been 79 years since that time). At that time, people learnt in her house in four months, she also sang. She told, “two cô cái (women who perform the main singing part), each held a pair of phách” . When we met her for researches, she still remembered many songs, performed the singing and dance for our filming and recording. A pair of phách that she mentioned comprises two flat wooden pieces, she beat into each other while performing. Mrs. Nguyễn Thị ánh Tuyết, the then cultural staff and the Chairwoman of the Chèo tàu singing club, may imitate predecessors to call this instrument a pair of phách .
Mrs. Lập in Thúy Hội hamlet also used this term when performing Bài tầu bốn song:
Khoan khoan ta hãy khoan khoan,
Ta khoan tiếng phách ta bàn hội ta.
Từ năm Nhâm tuất vua ra,
(Meaning translation: we should stop the phách performance in order to discuss our group’s affair...).
However, we again find the name of sênh in the lyrics of Bài tầu một song collected in Thượng Hội hamlet by the authors of “Dô singing, Chèo tầu singing - Hà Sơn Bình folk song” book:
Cái sings:
Hời hỡi các bạn tầu ta,
Nghe tiếng sênh ba thì ngoảnh mặt lại,
Từ mũi chí lái xếp mái cho đều,
Nghe sênh hát gióng tay chèo khoan khoan.
Con replies:
Nghe sênh hát gióng tay chèo khoan khoan,
Hò khoan khoan hỡi hò khoan.
As far as we know, this folk-song form just includes a kind of phách that we saw by ourselves. Thus, it is difficult to suppose that the “sênh” word in this song refers to an instrument different from phách that was mentioned in Bài tầu bốn song as well as different from the calling-way of above folk artists. In other words, sênh and phách mentioned in tàu - tượng singing are the names to refer to an instrument (which consists of two pieces, and is made from wood or old bamboo like in Xoan singing or some folk-song genres of other localities). Player beats those two pieces into each other while performing.
We can find the phenomenon, that identifies two names of sênh and phách like in tầu - tượng singing, in a paper writing about another folk-song genre as follows.
Third case, in hò đình Bơi singing in An Cốc Hạ hamlet, Hồng Minh commune, Phú Xuyên district, Hà Sơn Bình, Nguyễn Hữu Thức related that the performers “sing according to the control of a bamboo-phách holder” when singing before the altar. In the last part of the hò session (chơi chải game), “each pair including four old people who wear the long dresses and the ready-to-wear turbans stand face to face, they hold the xênh (...)” .
It is difficult to suppose that the bamboo phách and xênh held by performers standing before the altar or in chơi chải game (in case those are different from each other) can be the phách bàn beaten with two sticks (since players stand while performing). Possibly, both of them are a kind of phách (or sênh) with two sticks (which are beaten into each other while performing) that we usually find in many folk-song genres of the Việt people (and some other minorities). In other words, that is a kind of instrument similar to “a pair of sênh”, “a set of phách” in Dậm singing or “a pair of phách” in tàu-tượng singing as above-mentioned. However, in the cases before, we can see that some places or some people call an instrument sênh while some other places or some other people call it phách – but in this case: that instrument is called phách at the former part and xênh at the latter one.
Fourth case, when three researchers including Tú Ngọc, Dương Huy Thiện, and Nguyễn Khắc Xương wrote about Xoan singing (Phú Thọ), all of them mentioned about phách – one of two accompanied instruments in Xoan singing (drum and phách) . Tú Ngọc researcher presents quite concretely, that is “some pairs of phách made from old bamboo” .
The word “pair” shows this is a two-unit instrument similar to the “pair of phách” in tàu tượng singing as aforesaid. However, like in giậm singing written by Nguyễn Hữu Thu, that instrument can be called sênh (xênh) in some places and be called phách in Xoan singing.
We have extra information about a folk-song genre of other locality related to sênh and phách. However, it is among the masses, what about the Court music? We would like to quote one from some documentations related to sênh and phách in Vietnamese Court music.
We return the story about phách in Small music of Huế as above: we know that two ban Ba vũ (Singing-Dance-Music) and the ancient music of Huế royal palace are descendants of Nguyễn-dynasty Court music. In the documentation as quoted above (unknown author), in addition to “phách tiền” there is the second kind of phách so-called “a set of phách một”. I could not imagine how it looks like when reading the first time the name of this phách. Luckily, in 1996, I had a chance to meet Mr. Hồ Đăng Châu (born in 1943) whose homeland is in Phú Lệ, Quảng Phú commune, Quảng Điền district, Thừa Thiên - Huế. He told me that he had ever been an instrumentalist of the children group established in Bảo Đại dynasty, and he had performed the Court Music since 1954. He also mentioned about “phách một” and “phách tiền” in the Small music orchestra and related that “phách một” comprises two wooden pieces .
