The Co People
You
name it, and the Co are likely to have a song for it. The musical
repertoire of this ethnic group is extensive, with folk songs
singing of nature, bumper crops, daily activities and, of course,
love. The Co live mainly in Tra Bong district, Quang Ngai province,
and partly in Tra My district, Quang Nam province.
Having long since adopted a sedentary lifestyle, they are concentrated
in villages on hillsides, close to streams or small rivers. There
they
grow manioc, Indian corn and cinnamon. The cinnamon grown in Tra
Bong
District has achieved world-wide renown since the early years
of this
century.
Previously, the Co lived in single long houses on stilts called
noc,
but now they build houses on the ground as lowlanders do, and
have a
patriarchal society. What is heartening is that throughout their
history of integration into a multiracial society, the Co have
managed
to preserve numerous distinctive cultural features - their customs,
faith, festivals, folk art in general and folk music in particular.
It can be said that every few clans have succeeded in preserving
so
many types of folk songs as the Co - the xa ru, xa ru xa lia,
a gioi,
ca lu and the a lat, to name a few.
Each of them expresses a wide range of feelings. Xa ru praises
the
magnificent landscape and bumper crops; xa ru xa lia eulogises
the
love between young people and conjugal life; a gioi is an
"alternative" way of singing about daily activities,
reflecting the
attitudes and sentiments of inhabitants regarding the societal
and
communal ties. Ca lu, a lat and a cheo are melodies to be sung
at such
festivals and rites as the celebration of bumper crops and the
sacrifice of the water-buffalo.
These songs are accompanied by many traditional musical instruments
including the b'ro, ca t'rot, ra ngoai and a-map that have also
been
well preserved.
Even the instruments have a time and place to be played.
The ca t'rot is played by the fire in the morning to start a
working
day, the ra ngoay is played by youth of both sexes to express
their
love for each other; and the a map is played by women to lull
children
to sleep or to instruct the little ones, and to express that a
young
girl in the family is in love. The ta lia, meanwhile, is performed
on
holidays and during hunting for game.
The percussion in Co music is supplied by a set of two gongs,
one big
and the other small, and a drum. The gongs are usually played
on days
of worship, the Lunar New Year's Day, at house-warming parties,
on
wedding days, and on days that guests or welcomed or bidden farewell.
The gongs are especially important in the water-buffalo sacrifice,
the
major festival or the Co. It is on this day that the young men
show
off their skills in playing the gongs with strong and fast rhythms,
while the young women keep pace with the graceful ca d'hao dance
around a long multi-coloured pole that is located near the
water-buffalo and the fire.
So far, the Co have succeeded in maintaining their gongs sets.
In Tra
Bong District alone, all the 19 communes and 90 villages have
their
own team of gong player. But the problem is that they are not
played
alone, they accompany either the ca d'hao dance or the numerous
folk
songs. Very few people know the ca d'hao dance and fewer still
know to
play the ca t'rot and the ta lia instruments. In the Tra Bong
commune,
for example, only two septuagenarian women can play the a map.
Co music has played an important role in the nation's freedom
struggle
as well.
A local official, Truong Ngoc Khang, told me: "In order
to organise an
uprising in Tra Bong District and Western Quang Ngai Province
we took
many tunes from different ethnic groups like the Co, H're and
the Ca
doong to stir up patriotism. Unfortunately, only elderly people
sing
those songs nowadays, and only in karaoke bars."
Now, even the traditional attire of the Co is worn only on festival
days or other important occasions. The housing has changed, as
has the
clothing. But what of their music? Yes, these can be preserved
by
recording them on CDs and VCDs, and printing the lyrics of folk
songs
- but only the Co themselves can keep their traditions alive by
incorporating them into their daily lives, and letting the songs
blossom in their hearts.
