Pham Duy Links Warmth, Ability
(The Evening Star, Washington DC - April 4, 1966)
Visiting the U.S. from Viet Nam as a participant in the International Visitors Program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Department of State, Mr Pham Duy comes from a family of renowned literary and musical artists, and has spent the past 25 years as a musicologist, collector of his country's folk music, composer, performer and film maker.
Mr Duy, accompanying himself on the guitar, began by performing some traditional Vietnamese folksongs, whose texts and pentatonic melodies were over 300 or 500 years old. The main portion of the program was then devoted to his own compositions. Musically, these songs were a marvelous combination of Southeast Asian folk and popular music, Western popular music, and perhaps a trace of the French cabaret music of Georges Brassens and his troubadour-like ilk.
Pham Duy called them ''Hearts Songs'', songs which reflect the feeling of his people, and he expressed the hope that such composition would have some effect in the establishment of lasting peace in his country. In his songs, love replaces dispair, and humanity replaces inhumanity.
The ''foreigness'' of Pham Duy's musical style was hardly a problem throughout the performance; the warmth and ability of his musicianship communicated much to an audience not otherwise familiar with Vietnamese music and culture. And as a song leader, Mr Pham Duy rivals the best among American folk singers. On one of his songs, he had his countrymen in the audience singing along with great enthusiasm.As a finale, Mr Duy treated the audience to four American and British folk songs in Vietnamese translation, ending with Folklore Society members singing in English and himself in Vietnamese the by now seemingly universal freedom song, ''We Shall Overcome.''
Joseph C. Hickerson
The Evening Star
Washington DC
April 4, 1966
Trở Về Tâm Ca
Trở Về Phạm Duy Tổng Quát