Hmong Music in Vietnam

HMONG MUSIC IN VIETNAM
by Hong Thao

Revised and translated by
Phong T. Nguyen 

NHAC VIET
THE JOURNAL OF VIETNAMESE MUSIC
Special Issue 
Volume 4 - Number 2 - Fall 1995

published by the International Association for Research in Vietnamese Music,
a non-profit organization.

(Text, graphics, photographs, notated music and songs, 114 pp., $10. If interested, please send your name, address, and payment to the order of IARVM, P.O. Box 16, Kent, OH 44240, USA. First class (US only) free postage.)

All Photographs by Hong Thao Pham c 1995, except page 10 by John Black c 1995 Text Copyright c 1995 by Hong Thao Pham & Phong T. Nguyen

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher

ISSN 1063-1909

TABLE OF CONTENTS

   Foreword                                    5

1  An Overview of the Origin, Homeland,       11
   and Life of the Hmong

2  Musical Life of the Hmong                  21

3  Vocal Genres                               29

4  Musical Instruments                        45

5  Some Characteristics of                    61
   the Hmong Music

   Appendix                                   77

   Index                                     113

FOREWORD

Setting foot in Hanoi for the first time in the spring of 1993 (winter in America) I began my field work with the assistance of Earthwatch volunteers. The first targeted subject was quan ho antiphonal folk songs. This culture has fascinated me for decades. I was thrilled to see the grandeur of the Lim Festival in Bfc Ninh and searched for its sources (thirty kilometers north of Ha Noi). A specialist on the quan ho had come to my attention through publications I studied during my planning. I now hoped to interview him. It would be enlightening to do so at the festival site. I instead met him by chance when I was introduced to him at the quan ho Song Contest held in the municipal theater of Bfc Ninh. He is a gentleman in his sixties, with a soft voice and gray hair. Pham Hong Thao is his name, although he often uses "Hong Thao," rather like a pen name, which most artists use in Vietnam.

It was only near the end of my contact with him last year that I discovered his pioneering work was not only in the quan ho tradition, but also in another kind of music. I learned he did his "fieldwork" among the Hmong (formerly called Meo) in Ho Giang Province, over thirty-five years ago. He approached this music as a Viet (Vietnamese) who had just finished his training in Western music at the Hanoi Conservatory. His description and details are captivating. His experience perhaps would benefit from the perspectives of an ethnomusicologist; yet his tenaciousness should be admired from many points of view.

He became involved in this fieldwork because he found Hmong music fascinating. I would like to share the details gathered by this Vietnamese scholar and ethnomusi-cological pioneer during his research in the rough mountains of northwestern Vietnam.

The musics of the minority peoples of Vietnam remain obscure to many outsiders. One of fifty-four ethnic groups in Vietnam, the Hmong are a prominent group which inhabits the mountain areas bordering China and Laos. Their music has inspired a number of contemporary composers in Vietnam. Portions of Hong Thao's work on Hmong music have been published in Vietnamese music journals, laying the ground work for ethnomusicological studies in Vietnam. Thanks to his work, newcomers to Hmong music are able to listen to new compositions--which are supposed to be "Meo" (Hmong)--and understand the cultural context of the Hmong people.

By studying the Hmong context, one can better understand the relationship between Hmong music and its environment and historical background. Like McAllester who studied the Navaho Enemy Way ceremony (1954), Hong Thao stressed Hmong cultural values in his study in the 1950s. His viewpoint and study of the Hmong music were shaped not by a short-term visit, but an on-going relationship with members of the Hmong community. Leaving his wife at home, he learned the Hmong language and lived with the Hmong.

Material supplies for his fieldwork were minimal, but his commitment was firm. A pencil, a pen, a ruler, some notebooks, a small reel-to-reel tape recorder, and an early camera--these last two borrowed from a friend--were enough. He could afford little and carried out his musical research without even staff paper, drawing staff lines himself on paper while there was still daylight before each performance. Like any other musician, composer, or researcher in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam), he was allowed a bare minimum allowance by the government. The nation had suffered tremendous losses during the terrible war of independence from the French.

