Stamps celebrate Southern folk music
A set of stamps featuring 'don ca tai tu', a genre of amateur folk music from southern Vietnam recognised by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humankind, was recently issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
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The set consists of three samples and one block presenting performances of the art form on different spaces: in a fruit garden, on floating boats, on a courtyard and at a temple.
The stamp set also introduces typical costumes and traditional musical instruments used in performances of don ca tai tu, such as the flute, the two-stringed fiddle, the sixteen-stringed zither and the monochord.
The stamp set, designed by painter Vu Kim Lien from the Vietnam Post Corporation, will be available in the post network until June 30, 2018.
Don ca tai tu is a genre of folk music popular in 21 cities and provinces in Vietnam’s southern region. Having emerged at the end of the Nineteenth Century, the art form is a mixture of ceremonial singing, nha nhac (the music of the royal court at Hue) and folk music.
A don ca tai tu orchestra is often made up of a group of young people who are friends or neighbours and get together after work to practice. Amateur singers are usually accompanied by string and percussion instruments.
The genre was recognised as National Intangible Cultural Heritage by Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2012 and listed as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humankind by UNESCO in 2013.
