A Musician Who Teaches Us Love and Kindness

One of the greatest musicians of contemporary Vietnam, Trinh Cong Son was born in Lac Giao, Daklak (now Lac Duong District, Ban Me Thuot) on the highlands in Central Vietnam on February 28, 1939. He grew up in Minh Huong, Vinh Tri (Huong Tra), Hue, and attended French schools in Hue and later in Saigon. He graduated from Lyceé J.J Rousseau with a focus on philosophy. In 1961 he had to enroll in the Teacher College in Qui Nhon to avoid participating in the Vietnam War. After graduation he taught at an elementary school in Blao (Bao Loc), Lam Dong.

According to recent research and discovery by Nguyen Dac Xuan, Trinh began composing as a teenager. His early songs were Sao Chieu (Afternoon Stars) (before 1957), Hoa Buon (Melancholy Flowers), and Uot Mi (Tearful Eyelashes, 1958). Together with his first long composition Da Trang Ca, Sao Chieu and Hoa Buon were performed at a music festival on the Teacher College campus in Qui Nhon in 1963. When Trinh passed away, he had written about 500-600 songs, the majority of which were completed between 1960s and 1970s, the most violent periods in the Vietnam War. Joan Baez dubbed him the Bob Dylan of Vietnam for his moving antiwar songs. He was frequently criticized by both sides of the Vietnam governments at that time, who felt displeased and uncomfortable with the lyrics in many of his antiwar songs. After the country’s reunification in 1975, his family fled to Canada. Trinh refused to leave Vietnam. He was sent to a re-education camp for four years, where he said that he spent his time planting rice amid the mine-fields. In the end, his status was reinstated and honored by the Vietnam communist government. Many officials even expressed their respect to him with flowers. His melancholy songs about love and postwar reconciliation earned new acceptance and popularity in his later years.

There are at least two singers whose names are often associated with Trinh Cong Son: Khanh Ly, and Hong Nhung. Khanh Ly helped popularize Trinh’s music in the early years. They often performed together at Van Café, and on university campuses in South Vietnam. It was Khanh Ly who helped to introduce and popularize Trinh Cong Son’s music to Japan and many other regions in the world. Hong Nhung appeared much later in his music, towards the end of his life.

On April 1, 2001 Trinh died at the age of sixty-two from diabetes, liver and kidney failure in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, South Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands of people attended his funeral, making it a spectacular event in Vietnam history.

Until now, ten years after his death, his music remains very popular among both the old and the young, in Vietnam as well as in remote areas in New Zealand and Hawaii.
Trinh was an outspoken critic of the war, and his songs appealed to Vietnamese soldiers on both sides of the 17th latitude during the War, because the lyrics pointed out the atrocity and senselessness of the War, and the endless suffering of its pitiful victims. Trinh's friends and family converted an artists' meeting place in Ho Chi Minh City into a permanent memorial to the singer. His songs were mostly romantic, and many singers of Vietnam's young generations say he is their main source of inspiration.

Trịnh’s songs can be classified into three main categories: Antiwar or Love for Homeland Songs (Ca khuc da vang, Kinh Viet nam, Ta phai thay mat troi, Phu khuc da vang, from 1965 to 1972), Romantic or Love Songs (from 1957 to 1990s), and Human Destiny (from 1960s to 1990s). He also wrote poems and participated in two art exhibitions in 1989 and in 1990. He was the hero in the movie “Land of Sorrows,” and had written lyrics and composed music for some other Vietnamese movies. He won many national and international awards for the songs he wrote before and after 1975. On March 17, 2011, a street in Hue was named after him.


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinh_Cong_Son
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1260527.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1255872.stm
http://www.trinh-cong-son.com/
http://www.trinh-cong-son.com/tcsjapan.html
http://www.trinh-cong-son.com/ontapes.html
http://www.trinh-cong-son.com/thovan.html
http://www.trinh-cong-son.com/tranh01.html
http://www.writeopenstory.com/Stories/Story1283.html