Trường ca Sông Lô (translation: ''Epic of the

Lô River The Lô River () is a major river of Vietnam. It flows through Hà Giang Province, Tuyên Quang Province and Phú Thọ Province for 470 kilometres and has a basin area of 39,000 km2 and originates in Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland P ...

'') is a famous

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

of the

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

musician

Văn Cao Văn Cao (born Nguyễn Văn Cao, ; 15 November 192310 July 1995) was a Vietnamese composer whose works include ''Tiến Quân Ca'', which became the national anthem of Vietnam. He, along with Phạm Duy and Trịnh Công Sơn, is widely cons ...

. It was written after the decisive

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...

victory on the

Lô river The Lô River () is a major river of Vietnam. It flows through Hà Giang Province, Tuyên Quang Province and Phú Thọ Province for 470 kilometres and has a basin area of 39,000 km2 and originates in Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland P ...

at Đoan Hùng.

Background

In October 1947,

went to

Việt Bắc Việt Bắc (''Northern Vietnam'') is a region of Vietnam north of Hanoi that served as the Việt Minh's base of support during the First Indochina War (1946–1954). Việt Bắc is also called the capital of northernmost Vietnam because this ...

for taking part in the resistance war against the French army. In order to reach Việt Bắc, Văn Cao arrived at

Phú Thọ Phú Thọ () is a district-level town in Phú Thọ Province, Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population o ...

, and then walked along the river Lô to the place of the Viet Minh headquarter. During this time, the French carried out

Operation Léa Operation Léa was a French Union military operation between 7 October and 8 November 1947 during the First Indochina War. It is also known as the Việt Bắc campaign (''Chiến Dịch Việt Bắc'') by the Viet Minh. It was an attempt by the ...

to attack the Viet Minh's headquarter, and Lô River was also a place of fierce fighting. But finally, on 24 October 1947, the Viet Minh force gained a decisive victory at the place Đoan Hùng on Lô River, destroy 2 French war-boats and inflicted heavy damages on another two, killed hundred of French troopers. This decisive battle forced the French to withdraw and greatly contributed to the failure of Operation Léa. During the retreat, the French troops raided, burned, destroy a lot of Vietnamese villages along the river banks. The musician Văn Cao appeared at the battlefield right after the battle had ended, therefore he managed to witness the burning and destroyed villages, the corpse of killed Frenchs in the river, and the victorious Vietnamese people who were rebuilding the devastated home after the great victory. After that, when arriving at the Viet Minh head base, Văn Cao met , an artillery officer who participated in the victory on Lô River Chiến thắng Sông Lô
/ref> and heard everything about this battle from Tuế. All of these events became the material for Văn Cao to compose a great epic song about this decisive victory. After a short while, the composing was finished, and the song was published in March 1948 with the name ''Trường ca Sông Lô'' (epic of the Lô River).

Comments

The song received great praise from the musician

Phạm Duy Phạm Duy (5 October 1921 – 27 January 2013) was one of Vietnam's most prolific songwriters with a musical career that spanned more than seven decades through some of the most turbulent periods of Vietnamese history and with more than one ...

Notes

External links

toquoc.gov.vn

qdnd.vn

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truong ca Song Lo Vietnamese songs

Background

Comments

Notes

Further reading

External links