The Education of Ethnomusicology in Vietnam

By Prof. Dr. To Ngoc Thanh

1. Historical backgrounds

1.The ethnomusicology is a scientific discipline which very late to be established as a teaching – learning object in vietnamese musical institutions – both educational and researching ones. But a main and most important part from content of this discipline was conducted and realised since the 40s years of the 20th century in forms of collecting materials through field works of some musical composers. The aim of this collecting is very modest that it focussing to supply the composers the originated from folk muisc’s materials on which the composers can create own new melodies wich are boldly with ethnic – national characteristics and nuances. That was the situation before 1945 year.

Since 1956 year when the Northern Vietnam was liberated from French Colony, the collecting folk musical materials moved in new period. In August of 1959 year, the Section for Collecting and Researching folk music of 54 vietnamese ethnic groups was established aiming to collect and research the folkl music in its integrity i.e. collect and research the object in its relationship with historico-ethnic context, with its “authors - famers”, with its style-expressions etc. while do not forgot to research it from its musico – theoretical aspects as well. That we have caught more and more neary to the principal aims of ethnomusicology as a scientific discipline.

From the collected materials and from achivements of researching works, since 1978 year, we have had conditions and materials to compile the first teaching curriculum for discipline named “The traditional music of vietnamese ethnic groups” teached in Hanoi National Musical Academy in duration of four semesters. The content of teaching curriculum was gradually enriched and completed. Since 2005 year we revised and completed the teaching content of the discipline and renamed its as “Vietnamese Ethnomusicology”.

2. Vietnam is a multiethnic country which at recent moment consists of 54 different ethnic groups with own traditional culture including music. The language of these ethnic groups are belonging to some big and typical linguistic families in South-Eastern Asia as follow:

i .The Austroasiatic linguistic family including:

+ The Viet-Muong group comprising of the Muong,Tho,Chut and Viet subgroups

+ The Mon Kh’Mer group comprising of the Kh’Mer, Kh’Mu, Bahnar, Se Dang H’Re, K’Ho, M’Nong, Stieng, Bru-Van Kieu, K’Tu, Gie-Trieng, Ta Oi, Ma, Cor, Chro, Kxunh Gmul, Khang, Mang, Braw, R’Mam, Odu subgroups.

+ The Thai-Kadai group comprising of the Tay, Thai, Nung, San Chay, Lao, Lu, Pu Y, La Chi, K’Lao, La Ha, Pu Pieo and Giay subgroups

+ The H’Mong – Zao group comprising of the H’Mong, Zao and Pa Then subgroups.

ii. Austronesian linguistic family including

+ The Malayo-Polinesian group comprising of the Jo Rai, Rhade, Champa, Rak Glei and Chu Ru subgroups

iii. Sino-Tibetan linguistic family including

+ The Hwa groupcomprising of the Hwa, San Ziu and Ngai subgroups

+ The Tibeto-Myanmarian group comprising of the Ha Nhi, PhuLa, Lo Lo,La Hu, Kong, Shi La subgroups

Hundred of small sub-ethnicity local groups are incorporated into 54 ethnicities wth different names and dialects. Besides the Viet who is the majority occupying 90% population and who having settled mainly in the plains of the Red River Delta in the North and of the Mekong River Delta in the South, there are fifty three ethnic minorities located alternately mainly in the mountain areas, not divised into isolated territories. Thus, the cohabitation has given the auspicious conditions for the cultural intercourse between ethnic groups which have been shaped and devepolped from different cultural sources. That is why we can say Vietnam has national culture with common vietnamese characteristics but expressed and manifested multicolorously in a great diversity of fifty four ethnic culture.

