L’Sol magazine series mainly focus on music theme. In this weekend’s publication, we will discover how music can be exploited through various aspects of the movie Instrument in the Film Industry Traditional Musical L’SoL Issue 3 Jan 2023 | Vol 2 The Companion of Cinema Work The Flow of Music through Senses Traditional musical instruments’ images and sounds impact on viewer’s emotion Differences in music discovered in the past vs the present How music can bring much more value than you think TIME

CONTENTS Film emotions: How traditional musical instruments stir you? 01 02 04 08 ABOUT US THE COMPANION OF CINEMA WORK MUSIC THROUGH SENSES THE FLOW OF TIME Musical instruments usage in the past and the present. What are the differences? Priceless resources: Can ethnic music proudly represent your cultural identity?

L’SoL L’SoL wư About us Music lives in our souls. L’SoL, inspired by the musical note “Sol”, is a publication about the endless world of music. Launched in Vietnam 2022, by four members who share the same passionate love for music, Thien Anh, Phuong Linh, Nhu Quynh, and Duc Lam, L’SoL quickly gained interest by young readers. We aimed to be the partner together with the youth to explore music in many forms from old to new contexts, through words and images. To make readers a part of our story, L’SoL focuses on connecting and interacting with readers positively and firmly by listening to them and doing our best to provide them with the most intriguing item. Send us your voice! 01 THE COMPANION OF CINEMA WORK

Cinema is a composite art form with successful components such as script, director, actors, post-production, make-up, images, cinematography, and, most importantly, sound (not to mention silent films from the early cinematic period). Sound includes music, so music plays an important part in cinematic work. Music can act as a catalyst, narrator, inspiration, and even sometimes as a character or an independent line of dialogue in a movie. The director uses music to add a new medium to more easily and deeply express their intentions. Moreover, viewers can perceive why the directors want to focus on the relationship between music and images because music directly impacts human senses and emotions as opposed to visuals. “Cinematic music is magical not because it alters the content of the image, but rather because it affects the spectator’s consciousness, causing the viewer to accept the change implicitly,” wrote Olivier Clouzot. THE COMPANION OF CINEMA WORK 02 By Thien Anh

Filmmakers have proven that music is a very important element in the film industry, but the way it is applied is completely different based on the way filmmakers use it and the resources they have. More specifically, in different countries, there will be differences in the use of musical instruments and how to combine them with other musical instruments. Since then, the inclusion of ethnic musical instruments in movies will also honor the characteristics of that ethnicity. According to the history of formation and development, Western countries often lead in all fields, including cinema, and they also think the East is a land that needs to be explored and modernized. That encourages filmmakers in the East to introduce their heritage and cultural values of them to the world. Japanese directors have been at the forefront of introducing Japanese culture to the world, such as Rashomon, and Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, which has made the image of Japanese samurai familiar in each country’s traditional music and culture in the eyes of the West. Looking at the domestic cinema, there have been a series of Vietnamese directors making films with a clear intention to spread the national culture: Viet Linh (Me Thao, Time of Resonance) bring ca tru singing to the cinema, or Dao Ba Son (Long Thanh Cam pseudo-ca) promotes traditional theater forms such as Ca Tru and Chau Van. THE COMPANION OF CINEMA WORK Each country’s traditional music and culture is an invaluable treasures for filmmakers to exploit and include in their work. 03 By Thien Anh Photo by Thien Anh L’SoL

SENSES MUSIC 04 THROUGH By Phuong Linh & Nhu Quynh There are few films in the Vietnamese film industry that can completely recreate traditional music material. However, “Song Lang,” a film by Leon Le about the traditional Vietnamese orchestra, cai luong, in the background of the 1980s in Saigon, is a rare exception. The title, “Song Lang,” is also the name of a wood instrument in this traditional art. This is one of the important instruments used in a cai luong play to keep every other instrument in tempo. In the movie, when Dung, a debt collector who used to be in love with cai luong, was carrying a song lang in his hand, combined with his gesture when he relieved his childhood memories, the scene became low and sorrowful. There is a scene where Dung takes out an old, dusty wooden instrument, a “dan nguyet” (moon lute), and plays it for Linh Phung, a cai luong artist, to sing. It is worth mentioning that the song lang continued to appear next to the moon lute in the singing scene and when Dung’s father’s image appeared in his mind. That story of the song lang adds poignancy to what the audience may feel: without the song lang to count tempo, the music will be out of sync, much like Dung’s deviant lifestyle before meeting Linh Phung. In another scene, traditional musical instruments like the moon lute, the dan nhi (two-chord fiddle), and the dan bau (gourd zither) appeared to show that those are the typical instruments of a cai luong play, a form of entertainment popular among Southerners at the time. Thanks to “Song Lang,” it is clear that the traditional musical instruments with different colors, shapes, and situations and how the characters interact with them can represent different sides of the story. In most movies with traditional musical instruments, the instruments have a scenographic function, which describes relevant information about the character and brings the feeling of old-timey nostalgia to the audience. This is close to the idea of Mike Mills, a filmmaker: “I am intrigued by inanimate objects. They’re a piece of history, someone’s statement and ideas of life.” Therefore, the instruments would deliver specific stories and emotions in certain scenes. Photo by Thien Anh he Vietnamese film industry is gradually exploring more aspects of the cultural life of Vietnamese people. Therefore, traditional musical instruments can appear in different film genres. Most of the time, directors and scriptwriters use music and other traditional elements not simply to discuss their cultural meaning but to create emotions for the film, in general, and for specific scenes. The traditional musical instruments of Vietnam usually get special attention from audiences of many ages, especially young people, when they appear in films, even in TV series or movies. This is because what belongs to the Vietnamese traditional music industry has yet to be seen frequently and needs to be more friendly to young audiences. In some films, people can see many classical instruments, such as the piano and guitar, usually used in many film contexts and daily life. Somehow, the audience needs to remember that traditional ones could also be exploited in ordinary film backgrounds, not only in old films. That is why some movies like Song Lang or Da Co Hoai Lang premiered, which received many good responses from film lovers. Thus, directors can use such a way to inspire and produce masterpieces that link the audience’s feelings to traditional Vietnamese objects. When applying the images of the traditional musical instrument, the film producers intend to transform them into emotional meanings by putting them in short moments or throughout the entire movie. They put instruments with a specific purpose because they know each instrument has its way of linking with different people’s experiences in the way it becomes a part of their lives. However, film analysts confirmed that there is no specific method for evaluating those meanings, as what the directors want to deliver and what the audience feels may differ. In that way, the audience’s feelings are what the directors plan to give them and even more. T

