Hùng Cường?? 30-01-72??

Băng thứ nhất của nghệ sĩ Hùng Cường xuất bản cuối tháng 1 1972 được quảng cáo như sau đây:

-- Mặt trời Nổ!!

-- Trái đất rung rinh!

      Nhưng .....

-- Các bạn rộn rã Niềm Vui!!

-- Se lòng xúc động!!

Khi nghe... HÙNG CƯỜNG cất giọng buồn...

"THƯƠNG-TƯỞNG"

-- The sun Explodes!!

-- The earth shake!

      But .....

-- Friends, you'll be energetically Happy!!

-- Heart-broken and moved!! 

When you listen ... to HÙNG CƯỜNG raise his sad voice...

"LOVE ILLUSION"

The exaggeration in these claims is obvious, however Hùng Cường was the best paid entertainer in the Republic of Vietnam. Famous as a singer and an actor in cải lương plays and on screen, one could make the claim that he was the Elvis Presley of South Vietnam. This is an announcement for his first cassette from the Đuốc Nhà Nam daily paper of January 29, 1972. Prior to that, since 1958, he had recorded over 200 tracks for the Capitol, Continental, Dư Âm, Hồng Hoa, National, Nhạc Ngày Xanh, Sóng Nhạc, Sống Mới, Sơn Ca, Tân Thanh, Thiên Thai, Tình Ca 20, Tình Ca Quê Hương, Việt Hải, Việt Nam and Vô Tuyến record labels.

Tiếng hát HÙNG CƯỜNG

Với 4 ban nhạc thời danh nổi tiếng nhất hòa âm hết cỗ chê:

1) -- "Lê văn Thiện" 2) -- "Phương Hoàng"

3) -- "Trần Trịnh" 4) -- "Blues-Notes"

Lê Văn Thiện and Trần Trịnh were both established expert song arrangers. Phượng Hoàng (Phoenix) and Blue Notes (not Blues Notes) were both bands that recorded and played in Saigon clubs.

There are 20 tracks on the Hùng Cường 1 / Chủ đề: Thương Tưởng album. They are listed at Cover Nhạc Việt. Unlike many Hùng Cường prior recordings, this album is full of sad love songs. Many are classics of Vietnamese song. He also included a few of his own previously unrecorded compositions.

It had a common practice on 7" recordings to give the name of the arranger who was also the band leader. I am disappointed that on this cassette album there is no breakdown of which musicians / bands performed on which tracks or who arranged what. I am primarily curious to know the role of the Phượng Hoàng band. They were the most innovative band of that time and place and were known for their "hard" rock sound. There are no tracks on Hùng Cường's album that have that hard edge.

I know less about the Blue Notes band. They were led by Duy Hải who played piano at Queen Bee night club when Khánh Ly managed the music shows there. The Blue Notes may have accompanied Khánh Ly on her legendary recording of Trịnh Công Sơn songs, Hát Cho Quê Hương Việt Nam. No band is credited there, but they are given as the accompanying band on Hát Cho Quê Hương Việt Nam 2. From listening to recordings, they usually included a saxophonist and trumpet player along with a rock combo. This is a instrumental combination on Hùng Cường's album. I have never seen a listing of the members of the Blue Notes.

Khi trái tim vẫn hồng (When The Heart Is Still Red) - Nguyễn Duy Khoái (1979)

Khi trái tim đang còn hồng

When the heart is still red
Và nụ cười vẫn còn tươi

And the smile is still fresh  
Bạn thân ơi xin đừng để

Oh dear friend don't let
Tuổi xuân qua không tiếng cười

The spring of life pass without laughter
Cùng nhìn sâu trong mắt nhau

Together let's look into each others eyes
Cùng nói với nhau một lần

Together tell each other once:
"Khó khăn này đâu là của

This hardship is not at all
Riêng chúng mình."

Only ours."

Khi trái tim còn mơ mộng

When the heart is still dreaming
Còn giận hờn và chờ mong

Yet angry and expectant
Người yêu ơi xin đừng để

Oh beloved, please don't let
Tình yêu phai theo nỗi sầu

Love fade in melancholy
Còn tình yêu trong con tim

And the love in our hearts
Xin hãy biết yêu cuội đời

Please know the love of life
Tiếng yêu đầu xin ngỏ cùng

This first leave, please express it together with
Đất nước mình

Our country

Khi bước chân chưa lần nghỉ

When our feet still have yet to rest
Mà đường dài đã gọi ta

Yet the long road has called us
Bạn thân ơi xin đừng ngại

Oh dear friend don't worry
Còn đôi chân xin vững lòng

Still pairs of feet please be reassured
Dù đường dài còn gian nan

Though the long road still had hardships
Xin giữ mãi bao nụ cười

Please always hold on to that smile
Đóa hoa hồng trên đường dài

A red blossom on the long road
Đang đón chờ

Awaits us


Tốp ca Đoàn Văn Công Khu V ca bài "Khi trái tim vẫn hồng" của Nguyên Duy Khoái.

Nguyễn Duy Khoái has just passed away on July 6, 2025. He was kind enough to talk with me when I visited Đà Nẵng in 2015. Hà Nội and Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh get all the attention of the musical world, but there are songwriters and cultural groups in all of Vietnam's smaller cities and provinces.

In the early 1970s he was active as a songwriter in the Đà Nẵng student movement protesting for peace and opposing the Republic of Vietnam government. These actions established his post-war credentials. Although he was a big fish in a small pond (he was the Director of the Đà Nẵng Union of Literatuer and Arts Associations - Chủ tịch Liên hiệp các Hội Văn học - Nghệ thuật Đà Nẵng), none of his music has been presented on the Bài Ca Đi Cùng Năm Tháng website. 

