Published:  09:49 Thursday - March 07, 2013

Famed artist Ha Thi Cau breathed her last breath in her small house in northern Ninh Binh province, aged 92, at 12:30 pm on March 3.

File photo of Tuoi Tre shows famed artist Ha Thi Cau performs in an art show in
Hanoi. Photo: Tuoi Tre

For the past 20 years, Cau was considered the last living treasure of xam, the northern region’s folk music, which is typically performed by street artists for a living. The provincial authorities have recently applied for xam to gain UNESCO recognition as a part of world heritage.

Cau’s artistic xam career began when she was a child and roamed around the country over to earn a living through performances.

Cau, who didn’t know how to read or write, was a smart woman who was good at composing poems and xam songs. She wrote the lyrics for most of the songs she performed.

She led a destitute life until death, with her family being the poorest household in Yen Mo district.

According Nguyen Van Loi, her son-in-law, who was at her side during her last days, Cau had been critically ill since the Tet holiday and could hardly eat. Her condition worsened recently, when she became totally paralysed and was unable to speak.

Cau’s funeral is open to visitors from 7 am today.

Her body will be buried at 9:30 am today, March 5, at Dam Thuan cemetery in Yen Mo district, her homeland.

Cau teaching her xam performing skills to a Hanoi girl. Dedication for the
art of xam Artist Ha Thi Cau, whose real name is Ha Thi Nam, was born
in 1921 in northern Nam Dinh province. She began practicing xam at
the age of five.

Her devotion to xam led her to her lifelong love, Artist Mau. She was his 18th and last wife.

Director Luong Dinh Dung, who spent four years and his own money making a film about Cau, said the veteran artist could perform hundreds of different xam pieces, and she could even improvise songs.

Director Luong Dinh Dung has a talk with Ha Thi Cau when she had a role in
Xam do (Red xam), a film directed by Dung.

“Though frail and seriously ill, Cau still tried to utter some words. This is a huge loss to Vietnam’s xam art,” said musician Thao Giang about his last visit to the artist.

When the Vietnam Music and Arts Promotion Center was founded, Giang and professor Pham Minh Khang sent students to Ninh Binh to learn from Cau personally, and also asked her to give several performances in Hanoi.

The center is also the first to open a xam stage in Hanoi with the hope partially reviving the old but nearly extinct art form.

The center first recruited its university level student for its xam faculty in 2011, and planned to have Cau personally train them in practice after two years of theory.

“However, the students have never met Cau as she was too ill. Our dreams will never be realized,” Giang lamented.

The following youtube video shows Cau in Xam do (Red xam), a film produced by the Unesco Motion Pictures Promotion Center in partnership with Tu Van Media Co.

Tuoitrenews