It is worth noting that just prior to this century Gustave Dumoutier (1890) and, later, Gaston Knosp (1911) did similar research among the lowland Viet with material support from the colonial government. There was a colossal difference between them and Hong Thao, fifty or sixty years later, in terms of research conditions and support. Only by perceiving this fact can Hong Thao's patience and significant efforts be fully understood. Because of its dual nature (anthropological and musicological) Hong Thao's work may be considered an ethnomusicological study which corres-ponds to the period of time in which ethnomusicology grew in the United States. Particularly, as he lived and served in the other "camp" (i.e., the revolutionary) his study was successful in that he avoided viewing Hmong music as "exotic," "extra-European," or "montagnardic," a perspective that most French researchers prior to his time often took toward the Viet and other ethnic groups.

Earlier this year, I began to sort materials collected from my field expeditions to Vietnam. A copy of Hong Thao's manuscripts appeared before me again. His thiry-five-year-old materials struck me. I have revised and translated them into English for publication here.

Translating ideas to paper is a difficult task. Hong Thao admitted this when we sat in his hut-like house in the humble suburb of Bfc Ninh. The Hmong and the Viet do not think the same way. In translation, they can be amused when hearing a serious story, and vice versa. And now as I translate it yet again into English, this might make a three-party laugh! Also, in my efforts to revise and translate this work, I feel I have come as close to his original thoughts as possible. Other aspects of Hmong vocal music are not discussed at length, or at all in this study, i.e., gAu pl/nh (gxux pl'nhl) love songs, gAu ua nh-ng (gxux ux nhangs) songs of daughters-in-law, gAu tO giua (gxux tux njuxs) orphans' songs, gAu xAng (gxux yxngz) wedding songs, and gAu tuI (gxux tuxs) funeral songs. Perhaps future researchers will tackle these other areas in depth.

Hong Thao was among the earliest composers trained in the 1950s at the Hanoi Conservatory of Music and later self-trained in musical research. Over a thirty-year span he emerged as a prominent specialist in the quan ho folk tradition. He contributed a valuable field collection to Ho Bfc Province. Several students have been trained to carry on his research. His family has settled permanently in the heart of these quan ho villages --a meaningful way of living in which a scholar lives and makes known his knowledge of the tradition directly from its own cradle. I see him as both musical expert and human being--a humble, patient, enlightening person. This vision is based on my personal contacts with him and his family. I thus want to share with the reader some of the results of his work.

I wish to gratefully acknowledge the help of Dr. Sara Stone Miller, Ms. Miranda Arana, and Ms. Dana Kim in editing the text, and Mr. Manh H. Nguyen and Mr. Panya Roongruang in printing the graphics and musical examples. Phong T. Nguyen

References cited:

Dumoutier, Gustave Les chants et les traditions populaires de Annamites. Paris: E. Leroux, 1890.

Knosp, Gaston Rapport sur une mission officielle d'etude musicale en Indochine. Int. Arch. fur Ethn., Band XX, 1911, and Band XXI, 1912.

McAllester, David P. Enemy Way Music. Cambridge: Peabody Museum Papers, vol. 41, no. 3, 1954. MUSICAL LIFE OF THE HMONG

To the Hmong, music is not merely a means of entertainment. They understand its meanings and value it. In the folklore of many minority peoples in Vietnam, there are epics which feature heroes: Gfit Giong, a MiIng man, who teaches people how to overpower beasts; Px LiIng Quxn of the Toy who is able to knock down elephants and fight and kill tigers. No Giao tales tell us that the Hmong are capable of taming tigers with their k/nh mouth organ. K/nh and songs are as important to the Hmong as their daily meals. Their songs and music are heard on top of foggy mountains.

Their music is a symbol of their life. The sounds of the mouth organ, flute, and lute mingle with the sounds of brooks like a conversation between lovers. A jew's harp is often played in the quiet evenings. I had the opportunity of hearing their songs inviting people to have a meal, to have a cigarette at the fireplace. Riddles are made with the mouth organ, arguments with xi u oboes.

