(VOVworld) – Professor of aesthetics Duong Viet A lives near the Vietnam National Academy of Music in My Dinh ward. In his small, neat house, he has produced many highly acclaimed studies such as “The principles of Aesthetics”, “Methodology in writing music essay”, “Music, arguments, and the tree of life”, and “Following the sound”. This week, VOV’s Personality of the Week profiles Professor A.
Professor of aesthetics Duong Viet A and his wife Le Thi Kim Huong |
Our first impressions on meeting Professor A were of his kind face, bright eyes, and silvery hair that make him look more like a plain country man than a professor. Talking about his career and life, Professor A attributed his success to his birthplace in Quang Binh province, which is rich in folk music. “I have to thank my home village, where all the villagers love to sing. Besides doing farm work, people weave cloth and do other handicraft work. They sing while working together which has been absorbed by my mind. I grew up before the August Revolution of 1945. I knew many songs of that period through community singing movements, which inspired me to follow a music career.” Professor A said.
Professor A has a plain and open speaking style, which makes his stories easy to understand. He has thorough comments and explanations of social, cultural, and aesthetic issues with many close-to-life examples. Professor A’s career changed when he graduated from the University of Literature but was assigned to teach at the Vietnam Music School, now the Vietnam National Academy of Music. Professor A said: “Because I studied literature and worked at a music school, I wondered if there could be literature in music? Thinking to find a way, I became concerned about the relation of literature and music. In 1967, after my school was evacuated to Bac Giang province, I began to study literature in music. I wrote my first book on the study of song lyrics. It was published in 1977 in the Art Journal of the Institute of Art. At first, people didn’t notice it. But eventually people discover it to be good and it’s popular now.”
Professor A studies a methodology which approaches music from the outside. Music contains lyrics so he studies the literary language in music. He is a pioneer of song lyric studies.
In 1962, after finishing a post-graduate course on aesthetics with Russian experts, he began to analyze the aesthetics of music and established a Music Aesthetics major.
Professor A says no matter how talented he might be, he wouldn’t have succeeded without the love and suggest of his wife, Le Thi Kim Huong. She is a physician and is always the first person to read his study. Mrs. Huong said: “He is always easy going. I don’t take care of him not very well but he has never complained. He compliments every thing I cook. He spends a lot of time and effort on his study but I don’t feel inconveniently. I always support him.”
In 2012, Professor A was given the National Award for his research and creativity.
Lan Anh