Chèo
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Chèo'' (,
Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters (''Chữ Hán'') to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represented ...
: 掉) is a form of generally satirical
musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...
, often encompassing
dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
, traditionally performed by
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
ese
peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
s in northern Vietnam. It is usually performed outdoors by semi-amateur touring groups, stereotypically in a village square or the courtyard of a public building, although it is today increasingly also performed indoors and by professional performers. Chèo stage art is one of the great cultural heritage of the Vietnamese folk treasure. Chèo has been a popular art form of the Vietnamese people for many generations and has fostered the national spirit through its lyrical content. ''Hát chèo''s origins date to the 12th century during the
Lý dynasty The Lý dynasty ( vi, Nhà Lý, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 李朝, Hán Việt: ''Lý triều'') was a Vietnamese dynasty that existed from 1009 to 1225. It was established by Lý Công Uẩn when he overthrew the Early Lê dynasty an ...
and has existed in its present form since roughly the 16th century. It derives from folk traditions, and was orally transmitted; unlike courtly theater traditions, it employs no scenery and sparse costumes and makeup. It involves a combination of traditional set pieces and improvisational routines appropriate to amateur theatre. Like the ''
Commedia dell'arte (; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...
'', it often carries a message of satirical criticism of the existing social order. The traditional musical ensemble consisted of fiddle, flute, and drum, though in modern recreations more instruments are used. A scene featuring ''hát chèo'' may be seen in the 2002 Vietnamese film ''Mê Thảo, Thời Vang Bóng'' (The Glorious Time in Me Thao Hamlet), directed by
Việt Linh Việt Linh (b. Nguyễn Việt Linh in Saigon, French Indochina (now southern Vietnam), 1952) is a prominent Vietnamese film director. She currently lives and works in Paris, France. Her films have been shown in Vietnam, France, the United State ...
.


History

Hoa LuNinh Binh is considered as the original land of the Chèo, and its founder, (Mrs) Pham Thi Tran, was a talented dancer in the royal palace during the Dinh dynasty of the tenth century. However, Chèo officially appears from the
Ly dynasty LY or ly may refer to: Government and politics * Libya (ISO 3166-1 country code LY) * Lý dynasty, a Vietnamese dynasty * Labour Youth of Ireland * Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Science and tech ...
(around the 11th century), flourished in the
Tran dynasty Tran may refer to: Arts, media, and entertainment * "Tran", a novel in the Janissaries series named for a fictional planet * Dr. Tran, an animated miniseries People * Trần (陳), a Vietnamese surname * Tran, member of the Nazi-era comedy duo ...
(13th century). The development of Chèo has its milestone when a Mongolian military soldier was captured in Vietnam in the 14th century. Chèo's performance only included speak and recite
folk songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...
prior to this period but influenced by the art of the soldier as an actor in his country, Chèo now also has the parts of singing. In the 15th century, Emperor Le Thanh Tong did not allow Chèo to be shown in the royal court, from when Chèo came back to the peasants as a usual musical entertainment activity until now in the villages. Chèo derives from folk music and dance, especially parody since the tenth century. Gradually, people developed various short stories based on these parodies into the longer, completed plays. From loyal area's performance only, Chèo has been expanded to the North Delta and the North Central Coast ( to Nghe An province) and the Red River delta is the cradle of Vietnamese rice civilization. Whenever the crop is harvested, they organize festivals to entertain and thank the Gods for the harvest. From the first millennium BC, ancestors performed the first Chèo in the communal house yard in their village.


Characteristics


General features

Chèo belongs to the genre of drama, with ancillary music including rhythmical music, evocative music, background music, and dance music. ''Hát chèo's'' is the stage singing, it can be sung by one person or many people on chorus. The melody of the Chèo tune is very suitable for the Vietnamese natural voice language. ''Hát chèo's'' is derived from folk melodies, the lyrics of Chèo are derived from folk-literary works in the Northern Delta. Chèo stage is an integrated art form of folk songs, folk dance and others folk art forms in the Northern Delta. It is a form of storytelling, taking the stage and actors as a means of communication with the public, and can be impromptu. Chèo has no fixed structure with acts in a drama as in the European stage, where performers are often flexible. Therefore, the length of the play depends on the inspiration of the artist or the audience's request. Conversely to the opera that forces artists to memorize each word and sing followed by the conductor, artists are allowed to freely modify and play as long as expressing the emotions of the character. Chèo has three characteristics, namely, folk songs were written into the plays, the language (the way of using techniques of art mobilized) and the character images. Ancient's is often associated with the change of the form of close ones as '' hát nói, hát xẩm, hát chèo đò, hát chèo chải, hát dậm''. The art features consist of dramatic elements, narrative techniques, character expressions, conventions and stylistics. The language has its parts using traditional Chinese verses, stanzas, or folk songs with a very liberal, free-flowing eight-word distich metre lyrical form. Chèo works in group called as "gánh hát" or "phường chèo", and be managed by all aspects by a person. The village festivals, summer vacation, Tet's holiday, ... "phường chèo" performs from village to village, this commune to the other, serving farmers working on a square mats in the middle of the public's yard.


