Quan ho Bac Ninh folk song: The story of love

A. ORIGIN

Quan ho is very well-known in Northern Vietnam including 2 provinces: Bac Ninh

and Bac Giang. Transmitted orally through many generation., it is considered
having the most melodies among folk-song genres of Vietnamese traditional
music. On September 30th, 2009 Quan ho was recognized by UNESCO as an
intangible cultural heritage of mankind.

B. CHARACTERISTIC

The songs’ main theme is usually about friendship or love, especially the pure love
between young people in the countryside before, along with the soothing and sweet
melodies, these songs can be considered as traditional “love songs” in Northern
Vietnam’s culture. Besides, they also express the spirit, philosophy and local
identity of the communities in this region, and help forge social bonds within and
between villages that share a cherished cultural practice.

Quan Ho folk songs are performed as alternating verses between one or two
couples, or a group of male singers (lien anh) with a group of female singers (lien
chi) from different villages with similar melodies, but different lyrics. During the
performance, singers wear traditional costumes of people from Northern Vietnam:
women wear silk camisole (yem), five-part dress (ao ngu than), scarf to cover the
hair (khan mo qua), a big round hat (non quai thao), while men wear tunics (ao
the), turbans (khan xep) and bring black umbrellas. According to Vietnam’s
tradition, a man is the one to cover up for his sweetheart, so he always brings an
umbrella to shelter the one he loves from the rain, in this case the umbrella is the
symbol of a shelter, and the woman is often so discreet and shy when she’s in love,
that’s why she carries a big hat to cover her face. Quan ho folk music owns more
than 400 song lyrics and 213 different melody variations, express people’s
emotional states when they fall in love such as happiness, sadness, nostalgia, sulk,
embarrassment…

C. QUAN HO VILLAGES

At first, there were only 49 Quan ho villages included in the list of UNESCO
cultural heritage. Up until 2016, 18 Quan ho villages were added to the list.
Nowadays, Bac Ninh province has 44 Quan ho villages: Bai Uyen, Due Dong, Ha
Giang, Hoai Thi, Hoai Trung, Lung Giang, Lung Son, Ngang Noi,…The remaining
23 traditional villages are located in Bac Giang province: Gia Son, Huu Nghi, Noi
Ninh, Mai Vu, Sen Ho…

D. QUAN HO SONGS

There are a large number of Quan ho melodies, with thousands of different songs
having been recorded and written down in score form . If you want to learn more
about Quan ho Bac Ninh folk songs or just simply interested in it, you can easily
find some most popular songs on the Internet:

 Giăng bao nhiêu tuổi giăng già? (How old is the Moon?)
 Lòng vẫn đợi chờ (My heart’s still waiting)
 Nguyệt gác mái đình ( The Moon on the roof of communal house)
 Tìm người (Looking for you)
 Năm liệu bảy lo (Can’t stop worrying)