In the South, we find a pair of sanh and a set of sanh in bài chòi folk songs of the South Central Coast . However, according to a Tuồng drum master – the Meritorious Artist Dương Long Căn (born in 1922) whose homeland is in Bình Định, those two pieces were formerly made from old bamboo and changed to be made from wood later. Those are played to beat time in the ceremonial music of the Việt people in Bình Định and the Central Coast’s provinces in general, and in Tuồng singing as well (in this case, those are called phách or phách ngô ).
With regard to phách ngô in Tuồng, a lecturer of the Theatre Department (the National Theatre and Cinema University) named Nguyễn Đình Vệ also confirms as follows: in 1964-1976, Tuồng lecturers of the Vietnamese School of Stage Arts (such as Meritorious Artist Hoàng Hiệp Tắc and Mr. Phú whose homeland are in Thái Bình) formerly used two bamboo pieces with outer layer and beat into each other creating rhythms, they called those phách ngô.
Accordingly, not only the masses but the Court Music and the traditional scholarly stage art as well (Tuồng singing) also use the term of phách (phách một, phách ngô) in order to refer to a kind of instrument among the masses so-called a pair of sênh or sanh, or a pair of sanh, etc, or a pair of phách or a set of phách, etc.
Now we can conclude an aspect related to an instrument so-called phách or sênh (sinh or sanh, etc) as below:
Although it is called a set of phách or a set of phách một, a pair of phách, a set of phách, a sinh, a pair of xênh, a pair of sanh, a set of sanh, etc, it is still a kind of instrument played in the above music and singing genres, and is mainly used to create rhythms. This instrument makes up of two wooden or old-bamboo pieces and has the image of a flat rectangle or a round bar (it can be polished a little at one or two ends). People beat two pieces into each other while performing.
This kind of sênh/phách is called the sênh/phách thanh .
Now we discuss another instrument so-called sênh/phách bàn.
Is there any time this instrument is called sênh or sinh? In the writing about Xẩm singers in the book entitled Les chants et les traditions populaires des annamites of G. Dumoutier published in 1890, the author mentioned about “cái sinh”. As the author’s description, it is a wooden piece and player beats into it while performing (...). Literally: “le cái sinh, morceau de bois sur lequel on frappe en cadence” . Obviously, this instrument is different from two wooden pieces that the singers sometimes beat into each other when singing in the banquets as decribed in page No. 9: “Quelquefois, elle s’accompagne en frappant l’un contre l’autre deux morceaux de bois de fer, (...)” .
Cái sinh of Xẩm singers that G. Dumoutier surveyed and wrote during his stay in the Northern Vietnam from 1886 to 1889 is not a pair of sênh or a pair of phách (belonging to the kind of sênh/phách thanh) as mentioned above. It is a kind of phách bàn, people beat a stick into a wooden piece when performing.
Via this documentation, we can see that not only phách thanh but phách bàn as well can be called sinh. This completely coincides with the information given by Mr. Phạm Đình Hổ when mentioning about the instruments of music guild at his time. The engraving in Tam Lang temple can be a clear proof for the kind of phách that he mentioned (please refer to the next Section c).
What is the nature of sênh and phách issue?
First of all, the above documentations allow us to believe in the correctness of information related to two concepts of sinh and phách (given by a Phạm-surnamed scholar from the late 18th century to the early 19th century): sinh (sênh, sanh) and phách are two different calling-ways of the same instrument. The correctness of what he wrote related to sinh and phách issue has been confirmed via a calling-way handed down until 20th-21th centuries in many traditional singing and music genres in different localities as aforesaid.
Secondly, sinh (or sênh, sanh) and phách can be used as two synonym words and refer to both phách thanh and phách bàn.
It is a practical phenomenon that identifies two terms of sênh and phách in the way of calling and understanding. There is another case: sênh and phách are used to refer to two different instruments, i.e. sênh (a pair of sênh) is used to refer to sênh/phách thanh while phách (a set of phách) is used to refer to sênh/phách bàn.
Why is there such phenomenon?
