Musical Instruments
Different wind and percussion instruments existed in Viet Nam since the Bronze age. The Bronze drums and woodwind instruments have been excavated around Dong Son, which depicted dancers performing to the accompaniment of musical instruments.
During the millenium of Chinese colonization and Viet Nam's long Southward march, Viet Nam Music had been influenced by Chinese and also Hindu Kingdom of Champa.
Court music emerged during Le Dynasty (15th century) when a Vietnamese mandarin established music categories to be played at different religious and social ocasions. Plays and water puppets, whether at court or popular theaters, were accompanied by an orchestra.The recordings themselves are of excellent quality, and the live energy of the musicians and singers makes this one of the best musical journeys you could make from home.
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Stilling Time: Traditional Musics Of Vietnam
To call the music on this disc revealing would be an understatement. American musician Philip Blackburn travelled to Vietnam in late 1993 to record the village music of the nation and came home with a remarkable portrait of a culture both deeply reverential of the past and yet still dynamic and growing.
The range of music here is amazing. There are dramatic theater pieces played on traditional instruments, a thundering gong orchestra, some wild, almost bluesy string bands, and a diversity of singing styles. From the northern mountain region we are introduced to the Nùng style of close harmony singing by two young women who improvise on the spot, all the with and energy of their songs coming right through the haze of language.
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