Festival celebrates song, dance of southern Viet Nam

Mekong Delta Music Festival 2014

This year’s Mekong Delta Music Festival (March 9-12) will celebrate Don Ca Tai Tu song and dance that took root in southern Viet Nam in the late nineteenth century.

During the event set to transpire at the Cao Van Lau Cai Luong Theatre in the province of Hau Giang, some 300 artists from across the south will perform hundreds of songs and instrumental musical pieces, says the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The opening ceremony will include performances of the ever popular song Da Co Hoai Lang (Night Drumbeats for an Absent Husband), written in 1919 by composer Cao Van Lau, a native of the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu.

Instruments for Don Ca Tai Tu performances include the moon-shaped lute (kim), two-stringed fiddle (co), 16-string zither (tranh), pear-shaped lute (ty ba), percussion (song lang), monochord (bau) and bamboo flute (sao).

The violin and guitar are adapted. The guitar used by Don Ca Tai Tu artists has a deep, hollowed-out finger board, enabling musicians to play special ornamentation characteristic of Don Ca Tai Tu.