Vietnam West Of The Original Bamboo Instruments Research Of Ethnic Minorities

This article is a dissertation on traditional music of Vietnam, a study of the musical instruments made from bamboo of the Central Highlands ethnic minorities, which currently living in the highlands of central Vietnam, especially from the E De and Ba Na ethnics with relatively large population.Through studying of the bamboo instruments, the structures and the development of the bamboo musical instruments from the Central Highlands ethnics, and methods of the performance, the dissertation clarifies their important position in the traditional musical instruments of Vietnam. In addition, within this article, the influence of the music from those ethnic minorities on the Vietnamese music is discussed.The dissertation has four chapters.Chapter1:The author introduces the Central Highlands with its geographic characters, cultural and spiritual heritage of ethnic minorities.Chapter2:The author discusses the so-called "Bamboo Culture" of the ethnics groups from Central Highlands. With information collected during author’s field trips and ethnographic and musicology documents published by other authors, structure and composition of the bamboo musical instruments are presented.Chapter3:The author discusses the development of the Highland bamboo musical instruments:from the native and folk form used by minor ethnic groups in limited occasions to the advanced form used in professional music with performances that have been disseminated throughout in Vietnam. In this chapter, the author presents analysis on the performance of the T’rung instrument as well of other representative bamboo musical instruments. The author also discusses their involvement in the traditional Vietnamese music after the End of the Vietnam War in1975. The role of the bamboo musical instruments and the influence of the music are clarified.Chapter4:The author argues how the Vietnam society accepts the Highland bamboo musical instruments by comparing the so-called "bamboo culture" of Vietnam with the Highlands ethnics minorities. The author also outlines the relationship and influencment between the Highland bamboo musical instruments with those of other countries in the world.Finally, the author displays thoughts on the conservation and development of the traditional musical instruments as well the views on the exchange of traditional music between countries in the world.In this dissertation, the author researched methodology in musicology, education, and cultural anthropology. The thesis focuses in the systematic analysis of the formation and development, as well as transformation of the Highlands bamboo musical instruments. Author accumulated knowledge obtained in study, and information gained from field trips. Furthermore with published reports from many different individual authors, the author displays views on the relationship of the musical culture of ethnic minorities from the Highland of Central Vietnam to the musical culture of countries in the Southeast Asia.On the classification of instruments, the author applies the methods of classification by C.Sachs (1881-1959) and V.Hornbostel (1877-1935), and in some cases, the common methods used in Vietnam.