I also saw a young man carrying a heavy load on his shoulder, sweating as he trekked on the mountain. But he played his k/nh mouth organ at the same time.

There is no meeting at the daily village market that does not overhear the lovely sounds of the mouth organ or flute. In the spring, young men and women, beautifully dressed, often get together on the hills, in the rice paddies, and under the shade of blossoming cherry trees to sing and play their instruments. Some pairs of boys and girls make courtship talk through a pair of bamboo tubes which look like an "early" telephone. A string is attached to one end of the tube at the center of a membrane covering the end of the tube. This membrane is made of frog skin.

The Hmong have a custom of giving a pair of engagement rings, one each from the family of the male and female. The ceremony begins with a presentation of gifts--usually a paper umbrella and a hand towel. The matchmaker sings instead of speaking the greeting words: "There is a tree on the hill. Its flowers are beautiful like the clouds in the sky. Having heard that you have a pretty girl, we come to see you for an engagement." Or "We have arrived at the bride's home and our empty stomachs are ready for a meal with you." When the bride's family says that they can go wash their faces and feet before sitting on the mats, the matchmaker sings a song in a polite manner: "This water for washing is emerald clear ... this mat is beautifully designed with flowers." Songs are also sung during a rest for a meal on the way to the groom's house. When their songs are finished, they resume traveling. As is the custom, there is singing through the night by the wedding party. People sing songs wishing for happiness which are followed by courtship repartee by men and women.

Children's songs are rich with imagination. While making their dolls with cloth, they often sing and play a game: "My hands are making dolls. When they're done, I'll go to the market. With money [pretending leaves are bills] I can buy them cakes and candies." They pretend leaves are vegetables and use broken bowls for pots. "I am cooking mi/n mi'n and vegetable dishes, tasty and delicious," they sing. They also act out work scenes (rice pestling and pounding) or a funeral of a cricket, grasshopper or other insect.

At funerals, groups of men and women, standing or sitting, weep and sing lamentation songs. They hold each other's shoulders and hands and move them up and down showing strong emotion. The effect is like a chorus performing on stage.

Rituals occupy a major part of Hmong musical life. Their song styles loi {a (spirit praying song), hu pli (spirit invocation), Oa n'nh (trance), khxa k' (farewell song to the dead) and others which are performed by family heads or ritualists exemplify basic elements of Hmong poetry and song styles.

For the loi {a and hu pli performance, the ceremony is rather simple. The head of househead can perform it himself with offerings such as incense and candles, and no ritualist is needed. For the Oa n'nh and khxa k', however, a professional ritualist is required. He enters a trance during which he plays the chxa n'nh, a circle of jingling coins, shakes his head in accordance with this musical instrument's regular beats, and sings songs, often in an unknown language. With a piece of red cloth on his head, he stamps his feet on the floor and shouts, chasing the unwanted spirits while his tongue trembles.

The khxa k' (farewell song to the dead) may last up to an hour or longer. The song shows to the soul of the dead the right way to his/her ancestors' place so that he/she will not get lost. The khxa k' song is sung in slow, regular tempo from beginning to end. It is worth noting that this song is prohibited from being sung if there is no funeral. The khxa k' song is followed by the hu cAu, which is a formal condolence address to the dead. Instrumental music of mouth organ and drum accompanies the soul to the peaceful otherworld. This music is performed by a professional ensemble, while the hu cAu is sung by visitors with much emotion.

In former times, a ch/ xaey (storyteller) praised the good deeds of the ancestors in songs. The in-laws of the dead would come bringing a cow for a sacrifice ritual and people then used its meat to make meals for the funeral. The cow was to be as good as the one owned by the dead person's family. Preferably, these cows were large and had long horns on which many bills had been placed. The k/nh mouth organ and the p/ l' bamboo oboe were also decorated with money. The ch/ xaey first asked questions in his singing: "How many children are there in this house? How did he/she become ill and die? How was he/she cared for? ..." He also answered these questions with songs. Because people could not afford this costly singing ceremony, this form of presentation became extinct decades ago.

