Trịnh Công Sơn (February 28, 1939 – April 1, 2001) was a Vietnamese musician, songwriter, painter and poet. He is widely considered to be Vietnam's best songwriter. His music explores themes of love, loss, and anti-war sentiments during the Vietnam War, for which he was censored by both the southern Republic of Vietnam and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Many performing artists, most notably Khánh Ly, Trinh Vinh Trinh (his younger sister), and some overseas singers such as Tuan Ngoc, Le Quyen, Le Thu, and Ngoc Lan, have gained popularity in their own right from covering Trịnh's songs.

Biography

Trịnh Công Sơn was born in Buôn Ma Thuột, Đắk Lắk Province, French Indochina, but as a child he lived in the village of Minh Huong in Hương Trà in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province. He grew up in Huế, where he attended the Lycée Français and the Providence school. When he was ten he lived with his father in Huế's Thừa Phủ Prison for a year in 1949. Later he went to Saigon and studied western philosophy at the Lycée Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from which he graduated with the baccalaureate degree. In 1961, he studied psychology and pedagogy in a school for teachers in Qui Nhơn in an attempt to avoid being drafted into the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces. After graduation, he taught at an elementary school in Bao Loc, Lâm Đồng. Trịnh Công Sơn wrote over 500 songs during the 1960s and 1970s. Sơn was influenced by the shrill demands of American anti-war protesters, which had been brought to Vietnam by none other than young American soldiers." He became one of South Vietnam's notable singer-songwriters, after his first hit, Ướt mi (Tearing Lashes) in 1958. He was frequently under pressure from the government, which was displeased with the pacifist's lyrics of such songs as Ngủ đi con (Lullaby, about a mother grieving for her soldier son). Before April 30, 1975, Trịnh Công Sơn went on the radio in Saigon to sing the song "Joining Hands/Circle of Unity" ("Nối vòng tay lớn") about the dream of national reconciliation between the North and the South, which he had written in 1968. On the afternoon of April 30, following Dương Văn Minh's proclamation of surrender, Trinh went on the radio to say that the national dream had been realized and that liberation had been achieved. After the reunification in 1975, the government sent Trịnh to "retraining" in a labour camp after his family had fled to Canada. However, government and many officials sent their respects with floral tributes. His often melancholic songs about love and postwar reconciliation earned new acceptance and popularity in later years. Many of his songs have been re-licensed to Vietnamese music companies such as Thúy Nga and Lang Van and sung by other artists. Two singers who are often associated with Trịnh Công Sơn are Khánh Ly and Hồng Nhung. Khánh Ly helped popularize Trịnh Công Sơn's music in the early years, and they often performed together at South Vietnam University campuses. Later in Trịnh's life, singer Hồng Nhung (born 1970) re-popularized his music.. Trịnh died on 1 April 2001, 62 years old. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at his funeral in Ho Chi Minh City, for an ad hoc funeral concert, making it the largest spectacle in Vietnamese history, after the funeral procession of Ho Chi Minh. On 28 February 2019, Google celebrated what would have been Trịnh Công Sơn's 80th birthday with a Google doodle.

Songs

Till now (2017) according to Nguyễn Đăng Chương, director of the Performing Art department of the ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, 70 songs of Trịnh Công Sơn are allowed to perform in public. The latest song which has just been permitted, is Nối vòng tay lớn, on April 12, 2017.

List of songs

Songs about the Vietnam War

In the song "Mother's Legacy" (Gia tài của mẹ), Trinh sings about the Vietnamese experience of the Vietnam War: He laments that the 1,000 years of Vietnam's subjugation to Chinese imperial rule, the 100 years of subjugation to French colonial rule, and the ongoing civil war, together have left a sad legacy of graveyards, parched fields and burning houses. He urges the children of Vietnam to remain true to their Vietnamese identity and overcome the dividing hatred, put an end to internecine fighting and the destruction of the country. In the song "Song about the Corpses of People" ("Hát trên những xác người"), written in the aftermath of the Huế Massacre, Trinh sings about the corpses strewn around the city, in the river, on the roads, on the rooftops, even on the porches of the pagodas. The corpses, each one of which he regards as the body of a sibling, will nourish the farmland. A rock music concert event titled Nối Vòng Tay Lớn ("The Great Circle of Vietnam"); the name of a popular patriotic anti-war song by Trịnh Công Sơn, was officially promoted and held in Hồ Chí Minh City ostensibly as a memorial to Trịnh, and featuring various Vietnamese rock bands and artists, had officially taken place for the first time on 22 April 2022.

Love songs

Love is the single biggest recurring theme in Trinh's work. His love songs constitute the majority of the songs. Most of them are sad, conveying a sense of despondence and solitude as in "Sương đêm", "Ướt mi". Songs are either about loss as in "Diểm xưa", "Biển nhớ", or nostalgia: "Tình xa", "Tình sầu", "Tình nhớ", "Em còn nhớ hay em đã quên", "Hoa vàng mấy độ". Other songs, additionally carry philosophical messages from a man to his lover: "Cỏ xót xa đưa", "Gọi tên bốn mùa", "Mưa hồng". The style is sly, simple, suitable to be rendered in Slow, Blues or Boston. The lyrics are overwhelmingly poetic, candid and yet deeply poignant, oftentimes hinting elements of symbolism and surrealism.