Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Folk music researchers support the creation of adigital archive of ca tru (ceremonial singing) owned by a State-run agency topreserve the traditional art form and gather scattered materials owned byindividual artists and researchers.

Researcher Bui Trong Hien has proposed setting up a general stock of ca tru.

He said currently, some examples of the singing are held by the Vietnam MusicInstitute, some by the National Culture and Arts Institute, and others areowned by private collectors and researchers.

The audio is contained on CDs, DVDs, tapes and video cassettes.

“It’s important to establish a general stock of ca tru,” he said. “For example,the Vietnam Music Institute may be responsible for setting up such a stock.”

Researcher Nguyen Quang Long agreed the task is very important.

“It will help ordinary people and ca tru singers have easier access to asystematic archive on the art,” Long said.

“The stock will help the development of the art. Making it popular again andmoving it from the list of Intangible Cultural Heritages in Need of UrgentSafeguarding to one of Humankind’s Intangible Cultural Heritage, like hat xoan(folk singing from northern Phu Tho province).”

A few years ago, Hien was doing some research on ca tru, when he borrowed tentapes from an artist. But all of them had got mouldy. Hien had to painstakinglyclean the tapes with alcohol and a soft piece of cotton. It took him two weeksto digitally record the songs from the tapes.

“When ca tru artisan Nguyen Phu De died in March at the age of 97, his fanswere sad but relieved that De’s pieces of music and lyrics had been saved by Hien,”Long said.

“He also did serious research and categorised the work,” he said.

Long also recorded Nguyen Phu De’s performances five years ago as part of aproject hosted by the Music Publishing House.

Long said other agencies like the Radio Voice of Vietnam, Music PublishingHouse Dihavina have recorded performances by various ca tru artists to keep asarchives.

“When I worked at Dihavina, I found an interesting stock of music by artisan QuachThi Ho on cassette tapes,” Long said.

Long also revealed that though the Music Institute possesses an extensive arrayof recordings, it is just for reference as most of the songs were not recordedin a studio, meaning the quality is often poor.

Records by the Music Publishing House are more profitable as they can be copiedfor sale to the public.

Long suggested that the archives of the Music Publishing House should bedigitalised for preservation.

“Unsustainable materials like cassette tapes and vinyl can degrade over time,”he said.

“Quach Thi Ho’s singing was copied to CDs in 2004-05. The CDs were then soldwidely.”

Hien also stressed the need to change the sound recorded into a digital form.

“The cassette tapes may get mouldy, which affects the quality,” he said.

He also said the sound on the old tapes should be cleaned up before beingtransformed into digital.

“Modern software can help improve the sound,” he said.

Both researchers suggested setting up a general stock of ca tru art for researchersand new performers.

“Young singers should learn from old artisans like Thai Ha Ca Tru Group and thegroup run by artisan Pho Thi Kim Duc,” Long said.

Ca tru is a complex form of sung poetry found in the north of Vietnam from the11th century on, using lyrics written in traditional Vietnamese poetic forms.

For much of its history, it was associated with a geisha-like form ofentertainment, which combined entertaining wealthy people as well as performingreligious songs for the royal court.-VNS/VNA