Ca Trù Singing
Ca Tru music sounds strange to the uninitiated. Clicks and clacks accompany the centuries old ballads. It is not the kind of music that inspires toe tapping or humming.
Ca Tru was popular with the royal palace and a favorite
hobby of aristocrats and scholars.
Ca tru requires at least three performers. The singer is always a woman and plays the phach, an instrument made of wood or bamboo that is beaten with two wooden sticks .
The Phach
A woman and plays the phach
A musician accompanies the singer on the Dan Day, a long-necked lute with three silk strings and 10 frets.
There is also a drummer or Trong Chau
Praise drum
Instrument of Ca Tru Instrument of Ca Tru
Cheo Opera
A plays of Cheo opera
Cheo is a form of popular theatre in Vietnam that has its roots in ancient village festivals. It is a form of generally satirical musical theatre, often encompassing dance, traditionally performed by Vietnamese peasants in northern Vietnam.
Cheo tells tales of chiefs, heroes and lovely maidens and offers an eclectic mix of romance, tragedy and comedy.
A Cheo play could be put on stage in a large theater, but it A Cheo play could be put on stage in a large theater, but it could also be performed successfully on one or two bed could also be performed successfully on one or two bed mats spread in the middle of a communal house with a cast mats spread in the middle of a communal house with a cast of only three: a hero, a heroine and a clown. of only three: a hero, a heroine and a clown.
Instrument of Cheo
Praise drum
Bamboo Flute
Two-String Guitar Two-string Fiddle
