It is called trong quan because this type of song needs a musical instruments including a drum and a string stretching above, in order that when stopping the singing sentence, it is accompanied by a sound of the drum “bang”.
Hat Trong Quan in tonkin is often held in the wandering souls day, August lunar calendar, besides the singing competition is also held on festival days. In harvest time, harvesters from other places coming here often hold song competitions with boys or girls in the villages or among them at night or at the time off work.
A type of folk traditional letters and arts full of village community
In harvest time, harvesters from other places often hold song competitions with boys and girls in the village or among them at night or at the time off work. Hat Trong Quan is often held outside the door or in a large grassplot, near communal house, one camp is male and one camp is female. When singing, there is a drum to lead the rhythm. People often call this drum being “bucket drum”. Bucket drum is designed as follows: two stakes fixing in two camps, one camp is male, one camp is male standing (or sitting). One rope is bound in two strings, in the middle of the string located a bucket, the empty surface faces down a small ground hole, the bottom camp is close to the string. People knock at the beginning of the stake, the string hits on the bottom of the bucket and makes a sound. In the old time, bucket drum is made of two stakes of bamboo 1m high and a bar of thick bamboo crossing. They put a bar of bamboo being perpendicular to the bar of thick bamboo, one tip stands on a thin plank located on a small ground hole. When singing, any camp stops singing, they should hit on the bucket drum (being the part of the string of the tip of the stake or the tip of the thick bamboo” to make the rhythm “luu khong” to urge the other camp to reply.
As other melodies of folk songs in Tonkin: duo of love song (hat quan ho), hat xoan (folk song of Phu Tho province), hat gheo (love song), hat vi ( a kind of song that country boys and girls sing back and forth, hat trong quan is a type of love song of repartee among boys and girls. In the old time, the concept is that boys and girls is banned to touch each other so the string of the musical instrument is the border between the couple of boys and girls or the group of male and female. They sit next to each other but it is not easy to cross the string of ethical behavior at that time. Therefore, they often sing: Bay gio Man moi hoi Dao/Vuon hong da co loi vao hay chua? (now the plum would like to ask peach/the rose garden has been visited by anyone? And the female camp reply: Man hoi thi Dao xin thua/Vuon Hong co loi nhung chua ai vao (Plum asks and I would like to reply/the rose garden as an accession but no one ever comes).
Hat Trong quan, boys and girls always live for love. Or by questions, challenges, or by confidences. Therefore, Trong quan is lyrical, and deep characters of love. For repartee, hat minded… but always keep the polite attitude, the word is not ridiculous.
The thought and love of boys and girls are expressed to the prosody of trong quan melody. Usually, they open the festival by Vietnamese popular opera, by polite languages. After singing to show the village, they sing the song of inviting betel chewing: Anh an mot mieng trau nong, de cho duyen ben to hong doi ta ( the girl invites the boy to chew betel in order that the love between them comes).
Hat Trong quan is the type of ritual song. Singers come from every layer in the rural society. Confucians, students sing with daughters of rich families or civilians. They tontrtally are not singers ...Most of them are boys and girls who are of marriageable age, going to the festivals to find partners for the future life. Festival songs have two types: singing for fun and singing for prizes. The place for singing may be private houses, in the middle of the village, at the beginning of the hamlet, or at the communal house yard of the tutelary god. Singing competition can be held between the two camps of boys and girls or a couple of boy and girl. Besides some competitions at home, country boys and girls themselves hold many teams of singing camps on a large place in the middle of the village, on the path at the edge of rice field, or at the gate of the hamlet. Boys and girls sit into two sides being distant from each other about 10 meters. Among the two camps of boys and girls, there is one “trong quan” that in the old time being called “tho co”. Boys and girls sing to take a bar to fit on the string to make sounds; girls reply and knock the castanets to make the rhythm.
