Trịnh Công Sơn (February 28, 1939 – April 1, 2001) was a Vietnamese musician, songwriter, painter and poet.[1][2] He is widely considered to be Vietnam's best songwriter. His music explores themes of love, loss, and anti-war sentiments during the Vietnam War, for which he was censored by both the southern Republic of Vietnam and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Many performing artists, most notably Khánh Ly, Trinh Vinh Trinh (his younger sister), and some overseas singers such as Tuan Ngoc, Le Quyen, Le Thu, and Ngoc Lan, have gained popularity in their own right from covering Trịnh's songs.
Biography
Trịnh Công Sơn was born in Buôn Ma Thuột, Đắk Lắk Province, French Indochina, but as a child he lived in the village of Minh Huong in Hương Trà in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province.[3] He grew up in Huế, where he attended the Lycée Français and the Providence school. When he was ten he lived with his father in Huế's Thừa Phủ Prison for a year in 1949.[4] Later he went to Saigon and studied western philosophy at the Lycée Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from which he graduated with the baccalaureate degree. In 1961, he studied psychology and pedagogy in a school for teachers in Qui Nhơn in an attempt to avoid being drafted into the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces. After graduation, he taught at an elementary school in Bao Loc, Lâm Đồng.
Trịnh Công Sơn wrote over 500 songs during the 1960s and 1970s. Sơn was influenced by the shrill demands of American anti-war protesters, which had been brought to Vietnam by none other than young American soldiers."[5] He became one of South Vietnam's notable singer-songwriters, after his first hit, Ướt mi (Tearing Lashes) in 1958. He was frequently under pressure from the government, which was displeased with the pacifist's lyrics of such songs as Ngủ đi con (Lullaby, about a mother grieving for her soldier son).
Before April 30, 1975, Trịnh Công Sơn went on the radio in Saigon to sing the song "Joining Hands/Circle of Unity" ("Nối vòng tay lớn") about the dream of national reconciliation between the North and the South, which he had written in 1968. On the afternoon of April 30, following Dương Văn Minh's proclamation of surrender, Trinh went on the radio to say that the national dream had been realized and that liberation had been achieved.
After the reunification in 1975, the government sent Trịnh to "retraining" in a labour camp after his family had fled to Canada. However, government and many officials sent their respects with floral tributes. His often melancholic songs about love and postwar reconciliation earned new acceptance and popularity in later years. Many of his songs have been re-licensed to Vietnamese music companies such as Thúy Nga and Lang Van and sung by other artists.
Two singers who are often associated with Trịnh Công Sơn are Khánh Ly and Hồng Nhung.[6] Khánh Ly helped popularize Trịnh Công Sơn's music in the early years, and they often performed together at South Vietnam University campuses. Later in Trịnh's life, singer Hồng Nhung (born 1970) re-popularized his music.[citation needed].
Trịnh died on 1 April 2001, 62 years old.[7] Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at his funeral in Ho Chi Minh City, for an ad hoc funeral concert, making it the largest spectacle in Vietnamese history, after the funeral procession of Ho Chi Minh.
On 28 February 2019, Google celebrated what would have been Trịnh Công Sơn's 80th birthday with a Google doodle.[8]
Songs
Till now (2017) according to Nguyễn Đăng Chương, director of the Performing Art department of the ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, 70 songs of Trịnh Công Sơn are allowed to perform in public.[9] The latest song which has just been permitted, is Nối vòng tay lớn, on April 12, 2017.[10]
Gần như niềm tuyệt vọng (A resemblance of despair)
Gia tài của mẹ (A mother's legacy)
Giọt lệ thiên thu (A tear of eternity)
Giọt nước mắt cho quê hương (A tear for my homeland)
Gọi tên bốn mùa (Conjure up the four seasons)
Góp lá mùa xuân (Contributing leaves to Spring)
Hạ trắng (White summer).