In order to answer the above question, we should first of all study the following issues:
c) Sinc when was phách thanh and phách bàn used in Ca trù?
Basing on the documents: the documentation (supposed as the most ancient one until now by many researchers), that provides information related to Ca trù and ả đào instruments used in performance, is the poem entiled Đại nghĩ bát giáp thưởng đào giải văn written before 1505 by Lê Đức Mao (1462-1529). The next one is Vũ trung tùy bút of Phạm Đình Hổ (1768-1839). Lê Đức Mao only mentioned sênh in his poem and did not provide any extra information, which can’t help us to recognize this instrument. According to Vũ trung tùy bút, from the late 18th century to the early 19th century (at Mr. Phạm’s time) and possibly before (because he also wrote some stories of the previous centuries), songstresses used phách (sinh), phách quán tiền (sinh tiền), and trống mảnh (the single headed drum) in their performance. However, the author did not describe phách, we thus cannot specify whether it is phách thanh or phách bàn. Accordingly, we cannot base on the two above documentations to specify the sênh or phách mentioned from the late 15th century to the early 16th century as well as from the late 18th century to the early 19th century, since as mentioned in Section b) that the two words phách and sinh (or sênh, sanh) can be used to refer to sênh/phách thanh and sênh/phách bàn as well.
Another unknown-origin documention related to Ca trù’s origin is Sự tích Tổ cô đầu (Legend of cô đầu’s progenitor) presented in Việt Nam Ca trù biên khảo (Researches on Ca trù of Vietnam) by Đỗ Bằng Đoàn - Đỗ Trọng Huề. To base on the details of that legend, we can define that the instrument used by Ca trù woman progenitor is phách bàn (this issue was shown in a paper entitled Presenting extra about the appearance time of Ca trù ).
Basing on the ancient fine-art sources: in the engravings related to Ca trù (including the appearance of the đàn đáy) of the Việt people between 16th-18th centuries, we have not yet found any case showing the presence of phách thanh. We just find a case (in Tam Lang temple) in which there is the image of an instrumentalist using two sticks to beat into a long object put on the ground. That can be a made-from-old bamboo dịp or phách. If it is the phách, it will be a kind of phách bàn beaten with two sticks. (We cannot define whether this instrument is cái dịp or a set of phách since Mr. Phạm did not write clearly whether “cái dịp made from old bamboo has a flat image, is around three or four thước long (a former measurement unit that is around 0.425 meter)” is beaten with one or two sticks and how does “cái dịp” look like. Nevertheless, we incline toward the phách, since cái dịp with the length of three or four thước descibed by Phạm Đình Hổ must be around between 1.3 – 1.7 meters long, and the instrument’s length in the engraving put in Tam Lang temple is not so long like that. Additionally, that instrument, with only the function “to beat time for music” , may not need two sticks for beating).
Nevertheless, via documentations that we have ever known up to now, that is the first image left by ancestors about the usage of an instrument that is still popular at present and is usually called phách or sênh in music and singing activities . (In this case, that is the performance of music guilds who use the đàn đáy - a specific instrument of Ca trù). If it is not the made-from-old bamboo cái dịp but phách (as above mentioned), according to instruction of the ancient Việt sculpture, the first kind of phách (sinh or sênh) used in performance of ả đào guilds was a kind of phách bàn.
To base on the drawings between 16th-18th centuries: we can find that there are very few drawings related to Ca trù. We did not find any instrument belonging to the kind of sênh or phách in the documentation related to the singing and music activities in Đường Ngoài (from Quảng Bình province to the North) in the late 17th century (in which there is the appearance of a performance group who also used the đàn đáy)
We did find the appearance of phách thanh in the image and the text’s description (that instrument’s name was not written) of the collected documents published in the late 19th century . Additionally, there is a photo taken by a French person (maybe in the early 20th century), which is now archived in the museum of the Huế Monuments Conservation Center. Among the group who are written at the end of that photo as “Actors / actresses of Huế Court”, there are two following instruments: a male instrumentalist holds the đàn đáy and a girl holds a pair of phách thanh, other girls hold the paper fans.
As far as we know up to now, both the fine-art sources (including the sculpture and painting) and the ancient documents between 16th-18th centuries do not give any information about the usage of a pair of phách thanh in the music and singing activities in general and in the performance of music guilds and Ca trù in particular.
