''Nhạc dân tộc cải biên'' is a modern form of Vietnamese
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
which arose in the 1950s after the founding of the
Hanoi Conservatory of Music in 1956. This development involved writing traditional music using Western
musical notation
Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...
, while Western elements of
harmony
In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...
and
instrumentation were added.
[Arana, Miranda (1999). ''Neotraditional Music in Vietnam''. Kent, Ohio, United States: Nhạc Việt/The Journal of Vietnamese Music.]
The genre is sometimes criticized by purists for its watered-down approach to traditional sounds.
Etymology
In Vietnamese, ''
nhạc'' means "music," ''
dân tộc'' means "nationality," and ''
cải biên'' means "renovated."
References
Music of Vietnam
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