ÁO ANH SỨT CHỈ ĐƯỜNG TÀ, MUSIC BY PHAM DUY & MÀU TÍM HOA SIM, POETRY BY HỮU LOAN: interpreted by Dương Như Nguyện

HOMEMADE INTERPRETATION

ngày hôm nay, đại hội cựu nữ sinh TV hải ngoại Southern California 2017

Nhân dịp quay về quá khứ với cựu nữ sinh TV/họp mặt 2017 : thập niên 1970 TV có tiếng hát họa mi/học trò cuả Phương Mai, nổi tiếng với baì ca phổ nhạc của PD, qua gịong nữ cao trong.

Năm 2010 TV Houston yêu cầu NN hát bài này, từ đó mới có audio dưới đây. Mục đích chính cuả NN làm đem nguyên tác baì thơ để bên cạnh bản nhạc. Gửi tặng riêng PM và bạn bè TV cũ từ trên 40 năm trước.

For Viet music and poetry lovers, please read the following:

I decided to post this one because of authenticity. The authenticity is found in Ngam Tho almost a capella: one of the best poems coming out of Vietnam's decolonization.

This is my voice in its original state not too long ago (not in the high range, as sung in the 70s by my former high-schoolmate Phuong Mai, the best solo singer of TV High School, back then). This posting is to celebrate the memory of her natural voice in our young days (which exists in our mind only, because there was no recording of her back then).

--Chi Ngoc Minh and Viet listeners always talked of "co' ho^`n": The artistry of "co' ho^`n" can be found in the simplest, understated form, even without accompaniment, fanfare, or perfect technicality. It lies in what's delivered, received and perceived. The technicality does not produce, nor compromise the artistry called "co' ho^`n," which exists only when there is something felt in the mind and the heart, at both ends of the communication.

--Ngam Tho is a form of music just like the folk music of Vietnam, but how can one record it via Western notation (ky am phap)? That will be very complex, full of Appoggiatura (no^'t mo'c), surpassing the twelve pitches of an octave. Yet one has to stay on pitch, even if such pitch is undecipherable by way of ky am phap! Vietnamese poetry recital is a form of music, a melody that is individualized with each occasion and each voice. There is not a ngam tho version that is like any other ngam tho version. Never the same, even when done by the same interpreter.

--Astute musicians will notice that during my ngam tho here, I was off pitch at least three or four times, and that, I believe was in the passaggio, which I tried to explain to L.N.Thao this past weekend. Music technicians will notice the clumsiness in the technical appending of various parts of the amateurish recording, although the singing/reciting that I did was in one continuous interpretation. It is irritating when I have to listen to my own inability to stay on pitch, and the technical loss of a word here and there because of the recording. So I ask for forgiveness.

--The simplicity of this audio shows Pham Duy's almost too basic attempt at a march (dieu quan hanh) for the 'song' version.

--One can imagine this audio being delivered by two characters sitting by a river or a rice paddy at sunset in the countryside of north Vietnam: a vocalist, and a guitarist or flutist in countryside attire. There is no real accompaniment to embellish, only a few bars here and there to accent. My accompanist did so little, but he managed to create a few impromptu counterpoints, which i think were quite good despite the lack of practice (this was a one-time recording).

--I have to be honest: i think the "song" version by PD takes second place to the poem by HL, which is unique not only because of the sentiments and historical value, but also because it's authentically tho moi, following no set patterns of van dieu, yet completely van dieu in its improvising way.

--There is no interpretation of the poem out there on youtube that moved me, including the formidable Ho Diep. Ngam tho is never my favorite. But, to me, the song ao anh sut chi duong ta is TV-Saigon's signature song in the early 70s, because of Phuong Mai. So I am glad i had done the audio below. I did this for PMai and for my high school. And I am glad, just glad, that it is the only "almost a capella" version of the poem and the song together. So far, there is no other like it, which is the reason why it should be preserved, despite any imperfection or subjective reception, for which I took the blame.

--for thu hoai: please note that because this was "pop," I did "belt" where i thought the song needed the most accenting: "toc nang hay con XANH" -- semantically, it is the "XANH" that captures the tragedy of the young woman's death in war, the tragedy of the people of Vietnam ̣(I used this theme and the poem in my short story The Ghosts of Ha Tay, the same semantics as TCS' "đêm có nắng và cành hoa chợt tím" -- when does XANH become TI'M?)! Proper or not, I did..."BELT" myself out! And, toward the end of the recording: the natural tremolo was there in the last two or three bars. I wish i had recognized what it was, believed in it, and understood what to do with it, when i was much younger trying to find my podium from which I could stand and be....myself!