HAT QUAN HO

Hat Quan Ho came to life a little later in about the 16th century. The singers who have been called the Queens of Quan Ho were Mrs. A Nuong from Tam Son and Mrs. Nam Nuong from Lung Giang. The princess Che Dang Thi Hue, Viceroy Trinh Sam's wife, was considered as having the merit of developing this folk song. According to ancient books, the fortynine Quan Ho practicing villages have all turned to Diem Xa (Diem village -Yen Phong county - Ha Bac province), to consider it as the village of origin of Quan Ho.

The folk-song Quan Ho, a very rich and beautiful musical storehouse of our people, has a very long lasting history. During all its existence, successive creations have unceasingly changed the type of the folk-song Quan Ho. Today, there are "Quan Ho dai", "New Quan Ho", "the renovated Quan Ho". This shows that there may be some kinds of Quan Ho that are not real Quan Ho. Thus, from what epoch has the tradition of Quan Ho dated ?

One of the old polular tales narrates as follows : in order time, Lung Giang village (Liem village) and Tam son village (Tu Son) were in very good relations with each other. Every year, at the 13th of the first lunar month, Tam son village held a festival and invited five or six elderly men and five or six elderly women together with a great number of young singers of Lung Giang to come and participate to the festival. The village elders and young man of Tam son went out to the Mandarin Road to welcome the friends from Lung Giang and invite them to go into the communal house to attend a banquet and afterward to participate in the singing party. Alternately, each time the young man of one of the villages had sung the girls from the other village would reply in singing. Such singing competitions lasted all night until the morning of the following day. However, we may assert that it is only under the Ly dynasty (1010-1225) that the folk-song Quan Ho began to develop strongly and became joyful festivals lasting as much as half a month.

Before the 1945, there still were 49 villages practicing the folk-song Quan Ho, concentrated in the countries of Tien Son, Yen Phong, Viet Yen and in Bac Ninh township. At springtime, the associated Quan Ho villages now vie in the holding of festivals. The oldest festival is the Festival of Pagoda Phat Tich (Tien Du) on the 4th of the 1st lunar month. In order of lesser importance, there is afterwards the Giong Festival of Phu Dong village on the 9th the 3rd lunar month. However, the most entertaining is the Festival of "13th of the 1st lunar month" of the 6 Noi Due sub-prefectures and the associated Quan Ho villages.

On this days, on the Ironwood hills or in the pagoda's park, among the blossoming peony bushes, the pilgrims come from every corner of the country and distinguished and smart young men and young girls of the region gather for sight seeing, contemplating blossoming flowers, encountering and making acquaintance with each other and listening together to recitals of songs.

The Quan Ho singers give mutual rendez-vous at the festival, offer to one another fruit, betel and tea and immediately start their singing competition. At time, the Quan Ho girls disclose from behind their conical hats their rosy cheeks, shy and fresh as springtime, and raise their passionate and velvety voices to make inquiries and raise questions to the young men's side, who in turn afterward raise questions to which the girls side will reply. All day long, the young men and the young girls exchange fruit betel and ardent looks, the traction gray gauze of the young men mixing with the saffron corsages of the girls as in the simple and pastoral painting, after each bout of the singing competition. The singing voices raise the joyful atmosphere of the festival, where as, the intelligent delectation and appreciation of the spectators give wings to the songs verses, the refined and succintly meaningful words which are products of the improvisation of the amateur artists.

The joyful festival ends on the hills and in front of the pagoda. Ranks after ranks of the young men and young girls walk by singing the farewell song :

Dear friend ! Stay here, do not return home. You went back home and made me weep silently. The two flaps of my dress were soaked with tears.

Saying good-bye to the festival, the Quan Ho young men and young girls return to the field where they will work hard to produce crops. But they do not forget to revise their songs and prepare new ones while awaiting the next year competition. Labour and arts have really added wings to life in the old Quan Ho villages.

HAT BOI 

The foreigners who come to Vietnam, often visit its famous beauty spots, or ancient architectural monuments as temples, mausoleums, they also have a chance to enjoy culture and literature program, in which there are many types of special traditional theaters as classical Opera (Tuong ot Hat Boi), popular Opera (cheo), water puppet show (mua roi nuoc), folk drama (kich dan ca), Hue singing (ca Hue) and renovated Opera (cai Luong). Tuong or Hat Boi are based on folk art, otherwise it exploits the source of ritual music, folk dance, that are expressed through the typical styles of drama. The main scenarios are legends. Tuong is an ancient type of Vietnam drama that came into being over five hundred years ago, reflect the rich and special culture of the nation. Nowadays in the anciend Capital of Hue, there still exists the ancestral altar "Thanh Binh Tu Duong" founded under Minh Mang Dynasty (18th century), and a lot of halls as the show places for Royal Circles and mandarins to see : Duyet Thi Hall, Minh Khiem Hall, Thong Minh Tower. Hat Boi is a refined - mannered art firmly combined with gestures, making-ups, costumes, stage decoration, music, etc... The gestures of characters on the stage are stylized with symbolization, which attract the viewers passionately. To a western-style drama, when a general rides a horse, it must be a real one or a horse-like costume ; but, to an actor of Hat Boi. Only a white, brown red or black whip also means many kinds of horses : Black, sorrel or white. The actor of Hat Boi acts very concisely. Only with a whip, he is able to make the viewers passionate through delicate acting's with horses galloping or at full gallop, of which there are good-mannered or restive ones... With an oar, the actor of Hat Boi is able to show the viewers the boat fast sailing, wavering due to waves, making the viewers feel as through they were onthe boat.

Hat Boi Stage has a very concise symbolization. Only with some actors on the stage, the whole scene of the court with all the officials who are attending royal ceremonies could be seen, or two generals with some soldiers fighting also show a battle with hundreds of thousands of troops and horses fighting fiercely, and even a gourd of wine and four wooden cups also express a lowish banquet. It is a mistake to deal with Hat Boi without mentioning the art of making up, because tust looking at a made-up face, we may guess the personality and social class of that character. For example, a red face is of a frank, hot-tempered and sentimental man. A blue face of a machiavellian, arrogant man. And white-spotted red face of a cunning, disloyal one, etc,...

A canthus drawn toward one's ears show that he is a great gentleman and hero. As for beards, a black, curly beard is for a fierce man, three-tuft beard for a gentleman; a dragon's beard for Kings and mandarins and for majesty; a mouse's whisker, a goat's beard and a fox's whisker for cunning and dishonest men. Beardless man must be students. The accompanying tomtoms in Hat Boi are very important, because they start the actor's sentiment; they bring the past time and space to the present; they unite the character's sentiment with the stage, and the actor with the audience. The art of Hat Boi in Vienam includes those of painting, sculpture through the ways of making up, costumes and dance, pantomine, singing, saying through the actings of actors; as well as the combination of traditional musical instruments of Vietnam. The art of Hat Boi has raised the lofty view of desire to the true - the good - the beautiful (Chan - Thien - My) as well as the viewpoints of life of the ancients: Benevolence - Righteousness -Civility - Knowledge - Loyalty ( Nhan -Le - Nghia - Tri - Tin) through special characters who are benevolent and righteous. Hat Boi is one of the valuable pearls reflecting the rich and special culture of Vietnamese people.