A Folk Arts Study

Vietnamese Folk Music

F O L K · A R T S · S T U D I E S

A research project in the Vietnamese folk arts heritage

Mekong NYC hosts a music class to teach students how to play the đàn tranh (Vietnamese zither). The class is infused with storytelling, especially Vietnamese folk tales and culture, community building through group playing and listening, and group theory, examining traditional Vietnamese and Cambodian songs and pop music.

Lesson: Than-Thoai_coreMelody
for Vietnamese 16-string zither
by Teacher Phan Gia Anh-Thư & Teacher Ngô Thanh Nhàn
Apr 02, 2025 20:46:31
m19_Than-Thoai

1 – Than-Thoai
Than-Thoai • coreMelody • YWCM •

Tablature to Click and Print: tablatures/m19_Than-Thoai_coreMelody_YWCM.pdf

T H E S T O R Y:Thần Thoại [Endless Love], is the theme song in a 2005 Hong Kong film of a love story between Chinese General Mông Nghị (Meng Yi) and Korean princess Ok-Soo, a concubine-to-be of Emperor Tần Thuỷ Hoàng. The emperor died waiting an elixir of immortality. She was forced to take the elixir but buried alive with the emperor around 206 BC. This is an new myth.
This story is similar to the Vietnamese myth of Công chúa Huyền Trân who married a Champa King Jaya Simhavarman III (Chế Mân) in 1306. She was to be buried when the King died. But General Trần Khắc Chân came to her rescue. The two fell in love and disappeared.

Change Scale:, Lower strings 4, 9, 14 of all C's to B's. The song has the air of Korean folk ending sequence, E⁴ B⁴ A⁴ F#⁴ E⁴.