Inedit - North Vietnam - The Ca Tru Tradition

Inedit - North Vietnam - The Ca Tru Tradition
(Nord Viet Nam - Le Ca Trù)
Ca Tru Thai Ha Ensemble from Hanoi
Inedit W 260070. Recorded 1995, CD released 1996

Ca tru is an ancient and highly developed genre of chamber music featuring female vocalists. It started off as being a form of entertainment for the royal court in northern Vietnam. For much of its history, it was associated with a geisha-like form of entertainment.

Ca trù literally translates as "tally card songs." This refers to the bamboo cards men bought when they visited ca trù inns, where this music was most often performed in the past. Men would give the bamboo cards they purchased to the woman of choice after her performance, and she would collect money based upon how many cards she was given.

Scholar-bureaucrats and other members of the elite most enjoyed this genre. They often visited these inns to be entertained by the talented young women, who did not only sing, but with their knowledge of poetry and the arts could strike up a witty conversation along with serving food and drink.
Ca trù involves only 3 performers: the female vocalist, a lute player and a spectator (who also takes part in the performance).

The female singer provides the vocals whilst playing her small wooden sticks beaten on a small bamboo platform. She is accompanied by a man who plays a long-necked, 3-string lute used almost exclusively for the ca trù genre. Last is the spectator (often a scholar or connoisseur of the art) who strikes a praise drum in praise or disapproval of the singer's performance, usually with every passage of the song. The way in which he strikes the drum shows whether he likes or dislikes the performance, but he always does it according to the beat provided by the vocalists' percussion.

New observers to the art often comment on how strikingly odd the vocal technique sounds, but it is the vocals themselves that are essential in defining ca trù.

Ca tru was inscribed on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2009.

Tracklist:
01. Thét nhac
02. Guri thu
03. Sam huê tinh
04. Hat noi
05. Ba muoi sau giong
06 .Bac phan - Muou - Hat noi
07. Hat giai - Hat ru
08. Lay Kieu
09. Ty ba hanh