Ethnic minority performing arts
Since time immemorial, oral literature has been passed down from generation to generation through the ancient art of storytelling (
kể chuyện). A popular diversion for young and old alike at many different types of rural social gathering, this art form also taught morality as well as serving to perpetuate the various proverbs, myths, legends and cosmology associated with particular ethnic groups. Over time there emerged a class of storytellers who learned the ancient tales by heart, eking out a meagre existence by practising their craft whilst travelling from village to village. This tradition is still found today amongst the ethnic groups of the central highlands. Both the Ê-đê and M'nông, for example, preserve a rich corpus of epic stories which are delivered at festival times in marathon 12-hour sessions by village elders charged with keeping the ancient art alive.
Popular singing began without instrumental accompaniment, giving rise to a plethora of solo love songs, nuptual songs, lullabies, work songs, festival songs, eulogies and funeral laments. The forebears of some ethnic communities, such as those of the Mường or the Thổ, subsequently developed a strong tradition of choral singing, whilst images carved into the surface of ancient Đông Sơn drums indicate that the use of percussion and wind instruments - notably pestle and mortar, bronze drum, bronze gong, copper bell and an early version of the mouth organ known as the
khèn - had become widespread by the first millennium BCE. Thereafter musical instruments, generally fashioned from natural materials, became an essential complement to vocal music, as well as an important means of musical expression in their own right.
The instrumentarium of the Lạc Việt people of the 1st century BCE, progenitors of the Kinh majority, would have had much in common with that of today's ethnic minority communities who, since time immemorial, have crafted musical instruments with great ingenuity using all kinds of natural materials including stone, wood, gourd, bamboo, animal horn and reed.
Amongst a wide variety of ethnic minority stringed instruments, plucked gourd lutes such as the goong and the ta lư of the central highlands or the tính tảu, ta in and đỉnh dơng of north west Việt Nam are used either for the accompaniment of singing or as solo instruments in their own right, whilst bowed bamboo fiddles such as the cò ke (Mường) or the cửa (Tày) are more often used for ritual purposes, sometimes as part of a small orchestra. Of particular note is the bamboo fiddle known as the k'ni (central highlands), which is distinguished by a thread running from the instrument to the player's mouth, where subtle modulations of the sound can be effected.
Wind instruments are commonly used amongst almost all ethnic groups and range from vertical and transverse bamboo flutes to single and double reed wooden trumpets and buffalo horns. Distinctive to the wider region is a large mouth organ known as the
khèn, made up of seven or sometimes eight pairs of bamboo tubes, fitted into a hardwood soundbox. Numerous different designs of
khèn may be identified in Việt Nam, the best-known varieties being those of the Lào, Lừ, H'mông and Ê-đê.
Bamboo ideophones are particularly popular in the central highlands. They include a unique instrument generally known by the Xơ-đăng name klông pút, which is played by clapping the hands to push air into a row of bamboo tubes with a view to producing sounds of varying pitch. Both the klông pút and its distant cousin, the large bamboo xylophone known as the đàn t'rưng, became popular in Việt musical circles from an early date and have long been integrated into the Việt instrumentarium.
The ethnic minorities employ a wide variety of percussion instruments ranging from ancient stone lithophones, bronze drums, bronze gongs and wooden drums of every conceivable shape and size to bamboo clappers, chimes, bells and even pestles and mortars. Great ritual significance is attached to the use of bronze drums by the Mường, Khơ mú, Lô Lô and Pu Péo communities of the far north and to the use of bronze gongs by the Mường of north west Việt Nam and the majority of the central highland ethnicities.
A vivid expression of traditional life, folk dance (
múa dân gian) originated largely as a celebration of everyday events and pastimes. The range of folk dance preserved amongst Việt Nam's 53 ethnic minorities has undergone constant development down the centuries and currently ranges from the
múa xòe (
xòe dance) and
múa sạp (bamboo pole dance) of the Thái, Lừ and Lào ethnicities, the
rơ bam of the Khmer, the
múa khèn (
khèn dance) and
múa ô (umbrella dance) of the H'mông and the
múa chuông (bell dance) and
múa trống (drum dance) of the Dao to the
múa khiên (shield dance) and
múa trống (drum dance) of the Ê Đê, the
múa bình (vase dance) and
múa quạt (fan dance) of the Chăm and the
múa sư tử (lion dance) of the Hoa.
Embracing declamation and choreographed movement, ancient shamanistic propitiation rituals and spirit medium dances are today found almost exclusively amongst Việt Nam's ethnic minority groups, many of which still maintain the services of shamans to intercede on their behalf with the world of the spirits. The ceremonies and trance-dances performed to the accompaniment of ritual music by the
thày mo of the Mường, Thái and Nùng ethnicities, the
thày cúng of the Tày, the
chẩu hua of the Lào and the
chẩu hô of the Lừ are particularly noteworthy.
The call-and-response dialogue song is performed widely amongst the ethnic groups of Việt Nam, particularly those of the Austro-Asiatic and Sino-Tibetan language families. Most extant versions of this art form - notably the ví đúm of the Mường, the lượn of the Tày, the sli bốc of the Nùng, the khắp of the Thái, Lào and Lừ, the sình ca of the Sán Chay, the ni cô of the La Chí, the vươn of the Giáy and the pả dung of the Dao and Pà Thẻn - take the form of a flirtatious male-female courting game in which boys and girls engage in sung poetic dialogue, testing each others' skills.