2. Identifying the object

1. In the past, the professional – scholar cultural component (including the music) could be found only in the culture of the Viet majority. This cultural component is not shaped in the culture of fifty three minorities where the folk culture occupies and covers whole the ethnic culture. Even, in the culture of the majority, the professional culture played a very modest role in the life of people.Therefore, the folk culture including folk music, play an important and crucial role in the historiscal development of the national cultural identity

2. It is common know that folk culture is the culture of everyday life. Each folk cultural genre was always born and is closely linked with certain production and everyday activities of people and of community. For that reason, more or less, each folk cultural genre is not only an artistic item, but also it contains an important social significance and function. These events should be considered as an entirely entity not separated into specialized component.They demand to be approached by multifaced transdisciplinary method .

3. Moreover, the most important feature of folk culture (including folk music) is its mecanism and way of preservation, of remebering by memories of its masters-bearers and dissemination and transmission mainly through oral way from generations to generations . Besides, each folk cultural expression is always a multicomponent syncreatical entity to supply the demamd of a multifunctional activity. For example, in the performance of the Gong ensemble of minorities people living in the Central Highland Vietnam, the sacreticism is regarded as a main function, because according to people’s beliefs, gong’s sound is a special language used by human being to have “a dialogue with deities” Sacreticism is nucleus of belief to cememt every community’s member into an unity. But at the same time each gong ensemble’s performance is also an instrumental musical creation That why, the used materials, the physical energies, the space and time, the sex regulations, the participant’s social status and of course, the musical features, make each folk musical performance become meaningful in the everyday life of the human being.

3. The tasks of ethnomusicology

Inheriting a such abundant traditional musical fund, the tasks of vietnamese ethnomusicology are so heavy and urgently. It is heavy because we have to collect, study and preserve all what the forefathers of 54 etnic groups have created through own thousand years national history and the fund has huge dimension. It is urgently because the masters-bearers of traditional musical fund now are 70-80 old age – the age in danger of passing away forever. It is heavy and urgently because the ethnomusicologists’ rank in our country is so small by number and weaken by professional experiences.

Supply the above-mentioned demands of the reality is an urgent task of vietnamese ethnomicology .

The teaching curriculum teached now at the Hanoi National Academy of Music is as follow:

1 Fundamental theoretical issues of Ethnomusicology such as Definition of ethnomusicology, various concepts and terminology, various aspects of ethnomusicology, objective law for the shaping-existing-developing-acculturating . the closely relationship of folk music with socio-historical factors, with the everyday life of the people, with the national and religious mentalities, with several kinds of folk-cultural activities of communities and ethnic groups as well.

2. Fundamental theoretical issues on musical aspects of the folk ethnic music such as the criterion for classification of musical genres, the functionalism and its impacts into the shaping and developing of musical genres; the gendering division and the taboos in creating, performing and accepting in folk musical activities, in the everyday cultural life of the villagers and of course, the purely theoretical musical problems about the characteristics of melodies, of musical scales, of musical rhythm and meter, of musical structure, of various kinds of multiphony and heterophony, of used national musical instruments and the principles for their combination in orchestration and etc…

3. All kinds of the method for field-works and documentation, computerisation of collected materials; all different stages of solving collected materials and method for creating a researching work in the form of monography.

This year we are in anniversairy of Thirty year of Ethnomusicology Discipline establishment at Hanoi National Conservatory for Music. During this time our Conservatory has graduated hundred Bachelors, Masters and some Doctor in Ethnomusicology. Our ex-trainees have contributed into the collection, studies, promotion, inheritance and development of our traditional music. Of course, our achievements are still very modest in comparison with the requirements of reality.

In recent time, our society is rapidly changing toward the globalization, urbanization, modernization and commodity’s competition and so on, which lead the society to the fundamental changes while the old masters-bearers gradually pass away to the ancestor’s world. The traditional ethnic music is on the edges of diappearance for ever.The collection, preservation, promotion and especiall, transmision to the younger generation is urgent and burn tasks of vietnamese ethnomusicology. In order to realise that aims, we need a strong and big rank of ethnimusicologists. That is the permanent task of our Etrhnomusicology Discipline from Hanoi National Academy of Music.

Prof. Dr. To Ngoc Thanh

President

Association of Vietnamese Folklori