Content of plays

In terms of content, unlikely as Tuồng praised the heroic actions of the noble elites, Chèo also depicts the simple life of rural people, praises the noble qualities of man. Lyrical content is always attached to Chèo, expressing human emotions, reflecting the common interests of humanity such as love, friendship and love. Stories of plays is from fairy tales, Nôm stories rise to theatrical art of real value and deep thought. In Chèo, the good usually wins the evil; the warm-hearted, gentle students always promoted to the mandarin and his faithful wife finally reunite with her husband. The plays often show off funny things, the bad habits of life such as in ''"Thầy mù"'', ''"Hương câm"'', ''"Đồ điếc"'', ''" Quan Âm Thị Kính"'', and also express humanity, as in ''"Trương Viên"''.


Characters

Characters in Chèo are usually normative, standardized and stereotyped. The personality of the character does not change in different plays. Cheo's surrogate characters can be swapped and reassembled in any play so they almost have no name. They can be called teachers, rich people, the prime minister, students, clowns, etc. However, there also have some characters such as Thiệt Thê, Thi Kin, Thị Kính, Thị Mầu, Súy Vân becoming a character of its own personality by being out of general conception. ''"Hề chèo"'' ( Parody guy) is a character often seen in Chèo performances. Hề is allowed to freely ridicule people the clowns in the palace of the king of Europe. Clown scenes hide meanings which helps people to attack the bad habits of feudal society, including the king, mandarin, anyone who have rights and property in the village. There are two main types of clowns: short-shirted clown and long-shirted clown, or clown without a cane and clown with a cane.


Musical instruments used

Cheo uses at least three string musical instruments including đàn nguyệt,
đàn nhị The (, Chữ Nôm: 彈二), also called , is a Vietnamese bowed string instrument with two strings. The word ''nhị'' means "two" in Vietnamese, and means "instrument". Its sound box is generally covered on one end with snakeskin.''Garland En ...
đàn bầu The đàn bầu (; "gourd zither"; chữ Nôm: ), also called độc huyền cầm (獨絃琴, "one-string zither") is a Vietnamese stringed instrument, in the form of a monochord (one-string) zither. History While the earliest written records o ...
( Vietnamese two-chord ) simultaneously adding flutes. In addition, the musicians have also to use drums and
cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...
s. The percussion consist of there are big drum, small drum, cylindrical drum, gong, bamboo tocsin. The small drum is used to keep the pace of singing, for the dances and for the notable sings. There is a saying "without drum, without Chèo" indicates the important position of the drum in Chèo. In modern Chèo, other instruments are used to enrich the accompaniment such as Vietnamese 16 chord zither, Vietnamese 36 chord zither, vertical flute and so on.


See also

* Hát tuồng *
Cải lương ''Tuồng cải lương'' (, Hán-Nôm: 從改良) often referred to as cải lương (Chữ Hán: 改良), roughly "reformed theater") is a form of modern folk opera in Vietnam. It blends southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, '' hát ...
*
Music of Vietnam Traditional Vietnamese music encompasses a large umbrella of Vietnamese music from antiquity to present times, and can also encompass multiple groups, such as those from Vietnam's ethnic minority tribes. History Traditional Vietnamese music has ...
*
Culture of Vietnam The culture of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Văn hoá Việt Nam) is highly multicultural. The early culture in Vietnam started with the Bronze Age Đông Sơn culture considered to be one of its most important progenitors for its Ancient history. Viet ...
*
History of Vietnam The history of Vietnam can be traced back to around 20,000 years ago, as the first modern humans arrived and settled on this land, known as the Hoabinhians, which can be traced to modern-day Negritos. Archaeological findings from 1965, which are ...


References


External links

*Tran Van Khe/Nguyen Thuyet Phong. "Vietnam, V, vi:Theater." ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
'' online.
Giữ gìn, phát huy bản sắc văn hóa nghệ thuật chèo
24/01/2012 , 19:19:00 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheo Vietnamese traditional theatre Vietnamese music Dance in Vietnam