Safeguarding the Identity of Thanh Hoa Folk Music Through the Integration of Traditional Vocal Art and Contemporary Performance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65150/EP-jsshrs/V2E10/2026-13Keywords:
Thanh Hoa folk music, Ho song Ma, Ngu tro Vien Khe, traditional vocal art, contemporary performance, ethnomusicology, intangible cultural heritageAbstract
Background: The preservation of regional folk music involves not only melodic materials but also vocal conventions, relationships among performers, embodied actions, and the social contexts that sustain transmission.
Objective: This study examines how traditional vocal art can be integrated into contemporary performance without obscuring the distinctive identity of folk music in Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam.
Methods: Qualitative document analysis and purposive contrastive comparison were applied to two documented traditions: Ho song Ma (Ma River work chants) and Ngu tro Vien Khe (the Dong Anh folk performance complex). Ethnomusicological scholarship, local music studies, heritage instruments, and relevant interdisciplinary research were interpreted across five analytical dimensions.
Results: The comparison indicates that identity is better understood through three interrelated continuities-sonic and linguistic, interactive and embodied, and contextual and community-based-than through melodic resemblance alone. In Ho song Ma, lead-and-chorus response and the rhythms of river work are salient organising relationships; in Ngu tro Vien Khe, singing is embedded in movement, dramatic roles, and the sequence of a performance. The article distinguishes technically supported traditional performance, staged adaptation, and newly composed works inspired by folk materials, and proposes a five-dimensional framework for documenting and interpreting transformations.
Conclusion: Contemporary performance can extend the visibility of Thanh Hoa folk traditions when artistic interventions are identified transparently and remain accountable to source practices and their communities.
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