As being the type of repartee, although there are not strict prosodies like duo of love songs, trong quan also has rules; for examples, it has two camps, each camp has one authority, in the army, they can be two male camps, but the most exciting is having two camps of boys and girls. Before the performance of hat trong quan, there is often a singing sentence: Trong quan xin co loi chao/ Ai co going xin moi vao, ma ai khong co going thi ra! ( it means Trong quan would like to invite anyone who have good voices to take part in), then all sing together, perhaps “ Dat thap ong troi cao (the ground is low, the sky is high)…/Ngon den thoi sang to nhu sao tren troi ( the lamp is obvious as the star in the sky). Then the repartee is officially started. Trong quan is also a type of lovable song, or mentions the friendship, especially appreciating the love between country boys and girls. Here they express the love for the country, people, by the creativity that the talent to contribute to nourishing the soul and culture of Viet. Although Trong quan is not as ancient as it is in Da Trach – Hung Yen but Trong quan in Song Phuong (Dan Phuong), Hat Mon (Phuc Tho), Khanh Ha (Thuong Tin), Quang Minh ( Thanh Oai), Hoang Dieu (Chuong My) … has melodies and type of unique activities.
Hat Trong quan: origin …
Da Trach commune, Chau Giang District, Hung Yen province is one of two communes which still keep the melody of Hat Trong Quan, one folk melody of the red river delta.
According to studying documents on hat trong quan, up to now, there are not any scientific works confirming when hat trong quan existed. But in Bai Say (ChauGiang) people still think that: in the era of Hung King III, Tien Dung princess in a journey along the red river, has a meeting with a poor boy Chu Dong Tu. This morganatic couple with people create an area of canes and neglected sand banks into rich villages. Tien Dung princess taught people how to grow rice, weave fabric and trong quan melodies.
The legend is that Hat Trong Quan appeared in Tran era, in the resistance against Mongolians, soldiers when entertaining sit into two opposite rows, one row “singing”, one row “replying”, when singing, knocking on the drum barrel to make the rhythm.
Meanwhile, Confucian sholar of Vietnam said that “Trong quan” comes from the term “tong quan” (saying goodbye to friend). The legend is that in the old time, a mandarin left a province for other, his friends show him out. At the time for being ready to separate, people showing out puts a drum face down the ground and make the rhythm to sing to show their friends out in which having a sentence: Tong quan nam pho thuong nhu chi ha” ( when showing our friend out to the South, no one can understand our pain).
A legend says that: Trong quan appeared from Nguyen Hue era. When going to the North to fight against the enemy, many soldiers miss home, King Quang Trung Nguyen Hue showed a way to make the two sides to imitate boys and girls to sing and reply for soldiers to be happy. When singing, there is the sound of drums to make the rhythm so it is called Trong quan ( according to Phan Ke Binh).
Besides, another legend says that: Trong Quan appears in Tran era at the time of the war against Mongolians (13th century). The custom is that: when entertaining, soldiers of Vietnam sit into two opposite rows, knocking on the drum barrel to sing. One side sings, then the other replies. After war, the peace was made, Trong Quan melody is popular. In some places, people knock on the drum barrels, some stretch a steel string to make the rhythm( Vu Ngoc Phan).
According to elder artisans, Hat Trong Quan in ancient region Khanh Ha appeared in 1850s. 19th century. At that time, in Khanh Van, Nhi Khe, Hoang Xa, Do Ha, Lieu Ngoai, Lieu Noi, Dan Nhiem villages (Khanh Ha commune, Thuong Tin district, Ha Tay province (in the old time) , the art of hat trong quan appeared. The most developed era of hat trong quan is from 60s backwards to 20th century.
…and features
Trong quan is a popular folk melody, often seen in the country villages of Vietnam, being held to sing for fun on festival days. Under the root of the banian tree, or on the grassplot, a tops small group of fives or sevens concentrate, each group is distant 15-20m from each other, for father. Each group singing should have one type of musical instrument which can not be sufficient called Trong Quan to disguise from the big drum.
The feature of Hat Trong Quan is that each camp has from 2 to 5 or seven of people in one group. In Hat Trong Quan, the person who finds out the reply often be called “ nguoi xui”, and they play an important role in the competition. The reply should be satisfied in sound and meaning. If any camp could not reply, they will be the loser and the awards will be for the winner, which can be a betel, areca. At late night, the love song is more passionate, and the bridge for many couples.
