''Xoan'' singing or ,
Chữ Nôm
Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represented by new characters ...
: ) is a genre of
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
performed in
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...
during the first two months of the
Tết Nguyên Đán
Tết (, ), short for (; ), is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar and usually falls on January or February in the Gregorian calendar.
is not to be con ...
in
Phú Thọ Province
Phú Thọ is a Provinces of Vietnam, province in Đông Bắc, northern Vietnam. Its capital is Việt Trì, which is from Hanoi and from Noi Bai International Airport, Nội Bài International Airport. The province covers an area of and, as ...
.
[Ellen Koskoff, ed. (2008). ''The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Volume 2'', p.1307. . and Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams, eds. (2008). ''The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music'', p.265. .] The genre includes acting, ceremony, chant, dancing, drumming, and singing; with themes involve romance, riddles, and work.
Traditionally occurring in
temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
s,
shrine
A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...
s, and communal homes, the songs are performed by a
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...
, led by a , consisting of male instrumentalists, or , and female singers, or .
[Intangible Cultural Heritage:]
Xoan singing of Phú Thọ Province, Viet Nam
, ''UNESCO.org''. A guild consists of ten to fifteen performers,
but there are few remaining, increasingly aging, guilds and teachers of this primarily
oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...
.
There are three types of xoan singing: honoring
Hùng king
Hùng king (2879 BC – 258 BC; Chữ Hán: 雄王; (雄王) or ''vua Hùng'' (𤤰雄); ''Vương'' means "king" and ''vua'' means "monarch; could mean emperor or king") is the title given to the ancient Vietnamese rulers of the Hồng Bàng dy ...
s and
Thành hoàng
Thành hoàng ( vi-hantu, 城隍) or Thần hoàng (神隍), Thần Thành hoàng (神城隍) refers to the gods or deities that are enshrined in each village's Đình in Vietnam. The gods or deities are believed to protect the village from natural ...
(village guardian gods); wishing for good crops, health, and luck; and festive courtship songs alternating male and female voices.
The
texture
Texture may refer to:
Science and technology
* Image texture, the spatial arrangement of color or intensities in an image
* Surface texture, the smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object
* Texture (roads), road surface c ...
is "spare";
perfect fourth
A fourth is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending int ...
s are prominent; and instruments include
drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...
s and
clappers.
is singing or acting and derives from ('spring').
In 2011,
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
inscribed in the
.
In 2017, UNESCO removed from that list and included it in the
.
References
External links
*Media services:
Viet Nam: Xoan singing of Phú Thọ Province, ''UNESCO.org''.
Xoan Singing, ''Vietnam-Culture.com''.
Xoan singing in Phu Tho Province, ''VietnamTourism.com''.
, ''ThanhNienNews.com''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xoan singing
Music of Vietnam
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity