Three men harp on traditional music
Jew's harps have not only been known in Asia and Europe from time immemorial but also have a long tradition in North America.
In Vietnam dan moi is a traditional instrument played by some ethnic groups like the H’mong and Dao living in the northern mountains.
Three men from different countries share a passion for popularizing the Vietnamese jew’s harp, or dan moi, around the world.
Clemens Voight of Germany, famous ethnomusicologist and musician Tran Quang Hai of France, and Hai’s student Nguyen Duc Minh have become now well-known for introducing the dan moi to international audiences.
Voight has set up a company selling jew’s harps around the world, with 60 percent of his products coming from Vietnam.
The 26-year-old makes frequent excursions by motorbike to M’nong and Dap villages people in remote areas looking for dan moi with different designs.
He has become a close friend to many of them, particularly artisans.
Each time he returns home, he carries hundreds of dan moi in different shapes.
“Many people around the world like the Vietnamese jew’s harps very much,” he said.
He recently launched a website at http://www.danmoi.de to promote sales of this special instrument.
Teacher and student
Professor Tran Quang Hai, who has taught at 150 universities in 65 countries, is also a gifted performer of contemporary music and a preserver of traditional Vietnamese music.
He has spent more than 40 years studying jew’s harps over the world and improved the techniques of spoon playing and of the Jew's harp.
He has also traveled to many countries to perform different types of jew’s harps.
Hai recently came to Vietnam to attend a seminar on the Music and Science of Dan Moi at the French Cultural Center in Hanoi on Tuesday.
At the seminar he performed together with his Vietnamese student, Duc Minh, whom he met face to face for the first time since Minh wrote asking to be accepted as his student in 2004.
Minh, a former student of the Hanoi Conservatory of Music, once enjoyed a dan moi performance by Voight and decided to devote himself to studying and playing the instrument.
The 25-year-old made the acquaintance of the German artist, who later introduced him to Hai.
Minh and his friends have set up the Hon Tre (bamboo soul) band, which specializes in traditional Vietnamese music combining dan moi and other instruments like dan bau (monochord), dan nhi (two-chord fiddle), and dan tam thap luc (36 chord zither).
Minh was recently invited to join the International Jew’s Harp Association. He will represent Vietnam at an International Jew’s Harp Festival to be held in the Netherlands on July 22.
By Quynh Chau – Thanh Nien - June 30, 2006
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