Many of his songs are what I call "địa phương ca" - locality songs - written to praise the virtues of various districts and villages. "Khi trái tim vẫn hồng" was also the name of the program given at the Nhà Hát Trưng Vương Đà Nẵng shortly before his passing. It refers to a 1979 song written in the style of the student protest songs or du ca (rambling songs) of the pre-1975 Republic of Vietnam.

Instead of protest, this is a song of praise of the nation of Vietnam and an exhortation for young people to serve their nation despite evident hardships. 1979 was a time of hardship and reconstruction - the song may have been intended for people moved to vùng kinh tế mới (new economic zones) or for thanh niên xung phong (literally "assault youth") who moved from the city to the underside to work on infrastructure.

The song appeals to youthful optimism and to one's youth as a time for love. Love was an underdeveloped theme of Vietnamese revolutionary music and love here hints at romantic love, but it primarily a patriotic love. Romanticism lies behind the challenges of a life's work ahead.

Bắc một nhịp cầu (Spanning A Bridge) - nhạc Hoàng Trọng, lời Hồ Đình Phương (1956)

ngâm

Trăng ai chờ bến giang đầu

Moon, who waits at the upriver dock
Anh lo xây đá bắc cầu cho em.
I'm busy building a stone bridge to span for you
Ngày mai đất lặng trời êm
Tomorrow, quiet land and calm skies
Đất trời giao hợp anh em trùng phùng
Land and sky come together you and I meet again

H.Đ.P.

Chiều về nghiêng nghiêng trên cánh chim bay lưng trời. 
Evening returns across the horizon, above wings of a bird suspended in mid-air
Hồn người bâng khuâng như nhớ thương ai xa vời, 
Someone's soul is troubled like they miss someone far away,
Đàn chùng đà lên phím rồi, mà lòng còn nghe sóng đời nên đàn hòa tiếng đầy vơi...
Slackened strings tighten upon frets already, my heart still hears life's waves, the lute harmonizes with the sound of its ripples

Lạnh lùng phương Nam mơ bóng cây xanh ven hồ. 
Cold, the South dreams of a green tree by the lake.
Ngậm ngùi phương Bắc trông lúa xa xăm mong chờ,
Grieving, the North looks at distant rice stalks and waits,
Vì một giòng sông xóa mờ, tình đời lìa đôi bến bờ, ai người còn nhớ quê xưa?
Because of a clouded river, life's love split across two shores, who still remembers the home of long ago?

Em ơi nhớ lời năm ấy ra đi hẹn về một sớm ngàn hoa đua cười, 
Dear, do your remember words of that year, departing, promising to come home with a thousand laughing blossoms,
Anh đang bắc cầu đưa lối, mai đây người người cùnh hát khúc ca yêu đời...
I'm spanning a bridge to make a pathway, tomorrow everyone will sing a song loving life...
Mai kia dưới cờ chiến thắng dân Nam vượt đồi vượt núi về thương sông Hồng, 
Someday under a victor's flag the South's folk will prevail over the hills and mountains to love the Red River.
Mai kia đón ngàn tia nắng anh mang về cùng nhuộm thắm đôi lòng...
Someday greeting a thousand of rays of light that I bring back to give color to a pair of hearts...

Không than khóc chia lìa một vài giây phút căm hờn sá chi?

No crying at separation, what's the point of moments of hatred?
Đợi ngày anh sẽ về muôn năm dẹp tan buồn đau nhân thế!

Awaiting the day I return to forever dispel the world's sorrow!
Ai ra xứ ngoài cho nhắn: bao nhiêu lời nguyền này kết thành câu tung hoành.

Whoever goes outside send the message: all the words of this oath combine into a willful sentence.
Đâu đây đã tràn tia nắng! anh tin nhịp cầu vượt sóng đang thành...
Everywhere sunlight overflowing! I believe the bridge over the waves is being completed...

nguồn: Nhạc: Hoàng Trọng, Lời: Hồ Đình Phương, "Bắc một nhịp cầu" (Huế: Tinh Hoa, 1956)


This is one of the songs I covered in my 2004 paper, "Love and Longing at the Border: Songs on Both Sides of the 17th Parallel" (available online in Vietnamese translation: "Tình yêu và khát vọng nơi ranh giới: những ca khúc ở hai bờ vĩ tuyến 17").

All the songs I discussed there were written at the time Vietnam was divided into two nations - the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The division separated families and lovers. Although there had been a migration in both directions, people on both sides hoped for a 1956 election that would make the separation temporary and unite the country. This was the hoped for bridge. But, there is a propaganda aspect to this bridge -- it comes with the South's victorious return (cờ chiến thắng dân Nam). 

I believe the words were written after the melody was. Not a single syllable of Hồ Đình Phương's lyrics uses the hỏi (rising-falling-rising) or ngã (broken rising) tone. When the melody rises he uses the sắc tone, when it fall he uses the huyền tone. The missing tones require vocal ornamentation that is more complicated to notate.

Hoàng Trọng's Tiếng Tơ Đồng ensemble perform's his song "Bắc một nhịp cầu" with Sơn Ca and Bùi Thiện singing. Bùi Thiện was a northern singer who "regrouped" (basically defected) to the South.

Tiếng Tơ Đồng literally means the sound of copper strings, but is a metaphor for the sound of music (plucked string music).