It should note that sênh/phách thanh did exist although we did not find it in the music and singing performance in 18th century and before. The pair of phách thanh is not present in the engraving of singing and dance and music performance in Tam Lang temple, however, we can find it in the hand of a person sitting at the boat’s head (in the engraving of the boat-rowing image). In addition to a percussionist there is a person playing the wind instrument. Although they are side by side, they do not direct towards one side like many other music and singing performances. The person playing the wind instrument stands while his face directs toward the boat’s head, the percussionist sits and his face directs toward five boatmen who are bending their back to push the oars, which looks like that he is monitoring and giving signals to the rowing. Accordingly, this pair of phách may be mainly used to control the rowing rhythms rather than present a concert with the wind-instrument player (We should remind that until 20th century, the pair of flat bamboo pieces have been used to give signal in the obsequies of the Việt people, and they also use the bamboo tocsin, small drum, or a pair of sênh to control the rowing during their boat competitions).
Supposing that sênh mentioned in the poem of Lê Đức Mao (from the late 15th century to the early 16th century) belongs to the kind of sênh/phách thanh, why there is not this instrument (except the one that we suppose the sênh/phách bàn) in the engravings of singing and dance and music performances (in which the instruments also include the đàn đáy) from the late 16th century to the early 18th century? Why there is not any detail related to the pair of phách thanh in Legend of cô đầu’s progenitor? Why until 19th century there did appear sênh/phách thanh in the documentations that present the performance images of songstresses and instrumentalists (who use the đàn đáy)? This leads us to an explanation: before new documentations different from our knowledge appear, we can contemporarily give some judgments as below:
Is it that until 18th century sênh/phách thanh was just a tool to give signal and was not used officially as an instrument in the music and singing activities, especially in Ca trù performance, and until the mid or late 19th century, it was used as an intrument to create rhythms during the music and singing activities of music guilds?
- If this is correct, sênh/phách thanh has just been performed in Ca trù since around 19th century. With the function to create rhythms, it replaces the made-from-old bamboo cái dịp that Mr. Phạm listed in the instruments of music guilds.
- Basing on the first image left by ancestors (in the engraving in Tam Lang temple) and the Legend of cô đầu’s progenitor, we can suppose sênh/phách bàn as the “original” sênh/phách of Ca trù.
Now we study the next aspects.
d) Why is phách thanh put in Ca trù ?
There are two possibilities:
Firstly, a đàn đáy folk artist in Hải Dương named Nguyễn Phú Đẹ related that people formerly did not allow songstresses and instrumentalists to sit while performing cửa đình singing in supernatural-powered places, thus, they must have played the “pair of sênh” while standing.
It is true that the phách bàn players must sit to perform if there is not a high stand for putting the instrument. As for phách thanh, players can perform despite sitting or standing. However, it seems that most phách thanh in singing and dance and music activities are performed while the players are in the posture of standing. The documentations given by Đỗ Bằng Đoàn - Đỗ Trọng Huề and Ngô Linh Ngọc - Ngô Văn Phú also show such details. For example, “... people enjoy cửa đình singing (...) and see sênh-beating movements of the songstress who are standing to sing, (...) before the altar” , or a paragraph (pg. 124) in Việt Nam Ca trù biên khảo as quoted below.
Girls who hold phách thanh in two drawings that are introduced in the book of G. Dumoutier and in the photo archived in the museum of the Huế Monuments Conservation Center are also in the posture of standing. Besides phách thanh, we do not find phách bàn in above drawings and photo.
Is it that phách thanh is substituted for phách bàn in some cases of Ca trù performance, and is it that the phách thanh usage relates to the performance environment and posture when songstresses must stand to sing?
Secondly, nowadays, sênh/phách thanh can be a variant of the made-from-old bamboo cái dịp and is used “to create rhythms for music”, which was mentioned by Phạm Đình Hổ in the list of instruments of music guilds. In such case, possibly, both phách thanh (a variant of the made-from-old bamboo cái dịp) and phách bàn are used in Ca trù performance. The documentations given by Nguyễn Đôn Phục, Đỗ Bằng Đoàn - Đỗ Trọng Huề, and Ngô Linh Ngọc - Ngô Văn Phú also unveil like that, “In a performance, one person holds the drum, one sings and beats the xênh, one beats the phách, and one plays the instrument, ...” (Nguyễn Đôn Phục) , and “When singing chúc hỗ, songstresses stand to sing and beat two wooden sênh into each other, the instrumentalist stands and plays the đàn đáy, a girl sits near the tension pole and beats phách according to the singing and instrumental playing.” (Đỗ Bằng Đoàn - Đỗ Trọng Huề) .