Ritual music of the Hmong creates very strong emotions of all sorts and can make people sad and tearful. I used to see similar emotions at scenes of Jesus Christ's crucifixion in Catholic churches in Vietnam.

Words and music in the hu cAu, hu pli, khxa k' and Oa n'nh are distinctive in style. Each of them may, however, vary depending on location and performers' individual skills. Regardless of these possible variants, listeners can tell the difference among them, especially through the words.

An instrumental piece often has an equivalent song carrying specific meanings. Young men, hence, can play their mouth organs to tell stories and their flutes to show their love to young women. The latter could understand the music only if they know the words of the songs. (see Do!n Thanh, 1967)

The k/nh playing is always accompanied by the dancing of the player. In Hmong tradition not only one but several k/nh players can perform a dance together. I have seen four k/nh players dance together in rhythmical movements in time with their playing. Some groups of Hmong have characteristic rules for their k/nh dances. While a White Hmong dancer can hit his feet with another's, a Flowery Hmong dancer only hit his own feet. In some areas, they perform the k/nh and dance by lying down and rolling their bodies on the ground and by walking on three stakes or on a bamboo stick placed across boiling oil.

The k/nh is played at festivals and funerals. Only men are allowed to play this instrument. Also, it is not proper to use this instrument to express love between males and females.

In the k/nh repertory there are several groups of pieces, each having thirteen sub-groups. Each sub-group has five pieces arranged in a specific order. In competitions, the k/nh contestants must play one piece after another in that order. This shows their knowledge of the repertory. Each sub-group represents a theme: storytelling for men, storytelling for women, storytelling of the k/nh maker, and others. Usually, there are two kinds of k/nh music which are played on separate occasions: (1) funerals and (2) festivals, individual enjoyment or public entertainment. One can, however, sometimes play pieces for individual enjoyment after the introductory piece "Ceasing of Breath" in the beginning of a funeral or the ending piece "Mounting the Horse" (i.e., procession to the tomb) after a burial.

The Hmong give a symbolic number of 360 funerary pieces. \1] This, perhaps, suggests that the performance lasts very long after the burial. Indeed, a set of the k/nh pieces continues to be played for many days.

In funerals, the drum also accompanies the k/nh. Its playing technique is quite complex. While playing the k/nh, the White Hmong dancers can go under the drum which is suspended on a wooden three-legged stand. But the Red Hmong k/nh dancers go around it. The drummer beats the drum on the skin and body and follows the k/nh players around his drum. Sometimes he can leave his drum to greet visitors and beat his drum sticks against each other.

The Hmong are fond of this legend of the k/nh among others. In the beginning, the k/nh had only one pipe (i.e., one note). One day, six brothers played a hiding game with their k/nh. When they found them, they happily played together. This made a nice harmonic sound from the six k/nh. They then began to make a six-note k/nh. This is how the current k/nh is constructed. Its six pipes of different lengths are tied together by a belt representing the union of these brothers.

In Hmong rituals there are a number of musical instruments which are used on different occasions or in certain parts of a ceremony. These include long and short trumpets, water buffalo horns, drums, cymbals, and jingling coin circles. For a funeral or village ritual festival, the trumpet called puae can be played to greet visitors in the morning and during cooking or a meal. It thus signals the main event. Small trumpets can be played together with a pair of cymbals. Two small trumpets should be played together--one symbolizes the mother; the other, the father. They are pitched in different keys--the lower fundamental pitch symbolizes the female; the higher, the male.

A water buffalo horn is used in funerals. The Flowery Hmong used to play these horns to chase away tigers and bears, or in battles. At funerals, if a male has died, a group of nine males play this instrument while running around the house nine times; if a female has died, seven males make seven trips around. According to their custom, this symbolizes a battle, supposedly a battle between life and death. The leader must have a bow and arrow or a knife.

Music of the Hmong exhibits many aspects including self-confidence, encouragement and heroism, as well as being used for entertainment and relating to the supernatural. Playing instruments or singing helps to lighten their hard work. Music also brings them great love and happiness. Their legends imply that music is a miracle capable of making a waterfall dry, birds numb, and quenching deer's thirst.