Vietnamese Institute for Musicology in brief

Vietnamese Institute for Musicology is image recording the music of Ede minority

Vietnamese Institute for Musicology, formerly the Musicology Division of the Culture and Arts Bureau, was established in 1950. Undergoing many changes in organization structure and belonged directly to such different organizations as Music and Dancing Research Division, Department of Arts, Music and Dancing Bureau, Arts Institute, it was, up to 1976, officially separated to an independent institute with the name of Vietnam Musicology Institute. Vietnamese Institute for Musicology (VIM) at present is an institution belonging to Hanoi National Conservatory of Music under the Ministry of Culture and Information.

With only 20 staffs in 1976, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology has increasingly developed its staff with the expansion in various activities. Total staff is now up to 50 people of different professional fields at 6 Divisions. They are Collection and Research Division, Scientific Information Division, Technology Division, Showroom for Vietnamese traditional musical instruments, Material and Publication Division, and Administration Division.

With its specialization, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology is mainly responsible for collection, preservation, research and dissemination of Vietnamese traditional music within the nation and to the World.

Technology Division

Playing as a central role in collecting traditional music source of 54 ethnic groups throughout the country, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology has conducted a great number of fieldtrips and folk music collection all over the villages from the Northern mountains to Northern Delta, Central coastal, the Central Highland and to the East and West of the Mekong delta. It results in image recordings of more than 18,000 folk songs and 9,000 pieces of folk music with the participation of over 2,000 folk artists. These valuable materials are now well preserved thanks to modern and advanced technology facilities at the Institute.

In addition to collection and preservation of materials of Vietnamese folk and traditional music, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology has been conducting many research works including 7 ministry-level subjects and 27 grass-root subjects. Most of them have been published. Many subjects which bear a deep research or have evaluation and summary are appealed to the music circle and society.

Annually, the Institute publishes three issues of 150-page Bulletin with its size of 19cm x 27cm in Vietnamese and English to provide the public with scientific research findings on music activities by authors of the Institute and those from others.

In parallel with collection, research and publication activities, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology also implements social scientific activities, such as organization of scientific seminar on music and club for composers and compositions to introduce and disseminate achievements of musical research and composition.

Showroom for Vietnamese traditional musical instruments

In 1999, the Vietnam Traditional Instruments Showroom of the Institute was opened and is currently displaying over 150 instruments of four families including membranophone, idiophone, airophone and chordophone with various branches of ethnic groups all over the country, of which there are ancient musical instruments, such as lithophone, bronze drum, bamboo musical instruments, etc. Each instrument in the showroom is introduced in printed forms of description and well illustrated by audio and video recordings featuring performances by folk artists. Coming to "the Vietnam Traditional Instruments Showroom", visitor can have a chance to enjoy a live performance program of original traditional musical pieces performed by showroom staff in a traditional performing style. Since its inauguration, the Showroom has received thousands of domestic and foreign visitors and left good impression on them.

In implementation of the Resolution No. 5 by the Central Committee, the Institute has been actively developing dissemination of folk and traditional music in social life. Series of technological products in form of CDs, VCDs and videos featuring programs of folk and traditional music of all ethnic groups have been released, which helps music-lovers have an opportunity to further understand much more about multi-ethnic music of Vietnam.

Together with the tendency of expansion and the connection with globalized information, late 2002, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology had its own website opened (http://www.vnmusicology-inst.vnn.vn) to bring itself and Vietnamese traditional music culture to international friends. The Institute has uploaded to the Internet all activities, collection and research achievements and technical products about Vietnamese traditional music of the Institute and those of other domestic music activities. Through Internet, the Institute has also met various needs of foreign friends in studying Vietnam music.

The open ceremony of Data bank on folk music and traditional performing arts

Especially, early 2004, based on its own archives, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology officially opened databank on folk music and traditional performing arts of Vietnam on advanced and synchronous technology system, which facilitates those who are interested in Vietnamese music to fast and easily access and search for information about aspects related to folk music and traditional performing arts of Vietnam from text materials to sound and image materials. This is the first databank system on traditional music and arts in Vietnam. At present, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology is continuing to enrich and perfect its databank system. Hopefully, in the near future, Vietnamese Institute for Musicology will have a high-speed transmission line to bring the whole databank system to Internet to disseminate Vietnamese music to the world more effectively.

In addition to domestic activities, foreign activities of the Institute are also taken place excitingly in carrying out scientific research subjects on music with foreign partners, collaborating with and assisting many international researchers in scientific research works, participating in international workshops on music, and bringing Vietnamese folk arts groups to foreign countries to perform, etc. Vietnamese Institute for Musicology is eager to cooperate with friends in regional countries and all over the world to implement scientific research works as well as projects on folk music.

New location of Vietnamese Institute for Musicology

In yearly 2007, officially moved from 32 Nguyen Thai Hoc strto the new location in CC2 - The My Dinh new urban area, Tu Liem, Hanoi. This is a happy sign for Vietnamese Institute for Musicology (VIM). It is the first time, the researchers of VIM can work in a modern building in which there are enough divisions such as Studio, filming division of performance, the Showroom of Vietnamese Traditional Musical Instruments, and the division of Databank on Folk Music and Traditional Performing Arts of Vietnam, etc.

Hopefully, with modern material facilities, enthusiastic and young staffs, the Vietnamese Institute for Musicology will become not only a reliable address for the musical circle but also a destination of those who interested in Vietnamese music, especially, the Vietnamese traditional music.