Bac Ninh launches club to preserve UNESCO recognized ca tru ceremonial singing

The cultural authority in the northern province of Bac Ninh has launched a club to preserve and promote ca tru (ceremonial singing) recognized by UNESCO in 2009 as an intangible cultural heritage in urgent need of safeguarding.

With a total 45 members, Bac Ninh Ca Tru Club is responsible for training, organizing and developing the ca tru singing movement in the province.

It will also help preserve and promote the intangible cultural values of ca tru; provide training courses for improving members' professional performance quality; and discover and nurture key talents of singers and performers to participate in competitions and performances during festivals and local celebrations.

The Bac Ninh provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism recently held a conference to announce its decision on the provincial club establishment and at the same time review this year's training programme for the folk singing across the province.

A ca tru singing class was opened in September this year with 37 students who were also members of ca tru clubs in different localities such as Thanh Khuong ward in Thuan Thanh district, Dong Tien in Yen Phong and Tieu Than in Gia Binh.

In the class, students were taught singing and performing skills, how to play the dan day (three-stringed plucked lute) and how to use the beat. The class also provided students with the knowledge and skills to methodically practise playing some traditional instruments. All the students have successfully completed their studies and have been granted certifications for their participation.

The class has made a contribution to implementing the provincial project on promoting cultural heritage values associated with tourism development in the 2021-2025 period, orientation to 2030.

In 2009, ca tru was recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent protection.

Bac Ninh province has three localities of Thanh Khuong ward, the two villages of Tieu Than and Thuong Thon that maintain ca tru clubs. Recently, a number of more clubs have been spontaneously set up to teach, exchange and perform ca tru as well as performing at public art festivals and competitions.

However, the province's cultural authority found that conservation activities face many difficulties due to the lack of musical instruments. Many club members are elderly and there are not many venues for this type of traditional performance art.

Ca tru is a traditional and unique art form in the North of Vietnam. It holds significance in many rituals, belief practices, literature and other traditions that embodied the spiritual and philosophical system of the Vietnamese people.

In different regions, the folk singing has different names such as a dao, co dau and nha tro. No one knows exactly when it was founded, except for the fact that the music genre flourished in the 15th century.

Ca tru was associated with the activities of guilds and groups of singers and was often performed in cultural activities in the village and commune community, such as ceremonies worshiping the village tutelary god in communal houses, or in temples, shrines, professional ancestor worshipping houses and singing houses. Later, it was performed at diplomatic receptions and ceremonies in royal places and loved by the nobility and intellectuals.

It has a rich and diverse singing style and songs are mainly from Vietnamese poetic forms. The words and lyrics are meaningful, poetic, emotional and profound. They are from romantic, epic, philosophic and teaching genres.

In ca tru singing, the lyricists, ca nuong or dao (vocalists), kep dan (lute players) and quan vien (drummers) are usually writers, intellectuals or talented people in poetry and music.