All these books...

Today me and Olof had one of our meetings and tried to put the bits and pieces of our essay together. We ended up workig on the separate pieces instead. I worked on our literature chapter and eventually I think I got everything in there. Some parts I still have to double check, for example who really wrote the liner notes to the Caprice CDs. But here it is in it's almost completed form:

Books, Cds and Articles...
Literature about Vietnamese music in English is scarce and in Swedish, non-existent. There is one central book on Vietnamese music often referred to, it is Tran Van Khè’s Musique du Viêt-Nam (Buchet/Chastel, 1967), but unfortunately it is only available in French and German (which neither of us masters). Oxford music online and the Garland Encyclopedia of World music provide an overview but don’t go into the details of every genre. Phong T. Nguyen wrote the article in Garland, with some general information about music in Southeast Asia by Terry E. Miller. The Oxford online article was written by Phong T. Nguyen and Tran Van Khé. When it comes to specific genres we have looked in other books. Barley Norton has written a lot about Ca tru; Ca trù - a Vietnamese chamber music genre (1996) and Singing the past: Vietnamese Ca tru, Memory and Mode (2005) have been our main sources on that genre. Norton’s article: "The Moon Remembers Uncle Ho": The Politics of Music and Mediumship in Northern Vietnam (2002) have given us some more insight in Hat chau van as well as on the political impact on performance practices. Another author who have written about Ca tru is Stephen Addiss. His article: Hat a Dao - the Sung Poetry of North Vietnam (1973) describes the importance of the poems in the performance of Ca tru. He has also written a small essay called: Music of the Cham Peoples (1971), it contains a part on the Cham music’s influence on Court music. When it comes to mode and performance of Ca hue and Tai tu, Lê Tuan Hung’s book Dan Tranh music of Vietnam – Traditions and Innovations have been indispensable. Lê also writes about the impact of politics on traditional music, both in Dan tranh music of Vietnam and in an article in New perspectives on Vietnamese music – Six essays (Nguyen ed., 1991). Miranda Arana writes about politics and music in her book Neotraditional music in Vietnam (1999), it also gives an insight of the Hanoi conservatory of music’s impact on Traditional music in Vietnam. The six essays in New perspectives on Vietnamese music have been of big use, especially the articles: Ethno-Historical Perspectives On The Traditional Genres Of Vietnamese Music by Phong T. Nguyen; Music and Theater In Saigon – 1970: An American Soldier’s Observations Revisited by Terry E. Miller; Vong Cô – The Development of a Vietnamese Song Style by Mercedes Dujunco and the previously mentioned article by Lê Tuan Hung: Music and Politics: A Socio-Musical Interpretation of Aspects of the Dan Tranh Zither Composition in Southern Vietnam Since 1975. Phong T. Nguyens article: Restructuring the Fixed Pitches of the Vietnamese Dan Nguyet Lute: A Modification Necessitated by the Modal System (1986) and Significance and Development in the Vong Co of South Vietnam (1975) by John Trainor have been good sources for to understand the principles of modality in the chamber music of Southern Vietnam. Documents of Vietnam’s Court music (1999) by Tô Ngoc Thanh describe the court music in Vietnam in both historical perspective and in comparison with Tai tu, Ca Hue and Tuong with regards to mode and repertoire. The literature on theatre in Vietnam are mostly concerned with the actors and the plot of the plays and not with the music. One exception is 150 Melodies of Traditional Cheo (2006) by Bùi Dúc Hanh, it’s mostly a tune book but also contains a bit on the history and performance practices of Cheo tunes. Vietnamese Theatre (1999), anon ed.; Cheo – Popular Theatre (2005) and Vietnamese Classical Opera (2006), both the last ones gives Huu Ngoc and Lady Borton as General Editors, are all published by The Gioi Publishers, a government owned company. Especially the first one, Vietnamese Theater, contains a lot of useful information but all three are written in a quite bad language and lacks references. They are probably meant for tourists rather than researchers. Colin Mackerras essay: Theatre in Vietnam (1987) gives us a more nuanced picture of the different styles, but it is still a general overview. He also focuses more on the situation of theatre in modern society, in 1987 that is. As the literature is quite limited we have also had great use of liner notes from various CDs and LPs, most of them written by Tran Van Khè. He has written the liner notes for: Vietnam – Music from the city of Hue (Inedit CD, 1996); Vietnam – Hat Cheo traditional theatre (Unesco CD); Vietnam – Ca tru and Quan ho (Unesco CD) and together with Nguyen Huu Ba: The music of Vietnam I – The tradition of Hue (UNESCO/Barenreite LP, Late 60s) and The music of Vietnam II – The music of southern Vietnam (UNESCO/Barenreite LP, Late 60s). The five CDs, Music from Vietnam 1-5, Produced by the Swedish record company Caprice together with Sida (The Swedish international development agency) also have liner notes that contain a lot of information on the music. They cover two CDs with minority music, one with music from Hue, one with a mix of different traditional music and Neotraditional music and a solo album with the Cai luong master Kim Sinh. Sten Sandahl wrote the liner notes on those albums. For general information of Vietnams history and recent development we have read Hans Hägerdal’s Vietnams Historia (2005) and Chasing the Tigers – portrait of the new Vietnam (1997) by Murray Hiebert. Hägerdal deals with the history of Vietnam from prehistoric years up to the present day focusing mainly on the Vietnamese history prior to the unification of the country in 1975. Hiebert’s book focuses mainly on the economic growth since the late 80s, and seems directed to companies planning to invest in Vietnam. Nevertheless he addresses some interesting things about politics as well as describing the Len dong ritual with the eyes of a non-musical outsider.

Now, time for pizza!