Love duet folk singing honoured at Bắc Giang Festival

Artisans perform their repertoire during the eighth Bắc Giang Province's Quan Họ Folk Song Festival 2024. Photo bacgiang.gov.vn

BẮC GIANG — Traditional quan họ (love duet) folk singing has been honoured with a recent festival held in Bắc Giang Province.

The biennial 2024 Quan Họ Folk Song Festival was organised by the Bắc Giang's Culture, Sports and Tourism.

A particularly fascinating event, this year it attracted a lot of attention from quan họ lovers all across the province.

This year's festival featured 300 artisans, actors, artists and musicians from local art troupes in the province's 10 districts, towns and cities as well as the Bắc Giang Province's Quan Họ Cultural Association.

Each troupe presented a 30-minute show with different forms of music including solo, duo and group singing and alternate singing between men and women, either in a cappella style or with backing music.

The organising committee strongly encouraged singers to wear traditional costumes and present old songs that were recently revived.

This year, the stage was set up as a theatre while the performers prepared their elaborate staging and beautiful costumes. The actors and actresses entertained the audience with lively and attractive performances of Trên Rừng 36 Thứ Chim (36 Forest Birds), Rẽ Phượng Chia Loan (Forget Me Not)and Vui Bốn Mùa (Four-Season Joy).

The organisers awarded the most successful troupes and handed out other prizes to excellent performers.

"Quan họ singing is a precious spiritual gift with great cultural, historical and human value in Bắc Giang," director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Trương Quang Hải said.

"Its lyrics and melodies are not simply music. They embody the soul, emotions and wisdom of many generations of liền anh (male singers) and liền chị (female singers) in the Kinh Bắc area. Through each verse of the songs, we feel the love of people, the love of homeland and the country and the close connection with national culture," he said.

He revealed that the local People's Committee recently carried out a project on 'Preserving and Promoting the Provincial Cultural Heritage of Ethnic Groups', which has supported many school theatre programmes, made quan họ folk singing a college major and organised over 300 quan họ classes.

The project has achieved great results, bringing the art from 18 ancient quan họ villages in Việt Yên District to more than 100 clubs with nearly 2,000 members in the whole province. Bắc Giang is now home to two People's Artisans, 16 Meritorious Artisans recognised by the President and hundreds of artisans who are capable of teaching quan họ.

He confirmed that many artisans have participated in local and international quan họ performances. Meanwhile, many groups for quan họ lovers were established, such as the Traditional Quan Họ Cultural Centre in the Bắc Giang region and the Quan Họ Cultural Association of Bắc Giang Province. VNS