CEREMONIAL MUSIC: The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Cần Thơ opens a free course offering knowledge and performing skills of southern ceremonial music at the Bình Thuỷ Temple in Bình Thuỷ District. VNA/VNS Photo Ánh Tuyết

CẦN THƠ — The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Cần Thơ is offering traditional music classes for residents and tourists as part of the city’s project to preserve and promote its intangible cultural heritage by 2025.

The Cần Thơ Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is launching a short-term course on southern ceremonial music at the Bình Thuỷ Temple in Bình Thuỷ District.

In the past, ceremonial music was often performed at weddings, funerals and worshipping rituals in the south, but today it is simplified and played at funerals and during Kỳ Yên ceremonies worshipping the God of Land at temples.

The 20-day course targets to improve the knowledge of ceremonial music and the performing skills of musicians and bands at rituals and sacred places in the city.

The course includes topics such as the role of southern ceremonial music in community activities in Việt Nam, the introduction of typical musical instruments used in ceremonial music bands in the south, and the performance of rituals in worshipping ceremonies or funerals.

The instructors are musician Phan Nhứt Dũng, a lecturer at the HCM City University of Cinematography and Theatre, and artisans from the city and southern provinces.

The course will last until October 20.

According to the department’s director Nguyễn Minh Tuấn, many intangible cultural heritages related to folk performing arts are at high risk of disappearing, including southern ceremonial music, tài tử music, Cần Thơ folk singing, and lullabies. Therefore, in recent years, the city has been conducting projects to research, preserve and promote intangible cultural heritage.

POPULAR CLASS :The Cần Thơ City Cultural Centre hosts a free class of tài tử music at Ninh Kiều Wharf in Ninh Kiều District every Friday night. File photo from baocantho.com.vn

Since September, Cần Thơ has also launched a free class to teach tài tử music to its residents and visitors at Ninh Kiều Wharf in Ninh Kiều District every Friday night.

The class is hosted by artists from the Cần Thơ Cultural Centre.

Meritorious Artisan Kiều Nga, deputy director of the centre, said the class offers general knowledge of tài tử music and classic songs, and participants can listen to songs and learn to sing them.

She added the class attracted many city residents, members of the local tài tử club, and even visitors who came to the class thanks to the sounds of musical instruments.

Nguyệt said the class spreads the beauty and love for tài tử music to people and tourists.

The free tài tử music class will be held until mid-December. — VNS