Nguyen Van Quy (2 January 1925 – 27 January 2022) was a Vietnamese composer and musician. He started as composer under the artist name Đỗ Quyên, and was later given the nicknames "''Quỳ Sonate''" and "''Vietnamese Beethoven''". He is known for having written nine sonatas for violin and piano, but also for several songs. He was a member of the French music copyright association (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique: SACEM).

Biography

Nguyen Van Quy was born in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

and has revealed musical talent since childhood. His melodies are inspired by Vietnamese traditional music as well as French

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. Nguyen Van Quy graduated from the French ''Ecole Universelle'' music course by mail correspondence in 1954. He was the student of the French composer and pianist

Adolphe Borchard Adolphe Borchard (1882–1967) was a French pianist and composer who worked on a number of film scores during the 1930s and 1940s including large-budget films such as ''Ultimatum (1938 film), Ultimatum'' (1938). He has several music students. The ...

. He had once worked with Tử Phác. After the

Geneva Agreements The Geneva Conference, intended to settle outstanding issues resulting from the Korean War and the First Indochina War, was a conference involving several nations that took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 26 April to 20 July 1954. The part ...

, he remained music teacher at

Hanoi National University of Education Hanoi National University of Education (Abbreviation: HNUE; vi, Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội) is a public university in Vietnam. Established in 1951 as the fourth university in Vietnam (after Indochina Medical College (1902), University of ...

(Trường Đại học Sư Phạm Hà Nội) from 1956 to 1978. He has completed nine sonatas for violin and piano and many songs. He had continuous links with French musical circles where he was known as the "Vietnamese Beethoven". He was awarded the second prize of the Vietnam Musician Association for the Sonata No. 4 (1995) and the Sonata No. 8 (2005). In 2009, he was awarded the Cultural Heritage Patrimoenia Award at the Swiss embassy in Hanoi. Van Quy latterly lived with his family in Hanoi. He was married to Do Thi Nam Kim (a French teacher for physicians and pharmacists) and had one son. He died on 27 January 2022, at the age of 97.

Works

Here is the list of his musical works according to a biography written in 2011. *Sonatas **Sonata No.1 for Violin and Piano, completed in 1964 **Sonata No.2 for Violin and Piano, completed in 1976 **Sonata No.3 for Violin and Piano, completed in 1979 **Sonata No.4 for Violin and Piano, completed in 1982 **Sonata No.5 for Violin and Piano, completed in 1984 **Sonata No.6 for Violin and Piano, completed in 1985 **Sonata No.7 for Violin and Piano, completed in 1998 **Sonata No.8 for Violin and Piano, completed in 2000 **Sonata No.9 for Violin and Piano, completed in 2003 *Songs ** Bóng chiều (Evening shadow) ** Chiều cô thôn (Village at dusk) ** Dạ khúc (Nocturne) ** Mây trôi ** Nhớ trăng huyền xưa ** Yêu người bao nhiêu yêu nghề bấy nhiêu ** Bác Hồ vầng dương của chúng ta ** Đoàn kết giữ hòa bình ** Ngọn triều lên

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Van Quy 1925 births 2022 deaths Vietnamese composers Vietnamese musicians Vietnamese songwriters