However, basing on information of Đỗ Bằng Đoàn - Đỗ Trọng Huề and Ngô Linh Ngọc - Ngô Văn Phú, we can see that sênh was used in chúc hỗ singing and some singing forms of Cửa đình singing in the modern period, and people do not play the sênh/phách thanh but sênh/phách bàn in chamber Ca trù performances. Ca trù documentations mentioned about sênh (to refer to phách thanh) together with phách (to refer to phách bàn) do not have any part to present sênh and just focus to introduce phách in parallel with the đàn đáy and the praised drum.
The above things show that: phách thanh in Ca trù is just a secondary instrument. It is not because this instrument started to be used in Ca trù later than phách bàn (or because it is a late variant of the made-from-old bamboo cái dịp). First of all, this instrumental way of performance is rather simple, its function is not to embellish or support the songstress’ singing. Next, the lack of this instrument does not effect so much on Ca trù art quality (thus, chamber Ca trù rejected this instrument when singers were not mandatory to stand during the singing and the instrumental reduction was realized). On the contrary, phách bàn has been an important instrument of Ca trù until now. That is one of the singing-support instruments. Some people feel the phách’s sound like “a singing” . Lacking this instrument will lead to the lack of sometimes-slow-somtimes-quick phách rhythmic patterns that support and improve the singing and instrumental playing, and thus lead to the decrease in Ca trù beauty.
đ) Why is there a case that sênh and phách are used to refer to two different instruments?
As aforementioned, the way to call an instrument with two names of sênh and phách has been handed down in many singing and music genres and many different localities, meanwhile, some Ca trù folk artists and some authors writing about Ca trù use two words sênh and phách to refer to two different instruments. Why and since when is there this phenomenon?
When the pair of phách thanh started to be used in Ca trù, an issue was raised that there were two kinds so-called sênh (or phách). How to distinguish those two diffent kinds of sênh (or phách)? A demand to distinguish these two instruments (having the same name) led to some new name-rules to refer to each instrument in a group. We can imagine this phenomenon when relating to the calling-way of phách thường and phách có xâu tiền: one will be simply called phách (sinh) and the rest will be called phách xâu tiền, phách quán tiền (or sinh tiền) as recognized in Vũ trung tùy bút. Predecessors used this way to resolve when there were different kinds of phách in 18th century and before . In 19th-20th centuries, in order to distinguish phách xâu tiền and a pair of phách thanh, the Huế Court folk artists called one the phách tiền according to its former name and called the rest one the phách một as quoted in Section b). In the North, we don’t know since when Ca trù folk artists among the masses used the “sênh” word to refer to phách thanh and the “phách” word to refer to phách bàn (It must be after the time phách thanh started to be used besides phách bàn)
According to Mr. Phạm Đình Hổ, phách and sênh in 18th century (or in 18th century and before?) were two names used to talk about an intrument, phách at that time was definitely not phách thanh but phách bàn (possibly) as aforesaid, in view of that, the usage of sênh and phách in order to mention two different instruments was just a derivative calling that was like “three copies result in deviation from the original”. As predicted, this calling appeared after the pair of phách thanh started to be used in Ca trù from the 19th century onwards. It was not a popular calling like two names of “sênh” and “phách”, which refers to an instrument (as quoted in Section 2.b).
In order to conclude some issues related to sênh and phách, we can summarize some basic points as follows:
Sênh and phách are two names of the same instrument (Phạm Đình Hổ and the calling in circulation in many Vietnamese traditional singing and music genres).
The usage of sênh and phách to refer to two different instruments was just an unpopular derivative calling that was like “three copies result in deviation from the original”.
Phách bàn is the “original” phách of Ca trù, which is still an important singing-supported instrument up to now. Ca trù will decrease its beauty if lacking this instrument.
Phách thanh is a secondary instrument that replaced the made-from-old bamboo cái dịp to be performed in Ca trù. It was played to create rhythms, did not have function to embellish and support the singing. The lack of this instrument did not effect so much on Ca trù. This instrument, made from bamboo or wood, has flat or round-bar image.
