Imperial Court Music
Nhã nhạc is the most popular form of imperial court music, specifically referring to the court music played from the Trần Dynasty to the very last Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, being synthesized and most highly developed by the Nguyễn emperors. It is based on earlier Vietnamese imperial court music, its primary influences coming from Ming Dynasty's imperial court and later the music of Champa. Along with nhã nhạc, the imperial court of Vietnam in the 19th century also had many royal dances which still exist to this day. The theme of most of these dances is to wish the kings longevity and the country wealth.
Classical music is also performed in honour of gods and scholars such as Confucius in temples.
These categories are defined as Nhã Nhạc ("elegant music", ritual and ceremonial music), Đại nhạc ("great music"), and Tiểu nhạc ("small music) that was chamber music for the entertainment of the king. In Vietnamese traditional dance court dances were defined as either van vu (civil servant dance) or vo vu (military dance).
Read more about this topic: Music Of Vietnam
Famous quotes containing the words imperial, court and/or music:
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
“The Twist was a guided missile, launched from the ghetto into the very heart of suburbia. The Twist succeeded, as politics, religion, and law could never do, in writing in the heart and soul what the Supreme Court could only write on the books.”
—Eldridge Cleaver (b. 1935)
“The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)