Ca Trù Thăng Long

‘Ca trù very old music. Nowadays very few people listen,’ says my guide Thuy.
‘I like old music. I’d listen,’ I say, holding out a flyer published by the Ca Trù Thăng Long Vietnam Folklore Association. It reads:

Ca Trù Singing House 

HÁT Ả ĐÀO

A unique style of music from the past which was performed

in the homes of the singer for their great guests.

8:00pm every Saturday

Address: 28 Hàng Buồm St; Hoan Kiem Dist

Hanoi – Vietnam

‘Can you ring them and make a reservation for me?’
‘I think no need for reservation,’ says Thuy, but he places the call anyway.

I know very little about ca trù, other than that it is a form of Vietnamese chamber music. The flyer notes the origins of the genre in Vietnamese court and religious music, which subsequently declined on becoming ‘associated with disrepute’ (‘opium, girls [who] serve wine and misunderstandings about ca trù singers’!). In September 2009, ca trù was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of Urgent Safeguarding.

Thuy is right that there is no need for a reservation. We are fewer than ten who have gathered for the performance, so I settle into a front-row seat. The music starts – thin and plaintive – and the bamboo screen rises. Two young ladies, dressed in flowing áo dài, are sat on a raised platform in front of a heavily laden altar table. One of them, the singer, plays a small percussion instrument called a phách, and is accompanied by the other on the đàn đáy (Vietnamese lute). Off stage, a man strikes a trống chầu (praise drum).

The programme is short – six pieces over the span of about an hour. During the intermission, a young Frenchman comes on stage to perform a tea ceremony (pictured above). ‘I fell in love with two things when I came in Vietnam – ca trù and Viet tea!’ he declares, but I mis-hear him and wonder dreamily which of the young ladies had caught his eye.