With regard to cửa quyền singing:
Possibly, one of the earliest documentations that suppose cửa quyền singing in Lê dynasty as the origin of ả đào singing is the paper entitled Văn chương trong lối hát ả đào (Literature in ả đào singing) of Phạm Quỳnh . After that, Việt Nam Ca trù biên khảo of Đỗ Bằng Đoàn - Đỗ Trọng Huề and projects of some other authors also present the same opinions. The above authors did not give clear data basis for this supposition. However, authors of Việt Nam Ca trù biên khảo quoted according to Phạm Đình Hổ when they mentioned about specificity of cửa quyền singing.
More than tens years ago, from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, when basing on the detail “not-so-different prosody” written in Vũ trung tùy bút by Mr. Phạm Đình Hổ in order to compare the “singing voice” in cửa quyền singing with “the singing voice performed by people who do not belong to music guilds”, the author of this paper mistakenly thought that cửa quyền singing was a branch of cửa đình singing, i.e. the worship Ca trù. (At that time, the author of this paper did not have concept of cửa đình singing in broad sense and cửa đình singing in narrow sense as afterwards). However, that wrong understanding has been corrected gradually thanks to new awarenesses of Ca trù and the information about cửa quyền singing given by Phạm-surnamed scholar. Later, during the teaching of the “Vietnamese music history” subject at the Hanoi National Conservatory of Music and some other training bases as well as in some related papers, the author of this paper retreated that opinion and changed into another line (we will return this issue as below).
Recently, a theoretical point that supposes cửa quyền singing is the Court Ca trù was reconfirmed in a Ca trù special issue. We do not know whether there is extra new documentation that confirms cửa quyền singing is Ca trù genre performed in the Courts.
According to Đỗ Bằng Đoàn - Đỗ Trọng Huề, singing in mandarins’ offices is called nhà tơ singing, and the singing style performed by Ca trù songstresses, who were selected to sing in capitals on such occassions as the longevity wishing ceremonies or festivities, is called “chúc hỗ singing”, those selected groups were called “Chúc hỗ service” . The latest discovery of Phan Thuận Thảo about a Ca trù song performed in the royal palace provides extra an information as follows: the names that show the songs’ form were not changed in Nguyễn-dynastry courts, those were complemented to become “Ca trù tunes of the royal palace” .
Returning with the “original” document (which means the most ancient documentation writing about cửa quyền singing), we did not find any part in which Mr. Phạm writes cửa quyền singing is ả đào singing or Ca trù. He also does not present that cửa quyền singing has relation with music guild, and just gives some following remarks, “Singing performed in the Court so-called cửa quyền singing is more lissom, soft, and elegant than that performed by people who do not belong to music guild. However, the prosody is not so different” . He did not remark on the repertoires. According to him, the instruments performed in the Court (i.e. cửa quyền singing) are completely different from the instruments performed by music guilds. On the one hand, among those instruments there is not the đàn đáy (the only plucked chordophone and an important instrument that we suppose as one of the elements creating the ả đào singing’s specificity ). On the other hand, as aforesaid, instruments of cửa quyền singing belong to an instrumental system completely strange from the instruments of music guilds. This instrumental system comprises quite many chordophonic instruments, including the 16-chord zither – an instrument belonging to the “high rank” in the feudal period of Vietnamese society. That is a separate instrumental system. Its descendant is the orchestra of some Court’s music and song genres or originated from the Court that is still available up to now, namely Small music of Nguyễn dynasty, Huế music and song and amateur music. Its predecessors are the Court orchestras of Lý and Trần dynasties, which comprised many kinds of chordophonic instruments (including đàn cầm (the seven-string long board zither) and đàn sắt (the 50-string zither) that are very close to the 16-chord zither) (please refer to An Nam chí lược (The Concise Records of Annam) of Lê Trắc and the fine arts in Lý and Trần dynasties).
Except the genres having original relation with each other such as the Huế music and song and the amateur music, each music and song genre in traditional music of the Việt people has a separate accompanied orchestral layout. In the ancient sculpture of the Việt people, we only find the engravings in which only the đàn đáy is present (there is not extra other chordophonic instrument). On the contrary, we do not find any engraving in which there is presence of both the 16-chord zither and the đàn đáy, the 16-chord zither is only present together with the tì bà (a plucking stringed instrument) or the moon-shaped lute nguyệt, etc.
