Today, the traditional music of Vietnam has diverged into two paths. One path seeks to ‘modernize’ traditional music by incorporating Western scales and adopting Western or Chinese musical styles.

The result is a hybrid form which no longer emphasizes classical techniques and historic region-specific musical forms. This attempt to revive classical Vietnamese music results in a tree with weak roots; the resulting growth may still look lush but is not altogether healthy.  Huong Viet Performing Arts Group embraces the other path, one focused on revitalizing a rich tradition. Huong Viet focuses on mastery of traditional performance techniques, such as proper pressing and releasing of notes, variations in ornamentation such as vibrating tones, and adhering to region-specific styles, techniques, and aesthetics.

About the Opening Ceremony Performance: The first song “Country Love” will be played on a dan bau, which means monochord, a ONE STRING instrument.  It is considered a special witness of Vietnam’s history and culture.  The earliest records of the monochord dated its origin to 1770, however scholars estimated that it could have existed for a thousand years or more.  Although the dan bau monochord only has one string, it can play all the notes on the eastern pentatonic and western music scale.

Following the solo performance on the monochord, Dr. Hai Hong and the Huong Viet Performing Arts Group musicians will continue with “Autumn Lake”, a south Vietnamese traditional piece, then a contemporary song called Vietnam Vietnam on the Vietnamese zither called dan tranh.  The dan tranh was one of the 5 instruments used in the imperial court orchestra of the Nguyen dynasty.  It has a history dating back to the 11^th  to 13^th century.

Now, Huong Viet Performing Arts Group will take us back to the Vietnam of centuries past, when kings and queens, and members of the royal court gathered to enjoy elegant music under moonlight while enjoying the arts of tea and poetry.

I will discuss the nature of the colonial Personal Laws, which, from the late 18th century, came to shape legislation and adjudication of court disputes for different Indian religious communities. Under them, each community was to be governed by its own scripture and sacred custom as interpreted by its chosen religious specialists in the entire domain of marriage, inheritance, caste and faith.

In the second part, I will discuss how modern Hindu orthodoxy and reformism emerged and clashed around legal-judicial developments in this sphere in the nineteenth century.

My intention is to insert the social and the religious into the domain of modern Indian political history.

The Keynote Address is sponsored by: