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Vietnamese traditional music or folk music is one major branch of Vietnamese music, truly reflecting the typical characteristics of people, culture, customs, geography, etc. of Vietnam, stretching throughout the history of the nation. From the 20th century, Vietnamese music has been influenced by the foreign music styles such as China, Korea, United States, United Kingdom but it still keeps the unique beauty, which is shown at the existence of Vietnamese traditional music as well as playing an important role in the culture in Vietnam.

An Overview of Vietnamese Traditional Music

Vietnamese traditional music was born very early. Ever since ancient times, Vietnamese people have been very passionate about music and considered music as an integral part of their life. Therefore, in the process of historical development, the residents have constantly created many musical instruments and musical genres to express their feelings and emotions, to gain more motivation for the daily work and to get out of the stress in life. You can listen to the melody of lullabies, children’s song, types of music in worshiping rituals, funerals, or conversations among members in the community, in entertaining activities, performing in the singing contests, epics, the sweet songs of the jongleurs, don ca tai tu – the traditional music of the Southern people, and the traditional opera, etc.

Vietnamese traditional music is rich by the accumulation of genres not only of different ages but also of the numerous ethnic groups. Although having the same genre of music, each ethnic group has a distinctive mode of expression, performance, and cadence. For example, the lullabies of the Kinh are different from those of the Thai, the Muong, the Dao, etc. Moreover, some ethnic groups use lullabies to sing their children to sleep while others play a diversity of traditional musical instruments such as flute, Vietnamese monochord, and so on.

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups, which means that there are 54 different traditional musical backgrounds. Therefore, in this article, we would like to mention the traditional music of Kinh people – the dominant ethnic group in Vietnam, accounting for 85.7% total of the population.

There are various ways to classify the Vietnamese traditional Music (here, the Kinh’s music). In terms of types of music, they have: Royal family music, Cheo, Tuong, Xam singing, Don ca tai tu, folk songs, Ca Tru, etc. If divided by regions, they have: the traditional music of the South; the Central, the Central Highlands, the North, and so on or smaller by regional culture. For the number of performers, it can be divided into the single, duo, in a group.

In the Vietnamese traditional music, it is extremely common for the artists to use a variety of traditional music instruments: dan bau (Vietnamese monochord), dan co (Vietnamese erhu), dan day, dan nguyet (moon lute), etc. All of these musical instruments contribute to creating unique characteristics for Vietnamese traditional music.

Types of Vietnamese Traditional Music

Types of Vietnamese traditional Music in Northern Vietnam

Ca Trù (Hát Ả Đào)

Ca trù, also known as hát ả đào, is one type of chamber music that was extremely popular in North and North Central Vietnam since the 15th century. It is used to be the court music that was loved by the aristocrats and the intellectuals. Besides, it can be said that Ca trù is a perfect combination of poetry and music.

There are three main characters in a Ca trù performance: a female singer (called “đào” or “ca nương”) who use the tongs, a male instrumentalist (called “kép”) who plays dan day to support the vocalist, a spectator (called “quan viên”, usually being the author of the song) who plays the drum to punctuate the song and express the pleasure by the drum sound. In 2009, Ca trù was recognized as the intangible heritage that requires urgent protection by UNESCO.

Chầu Văn

Hát Văn or Chầu Văn is one of the types of Vietnamese traditional music, originated in the North Delta. It is associated with Mother Goddesses Worship – the very famous folk belief in Vietnam. By using spiritual music with the solemn and elaborate words, Chầu văn is considered to be a singing form of worshiping the goddesses.

Chầu Văn plays an extremely important role in a Mother Goddesses Worshiping performance in order to invite the gods to attend the ceremony. During the performance, the singers can sing and play musical instruments at the same time in 4-8 hours, creating a bustling atmosphere for the ceremony. The music instruments usually consist of dan nguyet (moon lute), small drum, tongs, cymbals, flute, Vietnamese monochord, etc. Hát văn is well-known in Hanoi and Nam Dinh, but the performing style in Nam Dinh is more rustic than that in Hanoi.

Chèo

Chèo is a form of Vietnamese traditional stage art, strongly developing in North Vietnam, especially the Red River delta and two sparsely populated mountainous areas in the North and North Central. This type of folk music has the harmonious combination of ethnicity and the popularity with narrative and romantic lyrics so that it is amazingly preferable for summer festivals.

Chèo stage art has undergone a long history from the 10th century to the present, having a deep influence on the Vietnamese social life. In terms of the meaning, Chèo reflects all aspects of the national identity of Vietnamese people: optimistic, loving, simple, full of national pride, persistent in fighting against the invaders to protect the country. Thanks to these great meanings, Chèo is full of literary genres: romantic, epic, poetic, etc. creating a unique attraction for this traditional music.

Quan Ho Folk Songs

Quan ho is one of the typical folk songs of the Red River delta in the North of Vietnam. It was formed and developed in the ancient culture area Kinh Bac, especially the area boundary between Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces today with the gently flowing Cau river called “the river of Quan ho”.

Quan ho folk songs are always performed in groups, each of which has five to six members. During the performance, they call each other with the intimate names as the family members such as “anh ca” (first brother), “chi ca” (first sister), “anh hai” (second brother), “chi hai” (second sister), etc. For this type of Vietnamese traditional music, the singers have their own performing costumes: the brothers with turbans, umbrellas, and tunics while the sisters are dressed up with “mo ba mo bay” shirts (a traditional cloth of the Vietnamese women) and large round hats and scarves. Quan ho folk songs impress the audience with an interestingly unique singing procedure. They usually divide into the “brother” group and “sister” group to sing back-and-forth the rustic and traditional loving songs with/without music accompaniment.

Tuồng

It is said that Tuồng derived from the Vietnamese song and dance, but during the development, Tuồng has absorbed many forms of performance and makeup of tradition Chinese Opera. This kind of music usually expresses the majestic atmosphere to honor the national heroes, or to deliver the lessons of human behavior between community and individuals, between family and motherland. In a performance, the righteous forces have to fight for justice in very difficult conditions, becoming the bright mirror for the other people to follow.

Xẩm Music

Xẩm is one popular type of folk music in North Vietnam, especially in the Red River delta and Northern midland. In the past, Xẩm is considered as a form of livelihood for the poor and the dead people, most of whom usually performed in markets, streets, or crowded places, but few performed in big stages so that very few people know this traditional music. The music instruments to support Xẩm singing are also very simple, including erhu and senh tien.

Until February 2013, Mrs. Ha Thi Cau – Ninh Binh province (1928-2013) who is supposed to be the last Xẩm singer of the 20th century went away, raising awareness of protecting this type of Vietnamese traditional music.

Types of Vietnamese traditional Music in Central Vietnam

Hò, Lý (Chanty)

Hò and Lý are a popular musical genre in the Vietnamese people’s life from ancient times, originating from the living habits in the valley, depicting the mood and emotions of the laborers. These two types of Vietnamese traditional music are pretty similar to each other, but Hò is usually attached to a working movement while Lý is not. In addition, Hò and Lý have extremely been developing in Central and South Vietnam. Visiting these regions, you will find it easy to bump into the local people droning out the rustic genres of Hò and Lý.

Nhã Nhạc (Hue Royal Court Music)

Nhã Nhạc or Hue royal court music is the court music under the feudal times, performed on festivals or ceremonies (coronation, funerals, and other religious festivals) in the reign of the Nguyen dynasty of Vietnam. Hue royal court music was recognized by UNESCO as a masterpiece of oral and intangible world cultural heritage in 2003.

Vietnamese Music Songs

Nhã Nhạc has a diversity of 126 songs full of the original lyrics and translation. Besides, there are hundreds of music instruments supporting the Hue Royal court music performances. As a result, it is obviously easy to affirm that Nhã Nhạc is a type of Vietnamese traditional music with a tight structural system, partially contributing to creating: the complete structure of the orchestra, the system of orchestral music without lyrics, the music accompaniments for singing and dancing, the songs in different kinds of dance, and the songs in the ceremonies.

Types of Vietnamese Traditional Music in Southern Vietnam

Đờn Ca Tài Tử (Southern Amateur Music)

Đờn ca tài tử is the Vietnamese traditional music which was recognized as the world cultural heritage by UNESCO. It was established in the late 19th century, strongly developing and influencing 21 Northern provinces of Vietnam. This is one type of music combining lyrics and music instruments, preferred by the Southern people in rural areas in the free time after a hard-working day.

Đờn ca tài tử is over one hundred years old, usually known as the band performance, consisting of five Vietnamese traditional music instruments: dan tranh (zither), dan ty ba (pipa), dan nguyet (moon lute), dan bau (monochord), and dan tam; sometimes supported by flute. The “đờn ca tài tử” singers are usually the friends or neighbors in a village; they gather and happily sing with each other so that they do not bother about the rustic costumes.

Cải Lương

Cải lương is one kind of opera that originated in South Vietnam and was formed on the basis of Đờn ca tài tử and the folk songs of the Mekong Delta. The content of each Cải lương performance may come from ancient Vietnamese stories, Nom poems, and literary works about the Vietnamese society, and after that, the French scripts, or Indian, Egyptian Romans, Japanese ancient stories. The fusion of various cultures has shaped the special feature of this type of Vietnamese traditional music.

In addition, the performance of Cải lương will be not perfect without the musical accompaniment of the orchestra, which helps not only support the vocals but also highlight the psychological depth of the characters, creating more dramatic for the script, and contributing to the success of the play. Nowadays, Cải lương is also an extremely popular type of Vietnamese traditional music in the South, strengthening the spiritual life of the local people.

The above information includes a panorama of Vietnamese traditional music. During your Vietnam Local Tour, it will be an unforgettable memory to be one of the audiences and enjoy some of the Vietnamese traditional music in order to have insight knowledge about the Vietnamese culture.

If you fall in love with some kind of Vietnam traditional music, the show totally can be in your Vietnam Tour Packages, or you can click here for a tailor-made tour with the show you want.

This article first appeared on the PBS site Next Avenue. The Vietnam War, a 10-part Emmy-nominated PBS series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, streams again to PBS station members on-demand with the member benefit Passport, beginning August 4, 2020.

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This post was originally published on August 29, 2017, and was updated July 31, 2020.

I first became a soldier in a war zone on Veterans Day (Nov. 11) 1970. It’s an irony I’ve wrestled with for 45 years, due in part to the precise timing of U. S. Army tours of duty in Vietnam, which meant that Uncle Sam would send me back home exactly 365 days later — on Nov. 11, 1971.

Needless to say, the date is etched in my mind and will always be. It’s personal, of course, but in a way it’s lyrical, too. I say that because my earliest Vietnam memories aren’t about guns and bullets, but rather about music. As my fellow “newbies” and I were being transported from Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base to the Army’s 90th Replacement Battalion at Long Binh, I vividly recall hearing Smokey Robinson and The Miracles singing “Tears of a Clown”. That pop song was blasting from four or five radios some of the guys had, and with the calliope-like rhythm and lines like “it’s only to camouflage my sadness,” I was having a hard time figuring out just where in the hell I was.

But I knew one thing for sure. Music was going to get me through my year in Vietnam. Did it ever. In fact, it’s sustained me for the past 45 years, as it has countless other Vietnam veterans.

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Craig Werner and I discovered the power of music from a decade of interviews with hundreds of Vietnam vets. Our new book, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War shows how music helped soldiers/veterans connect to each other and to life back home and to cope with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight.

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From THE VIETNAM WAR Ep. 7 – The Veneer of Civilization (June 1968-May 1969) on PBS. Denton (Mogie) in uniform, with siblings Candy and Randy, 1965.

Many of the men and women we interviewed for We Gotta Get Out of This Place had never talked about their Vietnam war experience, even with their spouses and family members. But we found they could talk about a song — “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”, “My Girl”, “And When I Die”, “Ring of Fire” and scores of others. And the talking helped heal some of the wounds left from the war.

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When we began our interviews, we planned to organize it into a set of essays focusing on the most frequently mentioned songs, a Vietnam Vets Top 20 if you will, harkening back to the radio countdowns that so many of us grew up listening to.

Well, it didn’t take long for us to realize that to do justice to the vets’ diverse, and personal, musical experiences would require something more like a Top 200 — or 2,000! Still, we did find some common ground. These are the 10 most mentioned songs by the Vietnam vets we interviewed. Realizing, of course, that every soldier had their own special song that helped bring them home.

10. Green Green Grass of Home by Porter Wagoner

(1965; No. 4 Country Chart)

Neil Whitehurst, a native of North Carolina who served with the 1st Marine Air Wing at Marble Mountain, states emphatically “the No. 1 song that takes me back to Vietnam is ‘Green, Green, Grass of Home’.” Songs like this, those that tapped into loneliness, heartache and homesickness hold a special place in the hearts of Vietnam vets. While some liked the Tom Jones version better, others we interviewed felt the earlier, Porter Wagoner version was “more real, more sad.”

9. Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin

(1967; No. 1 R&B; No. 2 Pop Chart)

Usually heard in the States as another of Aretha’s powerful statements on racial and sexual equality, which it certainly was, “Chain of Fools” took on special meaning in Vietnam. Marcus Miller, an infantryman in the Mekong Delta during the war, said the song referred to the military “chain of command.” And David Browne, who’d grown up in Memphis and served with the 101st Airborne, recalls that when he first learned of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., while a soldier in Vietnam, the only thing that stopped him from “killing the first honky I met” was listening to Chain of Fools. “I thought, that’s my story,” and that chain is gonna break …

8. The Letter by The Box Tops

(1967; No. 1 Billboard Hot 100)

Mail call was a sacred ritual in Vietnam and this song captured its importance lyrically and musically. Didn’t hurt that it spoke of “getting a ticket for an airplane” and “going home” because “my baby just wrote me a letter.” Nothing kept guys going more than love letters from home — and the dream of getting back to their beloved.

7. (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding

(1968; No. 1 Billboard Hot 100)

Just before his tragic death in a plane crash in Madison, Wis., in late 1967, Otis Redding had completed recording “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay”, perhaps his greatest song and the first record to ever become a posthumous No. 1 hit. Was Otis Redding thinking of Vietnam? We’ll never know for sure, but he’d agreed to travel to Vietnam to entertain the troops shortly before his passing. Frank Free, an information specialist at USARV Headquarters at Long Binh in 1968-69, admits that he gravitated to music that expressed feelings of yearning and loneliness, and that Redding’s portrait of the lonely wanderer resting by the ocean watching the sun go down in “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” perfectly captured that feeling.

MORE HISTORY: See our Summer of ’69 documentaries or a Summer of 1969 timeline.

6. Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR)

(1969; No. 3 Billboard)

When asked to sum up the music of the war, Peter Bukowski, who served with the Americal Division near Chu Lai in 1968-69, responded: “Two words. Creedence Clearwater.” “They were the one thing everybody agreed on,” he told us. “Didn’t matter who you were — black, white, everyone. We’d hear that music and it brought a smile to your face.” ROTC graduate and heavy mortar platoon leader Loren Webster singled out Fortunate Son because it “pretty well summarized my feelings about serving, particularly since I had to serve in the Reserves with a whole lot of rich draft dodgers after I returned.”

Watch American Experience: Woodstock (broadcast premiere August 6, 2019), as part of our Summer of ’69 programs.

5. Purple Haze by Jim Hendrix Experience

(1967; No. 65 Billboard Hot 100)

Maybe it’s because he could have been in Vietnam that Jimi Hendrix holds so much appeal for ‘Nam vets. A member of the prestigious Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., Hendrix preferred guitar playing to soldiering, hence his early discharge in 1962. But even more than that, his guitar sounded like it belonged it Vietnam, reminding GIs of helicopters and machine guns, conjuring visions of hot landing zones and purple smoke grenades. As James “Kimo” Williams, a supply clerk near Lai Khe in 1970-71, attests: “The first time I heard Purple Haze, I said, ‘What is that sound and how do you do that?’ The white guys who were into rock liked him,” Williams continues, “and the black guys who were into soul liked him. He appealed to everyone.”

4. Detroit City by Bobby Bare

(1963; No. 6 Billboard Country and No. 16 on Billboard Hot 100)

No matter whether it’s theme or style, any song with a lyric about going home was sure to find an in-country audience and show up on a list of Vietnam vets’ favorite tunes. Maybe that’s why “Detroit City”, sung by the country and western singer Bobby Bare with its lingering refrain, “I wanna go home/I wanna go home/Oh how I wanna go home” was so popular on jukeboxes in Southeast Asia long after its release in 1963. Big fans included veteran C&W music lovers Jim Bodoh and Jerry Benson, who didn’t think country music ever got enough airplay over Armed Forces Vietnam Radio (AFVN).

3. Leaving on a Jet Plane by Peter, Paul and Mary

(1969; No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100)

When we played this song at LZ Lambeau, a welcome home event for Vietnam vets and their families held at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., in 2010, we were overwhelmed by the response it received, especially by spouses of Vietnam vets. They sang along with tears in their eyes, because they were the ones saying goodbye to the men who were boarding the planes for Vietnam. And it got to soldiers/vets, too. As Jason Sherman, an AFVN DJ during part of his tour in Vietnam, recalled: “Leaving on a Jet Plane brought tears to my eyes.”

2. I Feel Like I’m Fixin to Die Rag by Country Joe & The Fish

(1965, re-released 1967)

Misunderstood and misinterpreted by most Americans, Country Joe’s iconic song became a flashpoint for disagreements about the war and its politics. But Country Joe, himself a Navy veteran — who when we first met him told us “I’m a veteran first and hippie second” — intended this “not as a pacifist song, but as a soldier’s song.” “It’s military humor that only a soldier could get away with,” he added. “It comes out of a tradition of GI humor in which people can bitch in a way that will not get them in trouble but keeps them from insanity.” And the soldiers got it! As Michael Rodriguez, an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, affirmed: “Bitter, sarcastic, angry at a government some of us felt we didn’t understand, Rag became the battle standard for grunts in the bush.”

1. We Gotta Get Out of This Place by The Animals

(1965; No. 13 Billboard Hot 100)

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No one saw this coming. Not the writers of the song — the dynamic Brill Building duo of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; not the group who recorded it — The Animals and their iconic lead singer, Eric Burdon; not the 3 million soldiers who fought in Vietnam who placed extra importance on the lyrics. But the fact is that We Gotta Get Out of This Place is regarded by most Vietnam vets as our We Shall Overcome, says Bobbie Keith, an Armed Forces Radio DJ in Vietnam from 1967-69. Or as Leroy Tecube, an Apache infantryman stationed south of Chu Lai in 1968, recalls: “When the chorus began, singing ability didn’t matter; drunk or sober, everyone joined in as loud as he could.” No wonder it became the title of our book!

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An immersive 360-degree narrative, The Vietnam War tells the story of the war and its combatants as has never before been told on film. The Vietnam Warreceives an encore marathon broadcast on THIRTEEN, August 29 and 30. See thirteen.org/schedule for tune-in times.

The Vietnam War,an Emmy-nominated, 10-part, 18-hour documentary film series, can again be streamed on demand by members of PBS stations, starting August 4, 2020, in addition to all the films of The Ken Burns Collection.

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For more stories about those who fought in Vietnam, stream “Saved in Vietnam” from We’ll Meet Again Season 2, produced and hosted by Ann Curry. In the episode, Curry helps two Vietnam veterans search for the heroes who saved them. An Army officer searches for the helicopter pilot who rescued him, while another soldier wants to reconnect with the surgeon who saved his leg from amputation.