Two of the best-know n songs from the Phu group, Phu Binh a n d PhCi Noi, have b een ch o sen for tran scrip tio n : the Phu group o f songs are am ong th e m ost flu id o f th e chau van re p e rto ire , so they provide th e m ost in terestin g
exam ples for analysis. All o f th e recordings tran scrib ed w ere co n d u cte d o u tsid e th e ritu a l co ntex t.5 In the first recording session a t a sm all stu d io in
5 Such controlled settings for recording had the advantage o f enabling me to ask both
Ty and Hung to sing the sam e words. It also ensured that the recordings did n ot have too m uch background noise for ease o f transcription. I requested Hung to sing at the sam e pitch level as Ty so that the transcriptions o f recordings did n ot need to be transposed.
Hanoi on 22 Ju n e 1997, Ty sang while accom panying him self o n th e m oon lu te an d p ercu ssio n was played by Pham Quang Oat. In the second reco rd in g session a t Hung's hom e on the outskirts o f Hanoi on 20 July 1998, Hifng sang while accom panying him self on th e m oon lute a n d th e p ercu ssio n was p lay ed by a m usician know n as Chen. Pitched in stru m en ts in a d d itio n to the m oon lute, w hich a re som etim es in clu d ed in ritu als are n o t p re s e n t on th e re c o rd in g s .
Six verses of Phti Binh a n d Phu Noi have been transcribed: fo r Phu Blnh th ree verses by Ty (CD#5) a n d Hung (CD#7), a n d for Phti Noi fo u r verses by Ty (CD#9) a n d two verses by Hung (CD#11). For Phu Binh, th e texts u sed by Ty a n d Hung are the sam e (with ju st a few w ord changes). The texts are d ed icated to the T h ird M andarin a n d are often used w hen the T h ird M andarin is
in c a rn a te d d u rin g len dong. The use o f th e sam e texts by d ifferen t m usicians enables a d ire c t com parison betw een ren d itio n s by Ty a n d Hung. For Phu Noi, the first two verses by b o th perform ers use the same texts as th e first two verses o f Phu Binh. The th ird a n d fo u rth verses (verses will be re fe rre d to as v .l, v.2 etc.) o f Phu Noi perfo rm ed by Ty use texts dedicated to th e T hird M o th er.6
The m ultiple perfo rm an ces of the p h rases of each song (an d the in term ed iary step to the a b stracted m elodies to be discussed below) have been a rra n g e d vertically, as a synoptic score, to enable d ire c t visual com parison. The synoptic score for Phu Binh an d Phu Noi have b een labelled Ex. 4 a n d Ex. 5 respectively (see A ppendix IV).
In ad d itio n to the six verses o f Phu Binh an d Phu Noi, one re p e a t
perfo rm an ce of v .l o f Phu Binh by Hung (CD#8) has been tra n scrib ed o n the b o tto m staff o f th e synoptic score. The recording was m ade d u rin g a lesson w ith Hung on 20 Jan u ary 1997: Hung sings an d accom panies him self o n the m oon lu te while I keep the basic rh y th m o n th e small cym bal (thanh la). The tra n sc rip tio n has b een raised approxim ately a sem itone so th a t th e p itch level is th e sam e as th e o th e r tran scrip tio n s.
A glance a t th e two ren d itio n s of v .l o f Phu Binh by Hung shows th a t th e differences are relativ ely sm all co m p ared w ith th e differences betw een verses o f songs: th e rh y th m ic d etail often varies b u t th e m elodic c o n to u r is m uch th e sam e. A d etailed com parison of th e re p e at p erform ance is n o t in clu d ed h ere, because this c h ap te r is concerned w ith the m o re d ram atic
6 During len dong, Phu Binh and Phu Noi are never sung during possession by fem ale spirits. Phu m elodies that are reserved for m ale spirits during l§n dong are, however, sung to praise fem ale spirits during 'singing at the altar' (hat thd) sessions, w hich are sung prior to len dong rituals.
v ariatio n betw een d ifferen t verses of songs an d th e effect o f sp eech tones o n th e m elodic contour.
The tra n scrip tio n s use (slightly m odified) W estern staff n o ta tio n . H orizontal arrow s above notes indicates th a t th e note is slightly d elay ed o r an ticip ated . Sm ooth glissandi betw een pitches are n o ta te d by a stra ig h t line betw een n ote heads; glissandi betw een pitches w hich include a tense
v ib rato are n o ta te d w ith a zigzag betw een n o te heads. Ty an d Hung used the term luyen lay7 to refer to vocal o rn am en tatio n in general a n d th e te rm rung fo r v ib ra to ;8 th ey m ade no fu rth e r distinctions betw een d ifferen t types of vocal o rn a m e n ts.9
In th e book Hat van a n u m b e r o f term s to describe vocal q u ality are listed: hoi oc (h ead nuance), hdi mui (nose nuance), hdi dan dien (stom ach n u an ce), hofi trong (cheek nuance) (Ngo DUc Thinh 1992:64). These term s are, how ever, o f little im p o rtan ce for chau van m usicians, a n d are difficult to link to specific vocal tim b res u sed w hen singing chau van. The only d ifferen ce in vocal tim b re n o ta te d in th e tran scriptio n s is the use of a cross as a n o te h ead for syllables th a t are h a lf spoken, h a lf sung (som ew hat like s p re c h s tim m e ).
