Identifying Vietnamese folk songs from 1945 to present

Not only rich in content, folk songs composed during this period were also extremely creative and unique in the form of transmission and performance: "folk songs were pasted on gun butts, knife blades, spear blades, water bottles, pots and pans, backpacks, written on walls, inside bamboo troughs, "following" the rice-carrying men's shoulder poles to the battlefield" [23.88]. Poet To Huu once recounted that in the summer of 1949 he participated in the Song Thao campaign with the Phu Thong battalion. In just fifteen days of marching and fighting with the troops, the poet collected 350 folk songs, many of which were of high quality. He recounted the circumstances of the birth of these very special folk songs: every man tried to write, while cleaning his gun, he muttered a few folk songs. Suddenly he thought of something and wrote it and pasted it right on the gun, pots and pans, loudspeakers, mines, bombs...

The movement of composing folk songs in the North was like that. In the South, when there was a policy of promoting the building of local troops, regular army units gave their guns - spoils of war to the guerrillas and assigned them the task of forming local troops. At that time, the art cadres in the army encouraged each soldier to write a folk song and stick it on the butt of the gun to express their feelings before returning the gun to the recipient. In just a few hours, a battalion of about 400 soldiers had over 500 folk songs created. Through such creative and special forms of circulation, folk songs have increasingly penetrated the hearts of the masses, satisfying the people's need for composing and enjoying art.

From the above-mentioned composition and collection, we conclude that: During the period of resistance against French colonialism, modern folk songs still existed and developed very strongly among the people. That was primarily due to the need and ability to create, enjoy and circulate folk songs of the majority of the people. Then there was the guiding role of the Party and the State towards folk culture and arts in general and modern folk songs in particular. However, due to the extremely urgent living, working and fighting conditions of the nation

At that time, the polishing and polishing of folk songs was not given much attention. Many folk songs were either still in draft form, or were written down too early, so their content and artistic form were not yet complete. Many folk songs were still heavily propaganda and sloganeering.

From 1954 to 1975, our nation had to carry out two strategic tasks at the same time: conducting the national democratic war in the South and building socialism in the North. During this time, cultural and folk art movements were increasingly promoted and developed vigorously. Diverse forms of folk songs were inspired and developed more strongly than ever to promptly contribute to promoting the fighting spirit and praising the revolutionary heroism of the people in the South, praising the life, work and production of the people in the North.

Maybe you are interested!

During this period, we also need to acknowledge the contributions of publishers to the development of folk songs. Not only being active in collecting and selecting, publishers such as the Literature Publishing House, the People's Army Publishing House, the Popular Publishing House, etc., in many editions, also opened a section to reflect the situation of composing, collecting and guiding the methods of composing and collecting folk songs for the masses, especially soldiers on the front lines. In the book Folk Songs Against the Americans to Save the Country, volume three, "We would like to advise you comrades to memorize many traditional folk songs, learn the way of thinking with images of the working people, learn the words and speech of the people, and learn the way of expression as well." [9. 69]. Sometimes the editorial board even analyzed the content and artistic form of a typical folk song with anti-American content with the title "We need a lot of hate poems like that". Because of the publishers' interest in collecting folk songs, and their focus on developing non-professional cultural and artistic movements (with requirements on quality as well as ideology), folk songs during this period developed very strongly. The collections of folk songs against America and folk songs of soldiers were continuously born from the movements of composing and collecting folk songs at the front lines.

The folk song collections Hang Ve (folk songs about commerce), Cua Chung (folk songs about fighting corruption and waste), Pushing Back the Storms (folk songs about flood and storm prevention), Who Knows We Can Be Husband and Wife From Here (folk songs about production and marriage), Anh Den Bo Tuc (folk songs about cultural enrichment), Thay Nguoi Di Xa (folk songs about agriculture), Ngan Xanh (folk songs about forestry), Khoi Dong Nuoc Len (folk songs about irrigation)... with themes about production and building a new life, all for the front line, were composed and collected in the rear.

