Audiences and Xoan artists in Phu Tho were shocked to see local authorities experiment with a modern form of Xoan singing with many unconventional arrangements.

Arists performing new Xoan singing at “Back to the Lands of Traditional Festival” on February 18, Photo: Tuoitre

At the cultural event titled“Back to the Lands of Traditional Festival” on February 18 to promote tourism for the three northern provinces of Phu Tho, Yen Bai and Lao Cai, artists under the order of local authorities performed a new kind of Xoan singing, which was a mixture of cheo, trong quan and Xoan singing.

Besides the accompanying music, the traditional gesturing and costumes for Xoan singing also got changed, causing more shock to the audiences.

“I’ve been performing Xoan singing for 13 years and never seen any strange performance like that,” a Xoan artist from Viet Tri city said. “They did not sing the ancient Xoan, they sang something like cheo,” he added.

For his part, Pham Ba Khiem, deputy director Phu Tho province’s Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism, explained that the locality is experimenting with a new kind of Xoan singing to promote the traditional music that is in urgent need of protection.

“People like vibrant tunes, but Xoan singing is not something like that,” he said.“We have not known yet which kind of Xoan, the old or the new, will go down well with the audiences, so we will take their comments and make it better.”

Nguyen Ngoc An, head of the department also expressed his agreement on the experiment and said the unconventional arrangements were a way to retrofit Xoan for modern life and bring it closer to the youths.

“The province’s project to preserve and promote the world’s heritage Xoan singing includes making Xoan a contemporary music mixed with other traditional music like cheo,” he informed.

However, the authorities’ plan does not go down well with music experts.

Music researcher Dang Thanh Loan, who helped to compile the dossier on Xoan singing for UNESCO’s recognition, said the new arrangements will ruin the intangible heritage.

“They turned Xoan’s performing style into cheo,” he said.

Some expresses the concern that the modernized version of Xoan singing will make young people, with no knowledge of the traditional music, misunderstand what it really is.

“If people keep performing the new Xoan, the young generations will have no idea what the real Xoan is,” music researcher Dang Thanh Loan said.

“I have warned the authorities many times but nothing seems to have been changed.”

According to Professor To Ngoc Thanh, chairman of the Vietnam Folk Arts Association, the ancient Xoan can be preserved without any rearrangement or “modernization.”

“There’s only one kind of Vietnamese Xoan singing. We cannot modernize culture, of which Xoan singing is an integral part, since culture is deeply embedded in history,” he said angrily.

Source: Tuoitre