‘The blind branch of the yellow butterfly doesn’t land / The song from my childhood lulls me / The country river, the village school, the boat on the sand / It’s also because I’m far away that I miss the heart…’ The author of ‘Country River’ today was 79 years old. He is living in his hometown of Quang Nam after a dusty life. Dinh Tram Ca stopped composing about 20 years ago. Is it possible that, to him, poetry and music are just… frivolous?
Dinh Tram Ca was famous before 1975 with the song “Ruling the old love”: “In the past three years, I have become a young woman/Sit down to lull me to forget my sad fate…”. “Ru concubine old love” was composed by Dinh Tram Ca in 1967, but it was not until 3 years later, 1970, that the new song was popularized through Le Thu’s singing. This is also considered the debut composition of Dinh Tram Ca. The author of “Ru concubine’s ex” was born with the name Mac Phu: “I don’t know what the meaning of this name is, my father gave it to me”, Dinh Tram Ca said. The stage name “Dinh Tram Ca” was given by him, “Ding” is his mother’s last name, but he changed “i” to “y” so that “the paternal side doesn’t think of me as matriarchal”, he explained. And “Tram Ca” is just “taking and playing”. Musician and poet from Quang was born in a rather special family: “My parents are illiterate. He only knew a little bit of Chinese characters, insignificant, not of any kind of literature. My mother is illiterate, but she knows how to sing and can set the lyrics herself, in the past it was called ant at singing (composed on the spot). My father sings well too.” Maybe because of her mother’s “gene” influence, Dinh Tram Ca did not struggle to compose. Like the song “Flying away the drizzle” that many people think he popularizes other people’s poetry. But not: “I am a few years younger than Mr. Pham Cong Thien. At that time, Pham Cong Thien was brilliant in the South. I also adore him. I see him writing an essay or something called “Flying away the drizzle”. I like the title, very strange, very cute. When I read the title, I immediately sang the chorus,” recalled Dinh Tram Ca. However, after completing the chorus, he left it because he didn’t know what to write it for? On the day of liberation, Dinh Tram Ca completed “Flying away the drizzling rain”: “Fly away, fly away the drops on the souls of the people who always remember / A sad past / About wandering in the middle of the drizzle / A past with rain is our tears / Let’s fly away the rain dust on the lonely soul…”. Wandering around the East and West, making a living by all kinds of occupations Dinh Tram Ca used to work as a farmer for 6 years. Called being a “farmer” for luxury, he actually had to sing human excrement: “I have to escape my hometown. There, I couldn’t stand it, people were all sore. But escaping to the South is not easy. At that time, it was difficult to buy a bus ticket, it was impossible to go without a referral. But I have a grandson who makes fake tickets,” the musician recounts the painful memory. Arriving in the capital, Dinh Tram Ca had only a little change left: “I’m at the bus station, working as a porter, I don’t know how many more years. Then I left again, every time I heard someone I knew somewhere, I went to look for them to save me…”. Just like that, Dinh Tram Ca drifted from the East to the West, earning a living by all kinds of hard jobs. More than 20 years have passed! After that, Dinh Tram Ca returned to Ho Chi Minh City and gave birth to “Country River”. “There is a river flowing in my memory / My village is on the side of the landslide, your village is on the flood side…”. Many people are curious where is the “river flowing in memory” where is Dinh Tram Ca? Please don’t go looking. “I wrote ‘Country River’ just in the morning. This song is not composed, but the Southern sound is already available”, Dinh Tram Ca said about the “spiritual child” loved by many people. “Countryside River” was not born by a sudden inspiration but a form of writing on demand: “A person who knew my name before 75, during a drink or coffee, he asked me to be the editor. practice for him, compose a program for him. Because he has a nephew abroad who wants to make a music video. I just asked: How do you have money? He replied: Yes. So I nodded, being “hungry”. Next, I asked him, what kind of music would you like to choose, he wanted to make the theme of his homeland, the Southern sound. I chose some other people’s songs into a program called “Country River” and started writing the theme song”, Dinh Tram Ca shared the circumstances of the song’s birth. The author of “Country River” has many compositions for himself, but there are also many songs written on demand, like “River of the countryside”. Life in a rice bra sometimes becomes an excuse for composing. One of the famous bolero songs “Back to the sim hill”, was born like that: “I write to make money. At that time, the bolero was in vogue. The labels needed the song, so I wrote “Back to the sim hill”. I asked: “Going back to sim hill” will bring you big royalties? Dinh Tram Ca laughed: “It’s not that high, I also wrote 5, 10 dong”. Even “Ru the old love” did not bring Dinh Tram Ca significant revenue. It is said that Lam Phuong can buy a villa in Saigon with “Sad City”, mentioning that to Dinh Tram Ca, he laughed: “They are seniors. Professional composers in Saigon. As for me in a small town, I’m a country boy in the countryside. I’m not a pro, just a player.” By the way, Dinh Tram Ca also corrected that he was not a literature teacher: “Although many people call me teacher. I do teach but teach people. Then he was invited by the school to teach for a few years. I didn’t graduate from pedagogy to teach, so I don’t recognize myself as a teacher.” So, who is Dinh Tram Ca, I asked. “Until now I don’t know who I am,” he replied. And he read me a poem he wrote when he was 20 years old, “Portrait of me”, ending with two sentences: “Sorrow dangling from my back/O strange beast that was never me”. I don’t know if the poetry was absorbed into Dinh Tram Ca’s life or the arduous life made Dinh Tram Ca’s poetry and music heavy? The song I like, the audience doesn’t know It is often said: Dinh Tram Ca is a student of the author of the first Vietnamese bolero song. Dinh Tram Ca confirmed: He studied with the author “Sunshine” for more than 2 years, less than 3 years. However, musician Le Trong Nguyen’s impression was not deep on Dinh Tram Ca’s musical journey: “When I went to high school, I studied with him. Of course, every teacher favors gifted students. I studied music theory, notation with him, in general it was not significant. Who really taught music to Dinh Tram Ca? “My younger friends taught me music,” he said. At that time, there were very artistic families. Sisters and brothers know the piano. Since I was a child, I have loved the piano. Seeing my friends playing, I asked them to teach me. I played the mandolin, because it was difficult to find a guitar back then.” When he was a child, Dinh Tram sang very well, so young artists often asked Dinh Tram to sing for them to play. The musician revealed: “Those young people are excellent players.” Dinh Tram Ca used to hold the “head” of the school’s arts department, so many girls fell in love. Being the head of the art department is very “cool”: “If I let anyone sing, I can sing. I said the string broke and the principal had to buy it for me. I practiced singing, he gave me money to eat and drink,” remembers the old days Dinh Tram Ca was happy and excited. 
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