Đêm Mê Linh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfeN9a6bMpc&feature=youtu.be

ONE NIGHT FROM ME-LINH, 40 A.D.: HEART OF A NATION

The clip above is my modest, barebone, almost primitive attempt at expressing the spirit of Van Giang's musical composition called Dem Me Linh, dedicated to nation-building by Vietnamese womanhood. Vietnamese nation building began with the Trung Sister's revolt against the Hans' ruling of tribal Vietnam, in the year 40 A.D.  The revolt was embryo'ed in the deep Me Linh forest of north Vietnam, as the Trung sisters gathered their people for training in guerrilla warfare and combat.  That's the spirit of Van Giang's Dem Me Linh.  The musician won South Vietnam's top award in musical compositions, pre-1975.  

A CHORAL SYMPHONY FOR VIETNAM BASED ON EXISTING MUSIC

From pre-1975 era, Vietnam has had only 3 choral symphonies: HVPhu (LThuong) CDCQuan & MeVNam (PDuy).  In the north Do Nhuan was devoted to promoting Nha.c Do? (called Nhac Cach Mang by the communist government). 

A symphony typically has three parts: the ABC structure. 
A: developmental; 
B: slow (Andante; expressive) 
C: fast (for example:  Rondo). 

Vietnamese can listen to Le Thuong's Hon Vong Phu, and see that the "truong ca" follows this "ABC" structure I presented above. 

I believe that from Van Giang's Dem Me Linh, a choral symphony can be assembled from existing music from the pre-1975 era, i.e., the music is already there: 

A: Dem Me Linh, developmental; 
B: Dong Song Hat, presented as a soprano solo, sung like a hymn, slow, soulful, deity-like, and noble (the characteristics of Bellini's world-famous Casta Diva); and
C (here is my contribution: one must go find an existing song that matches in terms of the key, called "tông" in Vietnamese, or tone, that captures the spirit. I choose PDChuong, "rung xanh len bao suc song..." And, one can weave into it, the third part, another piece, a type of ceremonial music to mourn the deaths of the Trung Sisters, the two women who started a new nation (now known as Vietnam -- before the declaration of independence by the Trung Sisters, Vietnam was tribal, although oral history referred to the tribal country as the "Kingdom of  Van Lang."). 

To me, this can be the birth, or rebirth, of a choral symphony desperately needed for Vietnam, without any extra new compositions. But, competent Vietnam-born musicians must buy into this idea and do the orchestration for voice and instruments needed for what I presented above. Not that difficult, because the theme and substance are already there.  Music needs thematic development, and it needs substance, not just a bunch of notes and phrases under a set of rhythm. Each piece of music must have its own soul.  
When i write this description, I hear the choral and orchestration in my head.  The difference between music and literature is that you hear music in your head, and in literature, you see the scenes, the people, and you feel what they feel.

ABOUT COMPOSER VAN GIANG'S DEM ME LINH: Among the best of Vietnamese melodies.  

I think that he has done two fabulous things: 

1. the lyrics phonetically fit the music. This is quite hard to do with the Vietnamese tonal language, full of diphthongs and glottal stops.  (Even so, professional musicians can hear that my voice "cracked" a little during the clip, as i had to utter the diphthongs and glottal stops while singing staccato on certain phrases.) 

2. the melody was written such that the melody itself creates the rhythm.  Even if there is no drum or beat, the melody lends itself to rhythm.  

To do justice to the choral, there should be about 100 voices.  After the introductory phrase, sung a capella by these 100 voices in crescendo, there should be a solo drum performance based on Vietnam's traditional drum art.  Then the choral will begin.  

As you can hear, with my voice and that of two of my friends singing the backup, I tried to use staccato and one line of counterpoint to contrast against the main soprano voice. We are not professional singers, and we have never been trained (my two friends have never sung in a chorus in America and probably don't know the meaning of staccato; they don't need to in order to sing those key words from the lyrics; that's in their blood; when I explained briefly, they understood intuitively!) 

We asked to use the recording equipment at another friend's home, not a professional studio, and we borrowed the beat "chich chich chich" from the owner's electric keyboard. That was all we had.  The whole thing was done in a small room, late at night, after work and travels by the three of us. 

As children/teenagers, all three of us attended Trung Vuong High School in Saigon (named after the Trung Sisters).