music
The great names of Vietnamese music
To have a gift for music
Encyclopedia of music
musical
Musical skill/talent
To have a good ear for music; to have a musical ear
The Kinh and all ethnic minorities in Vietnam have a time-honoured tradition of music and dance. This is evidenced by the figures seen dancing to music which were engraved on the bronze drums unearthed at Dong Son (Thanh Hoa province) and lithophones discovered in Tay Nguyen Highlands and other relics. Besides royal court music, there was also a rich vein of music which was closely attached to the daily lives of the working masses. Thousands of diverse musical tunes have been collected from this source. From Quan Ho folk songs in the North to Hue songs (songs from the Perfume River), "guessing game" songs, satirical songs, joking songs and numerous songs in southern provinces, all are characterised by a profound sensibility and poetic, lyrical sense. After 1945, royal court music was underdeveloped. But folk music flourished more than ever before along with the increasingly popular modern music.