VietNamNet Bridge – At the age of 24, Dang Van Khai Nguyen is able to impress any music lovers for his outstanding talent of playing Jew’s harp, a small musical instrument which is held against teeth or lips, and plucked with the fingers and is known worldwide by different names, depending on the country of origin, along with his significant contribution to preserving, recovering and developing this type of folk art which has faded into oblivion in Vietnam.

A man watches Dang Van Khai Nguyen (L) performing with Jew’s harp

Born into a family with no music tradition in Dong Nai Province, Nguyen was first impressed by Jew’s harp at the age of 15 when he watched a performance with the traditional music instrument on television by artist Huynh Duc Minh, whom Nguyen now sees as his brother.

However, as having no chance to learn more about this genre of art, the young man soon forgot about Jew’s harp, and not until 2010 was his fresh love for Jew’s harp rekindled when he came across a Jew’s harp performance by Professor Tran Quang Hai on TV.

Professor Hai is the eldest son of late Professor Tran Van Khe, one of the greatest folk music scholars of Vietnam. He is the only Vietnamese who studied the Jew’s harp and is called the “King of Jew’s harp” of Vietnam. Nguyen then started his journey with Jew’s harp by learning about Hai and carefully watched video clips of Hai playing the instrument on the Internet.

As a teenager Nguyen had to buy Jew’s harp in Saigon as he could not find one in Dong Nai. Ever since he got two Jew’s harps, Nguyen had practiced playing them passionately following guidance he got from the Internet.

After a half year of practicing, Nguyen was quite confident with his ability and decided to write to Professor Hai and expressed his love for Jew’s harp. He also sent the professor a video clip of him playing the instrument.

In response, Hai accepted Nguyen as his student and constantly sent Nguyen materials and video clips about Jew’s harp and taught Nguyen online.

“Jew’s harp is played not on melody but on the emotion and inspiration of the player. Therefore, H’Mong ethnic people use Jew’s harp to express their love,” Nguyen says.

With his talent and strong passion for learning more about Jew’s harp, Nguyen has been conversant with many types of Jew’s harp in different countries.

Vietnam’s Jew’s harp of H’Mong ethnic minority

The hardest part when learning and practicing Jew’s harp, according to Nguyen, is that all materials are written in English and French, and video clips on YouTube are mostly recorded and played by foreign artists.

Therefore, Nguyen worked on his own research about Jew’s harp of Vietnam. “I usually travel to the regions in Vietnam where people still play and make the instrument to learn from them, make video clips and collect specimens.”

The young man has also posted his video clips and guidance materials about Jew’s harp on Facebook and YouTube to call attention to the instrument.

“The sound of Jew’s harp is warm and attractive. It would be very sad if there were no one playing Jew’s harp in Vietnam,” he says.

Nguyen has also opened classes to teach around 20 children to play Jew’s harp.

Thanks to his contribution and talent, last year, Nguyen was introduced by Professor Hai to the International Jew’s Harp Society (IJHS) and is now the second Vietnamese member of the organization after Hai.

Apart from playing and doing research about Jew’s harp, Nguyen also has passion for collecting the instrument. Currently, he has collected more than 600 types of Jew’s harp in 26 countries and territories around the world including Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, China, Japan, France, England, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, Norway, Sweden and Italy.

“Thanks to Jew’s harp, I have friends that have the same interest as me around the world. Most of them are members of IJHS. We exchange Jew’s harp with each other and therefore I have such a big collection of the instrument.”

Apart from the bronze Jew’s harp of Mong people in the northwestern region, Nguyen also creates his own Jew’s harp from bamboo. The Jew’s harp made by Nguyen has received a positive evaluation from many artists of IJSH and currently, the bamboo Jew’s harp has presented in many countries including Japan, Argentina, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Russian Jew’s harp museum has contacted Nguyen to get the bamboo Jew’s harp for its collection.

After a long time of studying online with Professor Hai, Nguyen finally had the chance to meet Hai in person at a talk show held at Professor Khe’s apartment in HCMC in May last year.

Speaking of Nguyen, Hai said: “My student Dang Van Khai Nguyen is very talented, much more talented than me. He can not only play Jew’s harp but create Jew’s harp and teach others how to play the instrument.”

Nguyen now wishes to produce professional documents about Jew’s harp of Vietnam in the future to help preserve and spread the value of this musical instrument among Vietnamese people.

“It has been more than one time that I returned home after long journeys without getting no specimen and finding no artist but I won’t give up, I will keep going and I believe that someday, Jew’s harp will develop strongly in Vietnam,” Nguyen says.

My Tran        

SGT