A Beautiful Vietnamese Performance!

What do you get when you mix poetry, instruments, and Vietnamese singers? The result is a beautiful traditional art form called Ca tru.

The word “Ca” means sing.  When the ladies at our performance sang, I really enjoyed it.  It was interesting because it was sung in a minor key. The singers also hardly opened their mouths, but were able to sing loud enough for everyone to hear them.

The next word “tru” means bamboo sticks.  In the olden days, if an audience member liked a performance they would put a bamboo stick in a metal pot. This would make the performers very happy because the sticks had amounts of money written on them, which the performer would receive.

So as you can see, “Ca” means sing and “tru” means bamboo sticks, so the performers were singing for the bamboo sticks.

When we attended the performance, there was a metal pot and the audience received bamboo sticks, but it was just for fun. One of the performers told us if we liked the music, we should put a stick in the pot.  This would make a sound and the performers would hear it and feel happy their music was being appreciated.

The performance wasn’t only singing; there were three traditional instruments played as well. During the intermission of the show, we were able to try them out, which was really neat.

One was a small drum. It was played with a stick and had to be hit really hard to make a good sound.

Another instrument was a phach. This is a piece of wood hit with three sticks. One of the sticks is made up of two half sticks to make a different sound. The single stick is called the mother and the two sticks are called the children.  They sound lovely when they are played together.

The biggest and most difficult instrument to play is called a dan day. It looks like a long necked guitar with three strings.  To play this instrument, one would use the right hand to pick and strum, while the left hand fingers would be used to press hard on the strings on the neck.  The performers made it look so easy, but after trying it, I know I would need a lot of time and practice to become skilled at playing this instrument!

Zoe playing the dan day

Learning to play the dan day

Unfortunately, Ca tru almost died out in the Vietnamese culture. Only a few people knew the art form, so UNESCO put this on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

After watching this amazing performance, we were very inspired! So Zoe and I put on a show with our new Vietnamese instruments. (Along with collecting dolls from all over the world, we have also decided to get musical instruments.) We made our hotel bed into a stage, set up chairs, made tickets, put together a little snack area, and even had a tip mug! We used the tip mug kind of like the bamboo sticks bowl, except instead of written dollar amounts on sticks, we were hoping for actual money. 🙂  Sadly, we didn’t get enough tips to buy ice cream, but we did get a night off of school work!

One of the tickets we made

Our snacks and tips section

Zoe and I performing

Our stage

I really enjoyed the performance and all of my bamboo sticks were in the bowl in a very short time.  🙂  UNESCO has preserved many wonderful things and I’m so glad we had the chance to witness the Ca tru art form.  It was great inspiration for Zoe and I, so maybe you’ll be watching us in a Ca tru performance one day. 🙂