Hai mươi mùa nắng lạ (Twenty seasons of strange sunlight)
Hành ca (Marching song)
Hành hương trên đồi cao / Người đi hành hương trên đỉnh cao (Pilgrimage)
Hát trên những xác người (Singing over the corpses), not to be confused with "Bài ca dành cho những xác người"
Hãy cố chờ (Let's try to wait)
Hãy cứ vui như mọi ngày (Just be happy like any other day)
Hãy đi cùng nhau (Let's go together)
Hãy khóc đi em (Just cry, my dear)
Hãy nhìn lại (Just look back and see)
Hãy sống giùm tôi (Just live my life for me)
Hãy yêu nhau đi (Let's love)
Hoà bình là cơm áo (Peace is life)
Hoa vàng mấy độ (The flowers that were once golden bright)
Hoa xuân ca (Spring flowers song)
Hôm nay tôi nghe (Today I hear)
Huế - Sài Gòn - Hà Nội (Hue - Saigon - Hanoi)
Huyền thoại mẹ (The Legend of a mother)
Khói trời mênh mông
Lại gần với nhau (Come closer together)
Lặng lẽ nơi này (So silent here)
Lời buồn thánh (A holy, sad lyrics)
Lời mẹ ru (A mother's lullaby)
Lời ở phố về
Lời ru đêm (Night's lullaby)
Lời thiên thu gọi (Eternity's calling)
Mẹ bỏ con đi / Đường xa vạn dặm
Môi hồng đào (Rosy Lips)
Mỗi ngày tôi chọn một niềm vui (Each day I choose one joyful thing)
Một buổi sáng mùa xuân (A spring morning)
Một cõi đi về (A place for leaving and returning)
Một lần thoáng có
Một ngày như mọi ngày (A day just like any other day)
Một ngày vinh quang (A day of glory)
Mùa áo quan (The season of coffins)
Mùa hè đến (The summer's arrived)
Mưa hồng (Pink rain)
Mùa phục hồi / Xin chờ những sớm mai (The season of recuperation / Waiting for tomorrow mornings)
Nắng thuỷ tinh (Crystal sunlight)
Này em cớ nhớ (Do you remember?)
Ngẫu nhiên (Perchance)
Ngày dài trên quê hương (A long day in the Motherland)
Ngày mai đây bình yên (Peaceful future)
Ngày về (Returning home)
Ngày xưa khi còn bé (Childhood days)
Nghe những tàn phai (The sound of evanescing)
Nghe tiếng muôn trùng (Hearing the sound of eternity)
Ngủ đi con (Sleep, my child)
Ngụ ngôn mùa đông (A winter fable)
Người con gái Việt Nam da vàng (A yellow-skinned Vietnamese girl)
Người già em bé (An old person, a baby)
Người về bỗng nhớ
Nguyệt ca (The lunar song)
Nhìn những mùa thu đi (Watch the autumns passing by)
Nhớ mùa thu Hà Nội (Missing Hanoi's autumn)
Như cánh vạc bay (As a flying crane)
Như chim ưu phiền (As an anguishing bird)
Như một lời chia tay (As a good-bye)
Như một vết thương (As a wound)
Như tiếng thở dài (As a deep sigh)
Những con mắt trần gian (The earthly eyes)
Những giọt máu trổ bông (The blooming of the blood drops)
Níu tay nghìn trùng (Grabbing hands over a thousand miles)
Nối vòng tay lớn (Grand circle of unity)
Ở trọ / Cõi tạm (Temporary stay)
Phôi pha (Withering)
Phúc âm buồn (Dolorous Gospel)
Quê hương đau nặng (Motherland in severe illness)
Quỳnh hương (Scent of the ephemeral bloom)
Ra đồng giữa ngọ
Rồi như đá ngây ngô (Not gone at all)
Rơi lệ ru người
Ru đời đã mất (Lullaby for a lost life)
Ru đời đi nhé (Lullaby to life)
Ru em (Lullaby for you)
Ru em từng ngón xuân nồng
Ru ta ngậm ngùi (Lullaby for a sorrowful me)
Ru tình (Lullaby for love)
Rừng xưa đã khép (Your old woods are closed)
Sao mắt mẹ chưa vui?
Sẽ còn ai (Who will remain?)
Sóng về đâu (To where the waves depart)
Ta đi dựng cờ
Tạ ơn (Thanks)
Ta phải thấy mặt trời (We must see the Sun)
Ta quyết phải sống (We must live)
Ta đã thấy gì trong đêm nay (What have we seen tonight?)
