A ceremony to honour the originator of “xam” singing, a genre of musicand performance once popular in rural northern Vietnam, was held inHanoi on April 2.

“Xam” singing - ballads once sungby wandering blind musicians- dates back over 700 years ago. Legend hasit that under the Tran dynasty, the blind Prince Tran Quoc Dinh met afairy in the forest who taught him how to make a kind of musicalequipment. He later taught the music to the visually-impaired people sothat they could use it as a way to earn their living. The prince washonoured as the founder of this genre of singing, and February 22 on thelunar calendar was marked as his death anniversary, which fell on April2 this year.

Prof. Pham Minh Khang, Director of theVietnam Music Development Centre – the organiser of the event, saidthat his centre’s artists and researchers in the past years have beenjoining hands with “xam” veteran artists and masters to preserve thetraditional values of the art form.

To that end,“xam” performances are held every Saturday at Dong Xuan market, thebiggest wholesale outlet in Hanoi, Khang said.

The first training course with 16 participants who love the singing hasbeen conducting over the last two years under the organisation of thecentre and the Hue Academy of Music, he added .-VNA