Dao Xa craft village in Ha Tay Vietnam
07/08/07 (GMT+7)
Dao Xa craft village in Ha Tay, according to the land-administration map, Dong Lo Commune of Ung Hoa District, Ha Tay Province constitutes a final stretch bordering on Ha Nam Province, where the locals still preserve their craft of producing musical instruments, first and foremost the traditional pieces.
Along the commune path strewn with golden rice-straw of the late harvest days, we called at the home of Dao Ngoc Soan, one of the most veteran artisans specialized in turning out traditional instruments of Dao Xa Village in Dong Lo Commune.
Lying before my eyes, on the grey brick floor, were the cores of the monochords, the Dan tam (three-stringed lute) and the moon-shaped lutes that looked somewhat raw, crude and plain.
The cores of the monochords were made of crimson-red longan wood and the sound-boards of the Dan tam covered with raw dried python-skin.
I stood there, quietly watching the clever fingers of the artisan, a slender gentle old man, with a skinny face, possibly on the wrong side of seventy, who was making every effort to press a thin board into a moon-shape mould.
After his last endeavour with his two hands, the board was perfectly fitted in, with a sharp and brief “pluff” sound.
Through his talk, I came to know it was the technique of pressing the boards into the moulds to make the sound-boxes of the Dan nguyet - moon-shaped lutes, also popularly known as Dan kim in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam.
In the words of Dao Ngoc Soan, the commune’s manufacturing of musical instruments has a long history. In the old days, when such musical genres as classical dramas, traditional operettas, reformed theatre, Quan ho (love duet singing), A dao (Vietnamese geisha-type singing)…were still in vogue, this occupation was quite developed and prospered.
Then in the subsidization period, the State ran a large shop, called musical-instrument manufacturing workshop of Vietnam, inviting the artisans from this commune to come and practise their craft as well as train the younger generations in the techniques of the occupation.
One of the then craftsmen, Tuyen, still remains in Hanoi , practising his trade there. For the time being, in the commune as a whole, only eight households are known to preserve the craft, including Soan, Phac and Tu who are practising the trade on a larger scale.
Their products are usually gathered once every couple of months and taken to Hanoi, where they are to be distributed nationwide.
From time to time, some customers come to the village to place an order on a special instrument, for his own use or as a gift, usually being an artist, or an overseas Vietnamese national who has got some nostalgia of the homeland and wishes to have an image of the national music and culture.
The commune’s products vary, ranging from the monochord and the 36-stringed zither, the four-stringed zither and the moon-shaped lute to the traditional two-stringed fiddle and four-chorded mandolin.
Manufacturing traditional instruments is really hard work. To produce a satisfactorily good piece, it takes quite a few stages, along with the artisan’s perseverance and talent, the efficient choice of wood, cutting and shaping it, drying it, fitting it into moulds, polishing it, inlaying shell … all this is done by hand in the traditional techniques handed down by their great grandfathers.
Talking to us, Dao Ngoc Soan said the income from this occupation was negligible, particularly for the time being. Only those who nurture an ardent love for the trade may pursue this path.
Turning to the young trainees working assiduously on their pieces, he seemed to feel a greater joy.
He took a traditional 16-stringed zither off the wall, and having adjusted the strings once again, he played a little piece of music, his scraggy fingers sliding gently on the frets and the sounds flying elusively high in the air, seemingly to express the very maker’s innermost feelings.
I know well I was witnessing the joy of an old artisan who could find zealous young successors to inherit the occupation handed down by the great grandfathers and preserve the traditional values of the Vietnamese national music.
(Source: Vietnam Pictorial)
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