Purple music

Vietnamese music genre

Purple music (Vietnamese: Nhạc tím) is a kind of music that has been very much at the center of Vietnamese public life from the time of its first strong emergence in the country in the late 1930s up to the present day. It is known as the origin of Vietnamese popular music. Harmonious, sentimental and melancholy, many romantic songs of purple music have become regarded as national treasures and are still performed widely.

Composer Hoàng Trọng and Tiếng Tơ Đồng Band.

History

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Record.
 
Singer Lan Ngọc.

Songs of Purple Music carry with them an air of nostalgia, perhaps nostalgia for an era when Vietnam was still unified, the era preceding nearly 20 years of civil war.[1] After 1954, the country was split into two very different regimes, the communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam or North Vietnam, and the Republic of Vietnam or South Vietnam. At that time, some purple music composers went South, while others remained in the North. Most of the Northerners either ceased composing or followed the dictates of the regime for writing songs to mobilize the masses and strengthen the revolution. Southerners continued to write romantic songs. Since the North's victory resulting in Vietnam's reunification in 1975, the country's culture has continued to be divided between resident and overseas communities. As nearly all music and literature of a romantic or sentimental basis was banned by the communist regime, many of Vietnam's creative minds left the country in 1975 for Western countries like the United States, Australia, and France. Although differences between these two communities continue until this time, purple music is one of the few popular song genres that can be heard on the stage of both Vietnam and among the overseas community.

Although Vietnamese music this period has gone through many movements : Patriotic songs, scout songs, happy songs, folk songs... the longest lasting movement is still love song movement. That is the music movement with greatest composers like Văn Cao, Phạm Duy, Lê Thương... and with ever-lasting love songs like. Amongst the best-known ones are I Come to See You One Rainy Afternoon (Em đến thăm anh một chiều mưa) by Tô Vũ ; Send the Wind to Blow Away the Clouds (Gửi gió cho mây ngàn bay), Seductive Autumn (Thu quyến rũ), Leaves Falling in the Afternoon (Lá đổ muôn chiều), A Letter (Lá thư), Plum Pack and Pansy Petal (Một gói nho khô, một cánh păng-xê) by Đoàn Chuẩn ; Resonance (Dư âm) by Nguyễn Văn Tý ; The Girl Next Door (Cô láng giềng) by Hoàng Quý ; Drop of Autumn Rain (Giọt mưa thu) and The Boat isn't Docking (Con thuyền không bến) by Đặng Thế Phong.

Famous musicians

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Famous singers

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References

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  1. Phạm Duy, Memoirs of Pham Duy, Midway City, California, USA, 1989.