As well as most of other folk songs, Trong Quan also borrows folksongs from many places. The genre Trong quan is sin eight word distich metre. …When singing, they use sin eight word distich metre to be easy to sing. The content may be greetings, repartees…. The way of singing is divided each sentence into many rhythms, each rhythm has two words, mixing into each rhythm are accompanied words such as: á a, í i, ứ ư, này, mà...only in the final rhythm of the eight sentence is sung as repetition: putting the eight word upwards, then singing the two words seven and eight. (Trong quan anh lap len day/Chang da nao vap, chang day nao quang), it is interrupted into: (Trong quan/ ai lap/ len day – Chang da/nao vap/chang day nao quang), and when singing as: Trong quan (nay) anh lap (ma) len day( I I ) – Chang (ma) nao vap (í i) chang day (ứ ư) quang nao quang (í ì)). After each sentence (6 – 8 word) as such, there is the sound of drum to make the rhythm and accompanied sound of drum “bang” which sounds exciting.
Later, the singing sentences is echoed, people take a pipe, carving the bottom, using a thread rolling, crossing the bottom of the pipe, then stretching the thread across the partner, then connecting into another pipe. When singing, they sing into the pipe, the sound is larger, which sounds very exciting. Sometimes, people use iron buckets, binding tightly the drum on it, in order that when fitting on the drum to make the rhythm, or accompany, the sound of the drum is large. This way is called “ made by bang”. Therefore, there is a singing sentence: (Trong quan anh lap bang thung/Ai ma chang thich thi dung len day) .
The meloday of trong quan is simple, however, the attraction in the singing sentences are expressed in the sin eight word distich metre. The content is simple but it is funny. For example, the female camp sing: Anh di lam tho noi nao/De em ganh duc ganh bao di theo… then the male camp reply: Bon cua cham bon con nghe/Bon con nghe duc chau ve xu Dong/Bon cua cham bon con rong/Ngay thoi bat chuot toi thoi rong leo…. ...then the one camp provokes the other to reply. Then the competition can attract many people to participate from night to the morning.
As for the genre of Hat Trong Quan, it is not necessary to obey the rule of 3 steps ( greeting, repartee, saying goodbye to friends) such as duo love song.. that it can be natural, each person sings and reply with each other through some sentences, then stops without finalizing. Due to singing in front of the gate of the communal house on the day before many people so the singing sentences of trong quan often are polished and not so casual as hat vi.
When singing Trong quan to lead the rhythm, people often call this drum “ bucket drum. Bucket drum is constructed as followed: two stakes fixing in two camps, one camp is male, one camp is male standing (or sitting). One rope is bound in two strings, in the middle of the string located a bucket, the empty surface faces down a small ground hole, the bottom camp is close to the string.
People knock at the beginning of the stake, the string hits on the bottom of the bucket and makes a sound. In the old time, bucket drum is made of two stakes of bamboo 1m high and a bar of thick bamboo crossing.
They put a bar of bamboo being perpendicular to the bar of thick bamboo, one tip stands on a thin plank located on a small ground hole. When singing, any camp stops singing, they should hit on the bucket drum(being the part of the string of the tip of the stake or the tip of the thick bamboo” to make the rhythm “luu khong” to urge the other camp to reply.
As for music, Trong Quan is a melody close to the voice. For the singing sentences are sin eight word distich metre and each time singing can be long or shot, so the melody changes to the voice, Trong Quan use replying words for the main content, and are sung in the medium speed, the sentences have several accompanied words to serve for constructing melodies such as: thời, có mấy, hời, ư, nầy, rằng...
Hat Trong Quan in each locality has different features for the way of speaking or cultural traditions in each region. According to researcher Nguyen Viem: Trong Quan Duc Bac in one harvest ricefield of Lap Thach district is used to sing in the festival to invite the group of folk song of Phu Tho province. Boys of Duc Bac take the group of folk song of Phu Tho Province across the river, and the delta, outstanding is Hung Yen having additional folk sentences of this region, most of which are the melodies of co la ( stork melody).
The gentle sound or melodious sound of accompanied words makes the voice of Trong Quan have the strong expression. This is an important feature of Trong Quan in form. This feature is suitable for the content of Trong Quan is to express the happiness and emotion, and showing the interest in the rural activities, the beauty spots of the country, the richness of the country.
Hat trong quan is the art type having national character need protecting and keeping in current life.