L’SoL Ethnic music, made from traditional musical instruments, rarely appears on Vietnamese screens. It is still the area of origin that has yet to be discovered. The quantity of films created regarding ethnic music genres is extremely limited, making the quality even more unusual. However, every time ethnic music plays the “dual main” role, it brings such attractive aesthetic footage to the audience. In recent years, filmmakers have been actively adding sounds played by traditional musical instruments as the “spice” to invoke the emotions behind the film’s stories and contribute to enriching the cultural identity of the Vietnamese film industry. Back to the film “Song Lang” received many compliments from critics thanks to its spectacular way of reappearing the Saigon 1980s atmosphere through various intricate details, including the sounds played by traditional musical instruments. With the soft sound of “dan nguyet” and the beat from the “song lang” to keep Phung’s rhythm, the combination helped pull Dung back to follow back to his ancestral tradition: cai luong, by quitting his immoral job, and from this opening up many life-changing events ahead. Through the above scene, the tune created from traditional musical instruments helps the viewers show their empathic response to Dung and understand his inner struggle to return to his family’s traditional career. Music is considered a highly expressive sensory aspect in films, or as Hans Christian Andersen - a famous Danish Author, used to say, “Where words fail, music speaks.” It is an inevitable part of the cinematic experience and supports the film’s overall mood. Particularly, although Leon Le only used “dan nguyet” and the instrument “song lang” in a few small scenes, the music from those traditional instruments had a great impact on setting the tone of the whole “Song Lang” film. Hence, when a piece of music is matched with a highly emotional experience, it can be an excellent trigger to recall the audience’s intense feelings. Moreover, sounds from different musical instruments help shape viewers’ understanding of the character’s emotions, actions, or intentions. In the end, the appearance and usage of traditional musical instruments significantly impacted the movie’s content. They conveyed meaningful emotions to the characters to create a sense of connection between them and the audience. Therefore, not only widely used musical instruments can be used in the film industry, but traditional musical instruments should also be applied more in films to increase recognition from local and global audiences and help them realize such instruments can create masterpieces in films. 05 Hans Christian Andersen where words fail music speaks” Photo by Nhu Quynh

Photo by Thien Anh 06

Photo by Nhu Quynh L’SoL 07

08 Traditional performance has popularized the image of traditional musical instruments, making them a part of people’s culture and daily life. Therefore, filmmakers have considered ethnic music a highlighted factor to form a strong connection with the audience. For example, in the film “Dat Phuong Nam” (1997), director Nguyen Vinh Son used images of “dan nguyet” and “dan co” to relive the 1990s memories in the viewers. Therefore, it has created a sense of intimacy between the audience and the film. Unlike old movies, the image of traditional musical instruments in modern films is rarely shown. They are often used to recall old memories or in a new film with a historical setting. “Da Co Hoai Lang” (2017) is a very intentional film with that application. In the movie, the main character, an American-born Vietnamese who lives overseas, always remembers his homeland, Vietnam, where he found the person he loves and where he lived with his passion for singing Vong Co, a type of Vietnamese traditional music genre, in his youth. The images of traditional musical instruments appear whenever he remembers his youth days. As for the sound used in films, whether in the past or now, they still apply two common types of sound in movies which are diegetic and non-diegetic. Non-diegetic sound is any sound that does not exist explicitly inside the film’s universe, sometimes known as background music. These are “commentary noises” from sources that cannot be seen on the screen and enhance the movie experience for audiences. In the old times, traditional musical instruments were used in various types of films, usually drama. Take “Ben Khong Chong” (2000) as an example. From the beginning of the movie, traditional musical instruments are inserted to deeply describe the mellow Vietnamese countryside as well as appearing the lonely life of female characters who suffer the same situation of losing their husbands in the war. Compared to back then movies, the non-diegetic sound played by traditional musical instruments in recent films is less strong than before. They are now being heard in a few films with a historical context, with “Phuong Khau” (2020) being an example of a genre rarely seen in the Vietnamese film industry. Photo by Thien Anh Photo by Thien Anh By Phuong Linh & Nhu Quynh The FLOW ofTIME

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