Since his days as a soldier on the front lines, Tran Tien has roamed the country with his guitar, bewitching listeners with haunting songs that explore both the majesty and frailty of the human heart.
Tien’s 300 songs fluctuate between the extremes of tremendous optimism and great despondency.
“I have lived through glorious moments in my youth,” he says.
But many of his tragic songs reduce listeners to tears.
“I cried while writing these songs,” he says. “And I cry every time I read their lyrics.”
However, he is still waiting for a singer whose performances of his songs can move him to tears.
A large portion of Tien’s work focuses on the heartache of war.
He says he began writing songs as a catharsis from grief and loss during wartime.
“I only spent four years in the army, but the traumatic memories never cease haunting me and provide a boundless source of inspiration.”
Tien, who nearly died of malaria during the war, has written about the ups and downs of not only the war and Vietnam’s revolutionary era, but also of Vietnamese people’s experiences during the years of economic change that followed 1986’s Doi Moi reforms.
Some of his popular war tunes are Thanh Nien Ra Tien Tuyen (youths volunteer for the front), Co Gai Sam Nua Xinh Dep (the pretty Sam Nua girl), Nhung Doi Mat Mang Hinh Vien Dan (bullet-shaped eyes) and Vet Chan Tron Tren Cat (round footprints in the sand).
One of Tien’s most salient songs, Toi Co Don NhuMot Ngon Co (I’m as lonely as a flag), expresses the aching loneliness he felt as a survivor after most of his comrades perished in the war.
The artist’s life
Tien was born in 1947 in the northern province of Ha Tay, which borders Hanoi.
His elder brother is People’s Artist Tran Hieu, one of Vietnam’s few popular baritone singers.
Hieu’s daughter is pop favorite Tran Thu Ha.
At 16, Tien worked backstage for the Hanoi Singing Troupe before becoming the group’s lead singer and performing for soldiers at the front.
After the war ended, he resumed his musical studies and graduated from the Hanoi Music Conservatory with a degree in composition in 1978.
In 1987, he formed a rock band called Den Trang (black and white).
The songs he composed with Black and White – such as Rock Dong Ho (rock the clock) and Tran Trui 87 (bare 87) – feature Vietnam amid the Doi Moi reforms in the late 1980s and 1990s.
During this time, when the world was opening its doors to Vietnam and Vietnam in turn opened its doors to the world, Tien chose not to focus on the country’s economic gains and instead formed a group of 25 orphaned youngsters into a band called Du Ca (wandering singers) and performed across the country for charity.
Tien won the government’s Literature and Art Award in 2007.
Reported by Hai Mien |
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