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O
n stage, Mai Tuyet Hoa cuts
the quintessential figure
of a Vietnamese musician,
dressed in traditional cloth-
ing, she plays the
dan nhi
and sings
age old songs; however, off stage she
is every inch the young, dynamic, mod-
ern Hanoi woman. Alongside her role
directing the Center of Traditional Mu-
sic Reseach, Preservation and Develop-
ment, she also works for a forward-
thinking media company.
She has a profound love for
xam
and great desire to revitalize the art,
which, like many traditional art forms in
Vietnam, faces the threat of extinction.
Worries that this unique art form could
be lost were escalated this March, when
Ha Thi Cau, said to be the last remaining
expert, passed away at the age of 97.
Xam
dates back to the 14th cen-
tury. In the old days of Hanoi, blind art-
ists wandered the streets earning their
living by singing
xam
tunes in markets
or communal temples, a sight that was
once familiar to many in the northern
regions. As recently as the 20th cen-
tury,
xam
artists still performed in the
capital, often on the city’s tram net-
work, hence it is sometimes called
xam
tau dien
, or tram
xam
.
The melodies of
xam
are bor-
rowed from different types of Viet-
namese folk music and the themes
for the lyrics are drawn from popular
stories, poems and legends.
Hoa was forced to study the
dan
nhi
from the age of eight at the behest
of her father: “At the beginning, I was
upset because I did not want to learn
the
dan nhi
. It is an old type of instru-
ment and I linked it with the image of
wandering, unkempt singers begging
for money on the streets, or its use at
funerals,” she says.
While studying her second year at
the Vietnam National Academy of Mu-
sic however, Hoa undertook the task of
transcribing traditional songs, including
xam
music. Through this work, she got
in touch with the music’s spirit. “I felt
like I found treasure when I heard it on
CD. With more than 400 songs,
xam
is
able to express all the aspects of life
and feelings: happiness, anger, sadness
and even humor,” Hoa says.
Hoa has since travelled the coun-
try searching for the last
xam
artisans
and hearing them sing. Eventually she
found Ha Thi Cau and studied with her
from 1998.
Xam
singing has since be-
come an indispensable part of her life.
“Many seek out a famous artisan
to learn
xam
from, but very few can
sing and play the
dan nhi
at the same
time,” said former vice director of Viet-
nam National Academy of Music Dang
Hoanh Loan.
Hoa says that the more she falls in
love with this art form, the more anxious
she is about its future: “My own experi-
ence with
xam
singing has taught me
that it is not something many will love
the first time around. Its profound mean-
ings and melodies take time to be ab-
sorbed. That is why many young people
can not understand and feel its beauty.”
To bring
xam
to more people, Hoa
and her friends thought of staging
xam
performances in front of Dong Xuan
market, Hanoi’s main wholesale mar-
ket, which draws huge crowds at nights
and on weekends.
“For many, the first image
xam
brings to mind is beggars in ragged
clothes. Therefore, we met a lot of diffi-
culties in convincing the authorities and
Dong Xuan market’s managing board.
They were not keen on placing a stage
where so many Vietnamese and foreign
tourists walk. So, we took along a
dan
nhi
and
phach
(a traditional drum) and
sang in order to change their minds,”
Hoa says.
While Hoa is not alone in her love
of
xam
, it is hard for her and her con-
tempories to host more music shows
due to economic constraints; xam art-
ists have to work full time to support
their art and are rarely paid for it.
Recently, Hoa held a seminar to
bring together experts to preserve and
develop
xam
singing. In the seminar,
the ideas of bringing
xam
into schools
as an extracurricular activity or teaching
xam
for blind students were raised.
Hoa has taught and performed
xam
music abroad in Japan and in America
many times. “Foreign people who do
not understand the meaning still enjoy
the performance and some even cried,
while an American student chose
xam
to be the subject for her training period
in Vietnam,” she says.
Hoa believes that
xam
has still got
a place in peoples’ hearts: “As long as
we continue to bring it closer to them
and give them time to develop a love
and feel for it,
xam
will have its admir-
ers and devotees,” she predicts.
One of Vietnam’s traditional musical
crafts,
xam
singing, is facing a crisis,
with a lack of performers and dwin-
dling audiences. However, a small
band of dedicated enthusiasts are
doing all they can to keep it alive.
Hong Nhung
talks with one of the
leading lights, Mai Tuyet Hoa, about
her love for
xam
music and the fu-
ture she sees for it.
timeout
49
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