Besides the role of publishers, collective cultural and folk art activities such as logistics songs, call-and-response songs, and folk singing that are developing in military units, cooperatives, factories, workshops, agencies, schools, etc. are also fertile ground for folk songs to germinate and develop.

To demonstrate the vibrant and spontaneous development of folk songs during this period, we would like to quote the notes of some writers and researchers as follows:

Author Dang Van Lung in the article People who compose folk songs in the countryside today described a night of working and composing folk songs: “Here, there cannot be any exact statistics on the number of folk songs that day. One sentence followed another like thatched roofs, sometimes similar in the beginning, sometimes similar in the middle or the end, even two-thirds similar or the same song with a few words changed. People did not think about the quality of the folk song they had just composed, nor did they think about recording or editing it to send to an article, as long as they could motivate everyone to happily and enthusiastically complete their work. People could not remember who composed that folk song.” [38. 21 – 28]. Writer Tran Dang also recorded the scene of cultural activities within the old traditional framework: “At dusk, the political commissar looked at his watch and mentally calculated a program of cultural activities… internal review had nothing left to review, in the houses and platoons, they had begun to sing happily. Ettipo rowing horse makes me laugh until my stomach hurts. Poetry.

The relationship between the army and the people, the meaning is that you are a soldier who goes to kill the enemy, I am a citizen who stays at home to increase production. The words that the two people recite in response to each other are very long and literary. The two team members' clear and bright voices compete to chant and read out loud: "You are a soldier from a thousand directions", "I go to paint the melody of life at night"... sounding cheerful, youthful, and unusually fresh..." [23. 238].

The above reality of composing, collecting and publishing folk songs shows that in the current historical period, folk songs as well as other forms of cultural and folk art activities still exist and develop. This first of all comes from the need and ability to create and enjoy art of the majority of the people, which is the objective and irresistible existence of the form of artistic creation in the form of collective and oral transmission even in the new historical conditions of people's lives. This form of creation exists to meet a kind of spiritual creative need that the forms of creation in the form of written literature cannot satisfy. Besides, it is necessary to mention the important factor which is the policies and measures of the Party to promote the mass cultural and artistic movement, contributing to preserving and developing the forms of traditional cultural and folk art creation, including folk songs.

Similar to folk songs from 1945 to 1954, folk songs from this period, due to the urgent demands of a fast-paced working life in new historical and social conditions, due to lack of time to polish and refine, due to being written down too early... many songs are still in draft form, not mature enough in content and form of expression, many songs are still heavily propaganda and slogans, losing the natural poetic quality inherent in folk songs.

1.3.2. Vietnamese folk songs from 1975 to present

Since 1975, professional and semi-professional literary and artistic forms have emerged, which have many advantages in terms of content and form of expression compared to folk songs. Along with these art forms,

In other words, folk songs continue to exist (although sometimes tend to decline), still voluntarily playing the role of censor in public life.

Besides the folk songs that have been collected with a praising tone: praising the Party, praising Uncle Ho, praising the new life, praising the brave people in the fight against the invaders... there are also many songs that have appeared since 1975 until now and are being circulated in the activities of the masses or published sporadically in articles. In addition to some songs with a praising tone, this group of folk songs also has many songs containing humorous, satirical, educational criticism with a strong current content. Besides many folk songs criticizing and pointing out the loopholes of the subsidized economy, recently a large number of folk songs have been circulated satirizing and condemning the pragmatic lifestyle of a large number of people, the working style of officials, the escalation of prices and negative phenomena in society.

After Doi Moi, our people got used to and lived in a market economy. Besides the benefits of that economy, many people were more or less influenced by a pragmatic lifestyle that values money and material things:

Poor in humanity, poor in righteousness, no worries

Poor in money, poor in silver is considered poor.

[6]

The irresponsible and ineffective working attitude and self-interest of some officials are also reflected in folk songs:

Who calls the restaurant, come right away

Goose and goat are enthusiastic and dedicated to their work.

Let me think about it this afternoon. I'm going to take a lunch break now.

[6]

Temple property is free to spend

I'm afraid the budget will be gone one day.

