DON CA TAI TU - CAI LUONG

Music of the South

Nguyên Van Dáng : chanteur
Trân Thi Thu Huong : chanteuse
Nguyên Xuân Vinh : vièle dàn cò, cliquette song loan
Lê Minh Nhât : cithare dàn tranh
Pham Van Tuyên : monocorde dàn bâu
Nguyên Ngoc Tuyên : luth dàn kim

The Don ca tài tu, ‘music and song of talented amateurs’, is a music of a purity of expression and delicate refinement. This musical genre developed in the nineteenth century in the south of Vietnam. The Don ca tài tu is often associated with the ‘theatre of reform’ (Cai luong) that remains very popular in Vietnam.

The ensemble centres on singing and string instruments: a two-stringed hurdy-gurdy dàn cò, a lute dàn kim and a 16-stringed cithara dàn tranh and the single stringed dàn bâu. Based on a large corpus of vocal and instrumental compositions, the interpretations allow for improvisation.