Thành phố mùa xuân (City in Spring)
Thuở Bống là người (When Bong was a human)
Thiên sứ bâng khuâng (thơ Trịnh Cung)
Thương một người (Loving someone)
Tiến thoái lưỡng nan (The dilemma)
Tình ca của người mất trí ("Ballad of an insane person" or "Love song of a deranged woman")
Tiếng ve gọi hè
Tình khúc Ơ-bai
Tình nhớ (Missing love)
Tình sầu (Sorrowful love)
Tình xa (Distant love)
Tình xót xa vừa
Tình yêu tìm thấy
Tôi đã mất (I have lost)
Tôi đang lắng nghe / Im lặng thở dài (I am listening / Quiet sigh)
Tôi ơi đừng tuyệt vọng (Despair not, dear me)
Tôi ru em ngủ (I sing you to sleep)
Tôi sẽ đi thăm (I shall visit)
Tôi sẽ nhớ (I shall remember)
Tôi tìm tôi / Tôi là ai? (I search for myself / Who am I?)
Trong nỗi đau tình cờ
Tự tình khúc
Từng ngày qua (Everyday through)
Tuổi đá buồn (Stone's age of despair)
Tuổi đời mênh mông
Tuổi trẻ Việt Nam (Vietnamese Youths)
Tưởng rằng đã quên (Thought that I have forgotten)
Ướt mi ("Misty eyes" or "Tearing lashes")
Vẫn có em bên đời (I still have you in my life)
Vẫn nhớ cuộc đời
Vàng phai trước ngõ
Về trong suối nguồn (Back to the fountainhead)
Về thăm mái trường xưa (Revisiting the old school)
Vết lăn trầm
Vì tôi cần thấy em yêu đời
Vườn xưa (Garden of the past)
Xa dấu mặt trời (Far from the sun)
Xanh lòng phai tàn
Xin cho tôi (Please give me)
Xin hãy dừng tay (Please stop)
Xin mặt trời ngủ yên (Please let the sun sleep)
Xin trả nợ người
Yêu dấu tan theo (Fading love)
Songs about the Vietnam War
In the song "Mother's Legacy" (Gia tài của mẹ), Trinh sings about the Vietnamese experience of the Vietnam War:[11] He laments that the 1,000 years of Vietnam's subjugation to Chinese imperial rule, the 100 years of subjugation to French colonial rule, and the ongoing civil war, together have left a sad legacy of graveyards, parched fields and burning houses. He urges the children of Vietnam to remain true to their Vietnamese identity and overcome the dividing hatred, put an end to internecine fighting and the destruction of the country.
In the song "Song about the Corpses of People" ("Hát trên những xác người"), written in the aftermath of the Huế Massacre, Trinh sings about the corpses strewn around the city, in the river, on the roads, on the rooftops, even on the porches of the pagodas. The corpses, each one of which he regards as the body of a sibling, will nourish the farmland.
A rock music concert event titled Nối Vòng Tay Lớn ("The Great Circle of Vietnam"); the name of a popular patriotic anti-war song by Trịnh Công Sơn, was officially promoted and held in Hồ Chí Minh City ostensibly as a memorial to Trịnh, and featuring various Vietnamese rock bands and artists, had officially taken place for the first time on 22 April 2022.[12][13][14]
Love songs
Love is the single biggest recurring theme in Trinh's work. His love songs constitute the majority of the songs. Most of them are sad, conveying a sense of despondence and solitude as in "Sương đêm", "Ướt mi". Songs are either about loss as in "Diểm xưa", "Biển nhớ", or nostalgia: "Tình xa", "Tình sầu", "Tình nhớ", "Em còn nhớ hay em đã quên", "Hoa vàng mấy độ". Other songs, additionally carry philosophical messages from a man to his lover: "Cỏ xót xa đưa", "Gọi tên bốn mùa", "Mưa hồng". The style is sly, simple, suitable to be rendered in Slow, Blues or Boston. The lyrics are overwhelmingly poetic, candid and yet deeply poignant, oftentimes hinting elements of symbolism and surrealism.
References
^Dale Alan Olsen Popular Music of Vietnam: The Politics of Remembering 2008 "Trịnh Công Sơn" biography p134-135, ideology p129-130 influence on musicians p139-140
^Death, Buddhism, and Existentialism in the Songs of Trịnh Công Sơn JC Schafer - 2007 "... His father, active in the resistance, was imprisoned in Buôn Ma Thuột, and Trịnh Công Sơn lived with him in Thừa Phủ Prison for a year in 1949 when he was ten years old."
^Nghia M. Vo Saigon: A History 2011- Page 137 "Trịnh Công Sơn in "Who's Left Who Is Vietnamese" advised combatants to open their eyes, for there were only Vietnamese fighters around and by that time one million of them had died during the war. Turn over the human corpses, the lyrics said, and one could only see Vietnamese faces. "
