Concert to feature new pieces of traditional music

Vũ Thùy Linh performs ả đào singing at a concert in Berlin. Photos courtesy of Vũ Thùy Linh

HÀ NỘI — New pieces in Vietnamese traditional music style will be debuted in a concert at Hàng Buồm Culture Centre in Hà Nội on Saturday.

The pieces are composed by international and Vietnamese artists to highlight đàn bầu (monochord) performance and ả đào singing. They will be performed by đàn bầu artist Ngô Trà My and traditional singer Vũ Thùy Linh.

In the concert, Trà My and Thùy Linh will perform seven pieces by composers from Colombia, England, Italy, Germany, Iran and Việt Nam, written especially for đàn bầu instrument and ả đào singing in combination, or confrontation, with electronics.

This will be the fourth TRAIECT project of the Hanover Society for New Music (HGNM) taking place in close collaboration with the electronic studio, FMSBW of the Hanover University of Music, Theatre and Media, funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation, the Lower Saxony Foundation, and the city of Hanover.

The project aims to combine traditional Asian instruments and electronics. TRAIECT I was in South Korea 2017, TRAIECT II in Iran 2018, and TRAIECT III in Taiwan (China) 2021. And this fourth version will focus on Vietnamese traditional music.

Under the project, the Vietnamese musicians met the seven international composers for a three-day workshop in Hanover last April. They explained about đàn bầu and ả đào singing in its historical and geographical manifestations and in the present cultural reality.

The composers, including British James Anderson, Colombian Michele Abondano, Italian Emanuele Grossi, German Julia Mihály, Iranian Ehsan Khatibi and two Vietnamese Hà Thúy Hằng and Lương Huệ Trinh, gave some insights into their music.

Đàn bầu artist Ngô Trà My (left) and traditional singer Vũ Thùy Linh will perform at Hàng Buồm Culture Centre on Saturday.

Continuing to work together online for months, the seven composers wrote new pieces for đàn bầu and ả đào including Begegnung (Encounter); This Blurred Abyss; Tà Thanh Thiên: Normal Things and Daily Stories; NÀNG/SHE: Des anderen and Đốm.

The pieces are not seen as an effect, but as independent partners. They give additional possibilities of combination or confrontation, of complementation or transformation.

Trinh’s Đốm is for ả đào singer, experimental voice, đàn bầu, fixed media and video. Trinh wrote the piece to dedicate to her beloved cat which died after suffering prolonged pain.

“It makes me think about relationships between human and pets, and between humans as well,” Trinh said. “Years-long relationships, with or without common language, make us upset when witnessing the last days of a pet or a person.”

Trinh is the project co-ordinator to organise the concert in Việt Nam. She has a Master Degree in Multimedia Composition at Hochschule für Musik & Theater Hamburg and she is interested in exploring traditional and experimental elements in music and visuals, in scenography, and in creating artwork for specific sites.

Not only active as a composer but also an improviser, she got commissions for exhibitions, contemporary dance projects, films and live performances in many different countries in Asia, Europe, Australia, Canada, North America and Africa.

The pieces were performed successfully at concerts in Sprengel Museum Hanover, Übersee-Museum Bremen and Akademie der Künste Berlin.

The Hà Nội concert will begin at 7.30pm with free admission. — VNS