N on-sem antic vowels, w hich will be re fe rre d to as 'vocables', are often used betw een d ifferen t w ords o f th e text. In the tra n scrip tio n th ese have been w ritten as th e V ietnam ese vowels i a n d a an d have b een placed in brackets so th a t th ey are n o t m istaken as p a rt o f a w ord. These two vowels are ro u g h ap p ro x im atio n s of w hat th e singers actually sing, b u t th e inclusion of fin er d etail is n o t necessary for the analysis. 10
The Phu songs tra n scrib ed all use the th ree-b eat rh y th m (nhip ba). The basic th re e -b e a t rh y th m , w hich consists of th re e beats on th e sm all cym bal (canh) followed by one b e at rest, has been outlin ed in C hapter 1. Specific b ars of th e tran scrip tio n s will be refe rre d to as b .l, b.2 etc.. The
tra n scrip tio n s divide th e verses o f th e songs into sep arate p h ra ses (w hich
7 Nguyen Thuyet Phong translates luy£n lay as 'com bined ornaments' and graphically represents it as an irregular zigzag (1 998:464).
8 Vibrato is occasionally used during songs but has not been notated in the score. 9 There are, however, a num ber o f different terms for ornaments on the m oon lute.
The use o f vocables in cheo is discussed by Hoang Kieu (19 74 ). He states that a, i-a and di-a are used for "happy" pieces or in "high passages", whereas i is used for m ore "relaxed", "lyrical" p ieces that are "light" or "sad" in character (ib id.:21-22). The vocable a is described as having a "long and big resonance" (ibid.:22). Ch&u van m usicians did not make explicit connections between vocables and em otions. For chau van songs the choice o f vowel - as Ty and Hung's renditions o f Phti Noi and Phu Binh
illustrate - seem s to depend more on the preference o f the m usician rather than the aesthetic o f the song.
will be re fe rre d to as p .l, p .2 etc.). Usually phrases are se p a ra te d in
p erfo rm an ces by a n in stru m e n ta l section (lUu khfing) o r a few b eats re st in th e vocal line.
As m en tio n ed above, a sequence of pitches have b een a b strac te d from th e tra n scrip tio n s of Ty a n d Hung's perform ances w hich will be re fe rre d to as Ty's a b stracted backbone (TAB) a n d Hung's ab stracted backbone (HAB). The a b stra c te d backbones consist o f those pitches th a t occur in every verse o f the song as p erfo rm ed by each m usician, i.e. th a t w hich is co n sisten t th ro u g h th e d iv ersity o f th e d ifferen t verses. In a few cases, p itch es th a t occur in m ore th a n one verse, b u t n o t every verse, are in clu d ed in the ab stra c te d backbones a n d are placed in brackets. R hythm h as n o t b een in c o rp o ra te d in to th e a b strac te d backbones because th e rh y th m ic
com plexity is su ch th a t re c u rrin g p a tte rn s can n o t be clearly ascertain ed . The only rh y th m ic distin ctio n th a t has been m ade is th e difference in relative d u ra tio n betw een long an d sh o rt pitches, w hich is in d ic a ted by em p ty n o te-h ead s a n d filled in n ote-heads respectively. As only relativ e d u ra tio n is n o ta te d a n d because the ab stracted backbones are a synthesis o f several verses, no b arlin es are u sed for th e ab stracted backbones. The pitches o f th e backbones are spatially a rra n g ed so th a t th e re la tio n sh ip betw een th e backbones a n d th e d ifferen t ren d itio n s is as clear as possible. At th e en d of phrases, th ere are som etim es two alternativ e m elodic
co n to u rs. The backbone scores include these altern ativ e 'e n d -p a tte rn s ' a n d they are labelled as '1' a n d '2' on the score. The backbone th a t Hung sang for Phu Binh (CD#6) a n d Phu Noi (CD#10) is n o tated above Hung's a b stracted
m elodies an d is labelled as 'Hung's backbone'. As Hung only sang th e
backbone for each song once, th e re is only one e n d -p a tte rn to each p h ra se (labelled as '! ') .
As it is difficult to im m ediately see the sim ilarities betw een d ifferen t verses of th e songs, an 'in term ed iary step' has been n o ta te d so th a t the re la tio n sh ip betw een th e m elodic co n to u rs of d ifferen t versions is m ore a p p a re n t. Above each tra n scrip tio n of th e vocal phrases as sung by Ty a n d Hung, th e pitches in th e vocal line are w ritten w ith o u t th e n o ta tio n of rh y thm , i.e. no no te stem s are used. As w ith the a b stracted backbones only relative, s h o rt a n d long d u ra tio n is indicated. The absence of rh y th m ic d etail in th e in te rm e d ia ry step m akes it easier to see th e relatio n sh ip betw een the a b stra c te d backbones an d tran scrip tio n s o f th e verses of th e songs. D otted b arlin es are u sed sim ply to m ain tain the coherence o f the synoptic tran scrip tio n : they do n o t indicate m etrical divisions. The in term ed iary step also includes inform ation ab o u t th e speech tones of
syllables. W hen a p itch is sung to a syllable, th e speech tone m ark o f the syllable is in d icated above the note head. No tone m arks are given fo r pitches sung to vocables because they do n o t have speech tones. In cases w hen a syllable is sung w ith a m elism a the note heads are lin k ed w ith a p h rase m ark a n d th e sym bol for the speech tone is placed above it.11 The sym bols u sed to indicate speech tones are the same as th e diacritics u sed in w ritten V ietnam ese (see 'P ron u n ciation guide') w ith th e a d d itio n o f a n L for th e level to n e (w hich has no diacritic in the w ritten script).