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: Once upon a time, Lung Giang village (Liem village) and Tam Son
village (Tu Son), both in Bac Ninh province, were in very good relations. Every
year, on the 13th of the first lunar month, Tam Son village held a singing
party at the communal house 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 to join them. At the festival came into being a form of dialogue. 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, it's asserted that only
under the Ly dynasty (1009-1225) did the folk-song Quan Ho begin to develop
strongly and become joyful festivals lasting as much as half a month.
quan hoPeople of ancient times
narrated as follows: Although their capital had been established in Thang Long,
every year at springtime the Ly Kings always returned to their native locality,
Kinh Bac, to hold joyful festivals. Each time, the fleet of dragon boats of the
king entered Thien Duc river (or Duong river), the kindred and officials (Quan
Vien Ho) of the Ly family, including children, the elderly, young men and young
girl, all stood on the two banks of the royal canal which is reserved to
welcome royal dragon boats. They sang hymns of praise, claping their hands and
sang songs praising the king to the rhythm of the boat's oars and to the rhythm
of the castanets of the Chief Rower. The king often gave a special traditional
feast, granted money, silk and opened a official sanity party who recited poems
and sang. Since then on, this kind of folk-songs bears the name of Quan Ho songs,
or the songs of the Officials and the Kindred.
Each year, on the 13th of the 1st
lunar month, on the Lim hills or in the Lim 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, or
sing Quan Ho songs.
Coming Lim festival in groups of young
men or women, Quan Ho singers are dressed in their best clothes, men carry with
them an umbrella of black silk, women a fan under a cartwheel palm-leaf hat
tucked under their arms. A female group may be the first to go up to a male
group and offer betel quids, thus striking up an acquaintance. A dialogue
begins in the form of songs. In any event, courliness is the rule. The men call
themselves "Your younger bothers" and address the women as " Our
elder sisters"; conversely, the latter call themselves "Your younger
sisiters" and address the former as" Our elder brothers". Female
duets keep up the conversation by exchanging songs with male duets.
For instance, if the female group
sing:
"How dare we! You elder brothers
are like the moon that shines in the sky, we your younger sisters, we are but
tiny lamps lighting small cottages".
The men will answer unpretentiously:
"Please be the first to sing,
elder sisters, we'll follow suit".
