Professor To Ngoc Thanh, a learned scholar of Vietnamese folk culture, passed away

Professor and Doctor of Science To Ngoc Thanh, an erudite scholar in the field of folk culture, passed away on April 24 in Hanoi.

He was born in 1934 in Hanoi, the eldest son of artist To Ngoc Van, a big name in Vietnamese contemporary painting, but he grew up with a passion for music. He graduated with honors from the first batch of Vietnam Music School.

Mr. To Ngoc Thanh does not like Western music but is only interested in learning about his country’s folk music. He once shared with the press that folk music is the music of life and folk culture is the “essence” of the Vietnamese people.

In 1959, he was assigned to the Music Research Department of the Department of Arts, Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism). From this point on, he began his journey of collecting and researching ethnic folk music, living in harmony with ethnic minorities in the highlands. He was awarded a PhD in 1978, a Doctor of Science in 1987 and was promoted to Professor in 1991.

He is the author of many excellent works and research projects such as: “Northwest Thai folk music” (1969), “Muong folk music” (1971), “Folk music of South Asian ethnic groups in Vietnam” (1979), “Learn Traditional Music” – written together with musician Hong Thao (1982), “Fonclo Bahna,” editor (1988), “Musical instruments of Vietnamese ethnic minorities” (1995), documents “Vietnamese Royal Music” (2000)…

He also researched, collected, edited, enhanced, and introduced into community cultural life 12 popular and typical folk songs of ethnic minorities and 30 thematic folk songs of each ethnic group.

Professor To Ngoc Thanh is credited with founding, writing the curriculum, and directly teaching the subject of Preserving Vietnamese Traditional Music. He was General Secretary of the Vietnam Folk Arts Association for 3 consecutive terms (from 1989-2005), Chairman of the Vietnam Folk Arts Association for 3 consecutive terms (from 2005-2020).

From 1999 to 2005, he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) of UNESCO. In addition, he also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Asia-Pacific Association of Ethnomusicologists (APSE). He was instrumental in founding, writing textbooks, and directly teaching with very high quality in-depth the subject of Preserving Vietnamese Traditional Music (Vietnam Ethonomusicology).

Professor and Doctor of Science To Ngoc Thanh was awarded the Second-class Independence Medal (2019), Second-class Resistance Medal against the French, First-class Resistance Medal against the US, and First-class Labor Medal ( 2001) and many other orders and medals. He received the State Award for Literature and Arts in 2001./.