Why be greedy and abandon the tray?

Ignore a few cases, get bigger hidden gifts.

[6]

One of the remarkable phenomena of folk songs during this period was the appearance of some people who wrote poems “in the folk style” like the poet But Tre Dang Van Dang before. Their poems, although sometimes “funny” and sometimes “naive”, contributed effectively to the propaganda of the Party’s policies:

We vote freely,

Choose the worthy person to put in the box.

Fix the warehouse today, tomorrow we will have a warm and full life.

[6]

Since the birth of the verses, vernacular poems and the pen name But Tre, people have seen many poems labeled But Tre published everywhere, many poetry writing and oral transmission movements from the 60s of the 20th century to the early years of the 20th century have also existed and developed thanks to that:

Yesterday he came to play at home

Seeing mother herding ducks, seeing father herding ducks, seeing younger brother singing Trinh Cong's music

Green paint red paint he dare not enter.

The fly is a dangerous species. Its four legs are full of germs.

[6]

Besides those who like But Tre's poetry, there are still many who do not like it, even criticize it. However, everyone must admit that the phenomenon of But Tre's poetry with its characteristics in form and content is imbued with folklore.

very unique, never seen before in the history of our country's literature. But Tre's poetry has been, is, and will be popular with the masses:

Praise or criticism is fine, But Tre's poetry is still popular.

Praise and criticism are both correct and incorrect.

But Tre's poetry is still coming out!

[6]

Nguyen Bao Sinh is also a folk-style writing phenomenon. However, if the poetry of But Tre Dang Van Dang was written for the purpose of propaganda, Nguyen Bao Sinh's poetry was written for self-enjoyment, self-recitation, and self-philosophy about life: "He wrote poetry as a way of keeping a diary, recording sudden thoughts whenever he thought of something based on observing reality and whenever he drew some experience from his life." [161.15]. As a "post-bamboo pen" poet, Nguyen Bao Sinh's poetry is imbued with folk qualities with a way of speaking such as breaking sentences, forcing rhymes, saying things in reverse, saying things in reverse, sometimes funny, sometimes flat and hidden meaning, so it is easy to impress, easy to remember, highly effective in causing laughter... to the way of contemplating life from very subtle and profound observations of reality.

In recent years, people often pass on to each other very funny and humorous poems, even making people laugh heartily after reading them, but they have profound implications for life, such as:

Be a man and be worthy of being a man,

Go out with a few bags in your bag…

[6]

As someone who regularly interacts with poets, he understands them very well. In response to the phenomenon of writers who are only of the “average” type but often boast about themselves and criticize others, he wrote:

Lying awake at night, I can't figure out why he is a poet!

[6]

Nguyen Bao Sinh's seemingly simple and rustic verses, as if picked up from the bamboo banks of rice fields, still contain a subtle criticism of lifestyle with a very artistic message.

To satirize and criticize poetry and the current literary life because they have corners that are no longer truly innocent, Nguyen Bao Sinh wrote:

Want to kick guests out of the house

Read poems and get them solved instantly.

[6]

For authentic literary works, Nguyen Bao Sinh highly values them, he humorously compared them to his wives:

Wife just got married and has become an antique

Good poetry, never gets old.

[6]

The theme of love and family affection is an important part of Nguyen Bao Sinh's poetry. Many authors have mentioned this theme, but to say it like this, Ho Xuan Huong is probably one and he is two:

Great men in the world

By my side is only a man.

[6]

Because according to Nguyen Bao Sinh, in the end, in this world there are only men and women, and people love each other because of their manhood, not because of their position or status. As for the phenomenon of "adultery", he concluded:

Women nostalgic for old love

Men are infatuated with new love.

[6]

Nguyen Bao Sinh writes poems to warn himself, to evaluate himself accurately, not to fall into flattery and self-delusion in life. According to him, to be a human being, one must understand who one is, if one does not understand oneself, life will always hang in the clouds and wind:

Identifying Vietnamese folk songs from 1945 to present - 4

Comment