Đàn đáy appeared when Ca trù singing form was “created” (according to the Sự tích tổ cô đầu) and has been present in performances of ả đào music guilds (via the ancient Việt fine arts from 16th – 19th centuries as well as in Ca trù activity practices until now – in the early 21st century). It is supposed as one the significant signs to recognize an ả đào singing session, which is different from other singings in villages’ communal houses and temples such as Xoan singing, Văn singing, Dậm singing. Cửa quyền singing does not include this instrument but a system of instruments that we usually find in Court orchestras.
The instrumental systems are different from each other, for that reason, the music cannot be similar. (Not to mention the difference in performance environment and the “singing voice” – with the meaning of singing style).
In addition, it should note that when Ca trù instrumentalists and songstresses were selected to perform “chúc hỗ singing” in the Court, the accompanied instruments still included the đàn đáy and phách. Thus, we can say the instrumental system of Ca trù in which the đàn đáy is a key one and has never been replaced even when that system is used to perform in the King’s palace. Why can cửa quyền singing with a different instrumental system be listed in the same kind of Ca trù?
Not to mention that most art activities with the đàn đáy’s participation have connected closely to its true existence environment in villages’ communal houses and temples of the countryside. All engravings with the 16-chord zither’s presence did appear in pagodas of Lý – Trần dynasties such as Phật Tích, Thái Lạc. With these two Buddhism-revered dynasties, according to Vietnamese researchers, pagoda is not only a place to worship the Buddhism but a King’s royal step-over place as well (such as Phật Tích pagoda). Is it a reason that the instrumental system (including instruments such as the 16-chord zither, the tì bà (a plucking stringed instrument), the moon-shaped lute nguyệt, the two-string lute) used to appear in pagodas built in that period. This is also a proof of the difference of two existence environments that connect to two instrumental systems and two separate music and song genres, namely Ca trù and cửa quyền singing?
For those reasons, in some documents published in 1999 and 2001 we rejected cửa quyền singing from the genres having original relation with cửa đình singing/ Ca trù, and put it in the Court music and suppose that cửa quyền singing is the indirect origin of Huế music and singing later .

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We are very lucky to have a rich number of documentations writing about or relating to Ca trù. The accurate information are intermixing with the vague or incorrect one in those documentations. Additionally, there must be much discussion and clarification with regard to Ca trù issue. This paper’s author do not dare to confirm whether all informations in above Ca trù special issues given by some scholars are correct or not, since we still do not have concrete data on those informations. We very hope to receive report on the data of above informations in order to give more correct assessments towards the doubtful points.
There must be time and an awareness process in order to understand truly a some cultural phenomenon, in particular a form that existed in the past. That awareness process takes place with different phases in each person, he / she can understand sometimes-wrongly or sometimes-correctly, many first understand wrongly and then find out the correct understanding. They even must expericence the assessments of many people or many generations and then do understand the issue that was not written enough or were not written before. The author of this paper has experienced such process and does not know whether she found out the correct understanding towards the above issues or not?
Due to many reasons, everybody including the posterity as well as the predecessors and scholars formerly can be mistaken. Thus, not all given informations are completely correct. The posterity can discuss in order to have more and more correct understanding towards the cultural heritages bequethed by predecessors. This is like a “relay race” of succeeding generations in which nobody dares to recognize himself as the person reaching the finish. Contribution of later projects or papers are the opinions, judgment, or new “discoveries”, even the denials of an author about a some opinion that he announced before... The most important issue are the data and foundations basing on which they give new opinions and information.
A person can be wrong. Many people can be wrong. However, in capacity of a government’s research organization, the Bulletin, and the Special issues on Ca trù of an Institute majoring in music researches, they should try to minimize the untrue informations. It is because when a national-level Institute gives information in such above special issues, many readers will think that those have been appraised and are reliable informations. As a result, it will be good if those given informations are correct and vice versa. Bulletin of the Vietnamese Institute for Musicology and the Committee who is in charge of setting up a Ca trù national file should do as follows:
- Be very careful when using the Ca trù documentation store, since not all informations written in Vietnamese scripts and Hán Nôm language are correct. There must be scientific assessments and selections towards the information sources, thus, we can realize a completely scientific Ca trù file.
- With reference to the similar opinions, we should give the earliest announced documentations together with its foundations.
When there are different opinions, it had better provide all different opinions and especially the foundations used as a basis for those opinions in order that the readers can base on to assess.
Hopefully, exchanges will lead to new opinions and suggestions, thus, the unclear aspects will be gradually clarified and we will have a more correct understanding about this important and valuable music and singing genre.