Introduction
Văn Cao, whose real name was Nguyễn Văn Cao, was born on 15/11/1923 in Hải Phòng into a family of civil servants. He is known as a musician with many contributions to Vietnamese musical and artistic activity, especially as the author of the song 'Tiến quân ca', the national anthem of Vietnam.
Career and activities
In his youth, he studied and worked in Hải Phòng. From 1943, he took part in Việt Minh activities, in the anti-traitor team. During this time, he composed many patriotic songs, famous ones such as 'Đống Đa', 'Thăng Long hành khúc ca', 'Tiếng rừng'... He also worked as a reporter writing for newspapers, wrote poetry, and painted.
He joined the Hội Văn hoá Cứu quốc, wrote for the newspaper Độc Lập, and took part in the Hội Văn Nghệ Việt Nam and the Hội nhạc sĩ Việt Nam.
The birth of 'Tiến quân ca'
According to the author's 1976 account of the circumstances in which the national anthem came to be, it was in the winter days of 1944, when the nation's revolutionary struggle was seething with momentum. Văn Cao met Vũ Quý, a Việt Minh cadre who was also someone who followed Văn Cao's artistic activities. Vũ Quý asked, as a suggestion, that Văn Cao leave his life behind to work for the revolution, and gave Văn Cao his first assignment, which was to compose a song for the revolutionary army.
At that time Văn Cao did not yet know the resistance zone, he knew only the streets Phố Ga, Hàng Bông, Bờ Hồ (Hà Nội) from his habitual routes, and he had not met the soldiers of the revolutionary army in the first military training course and did not know how they sang. The author was thinking of how to write a song simple enough that they could sing it. He pondered and searched for sounds and images on afternoons walking along the streets of Hà Nội and wrote the first musical phrases of 'Tiến quân ca'. He revised and completed the song over many days afterwards in the attic at 45 Nguyễn Thượng Hiền, Hà Nội, during the gloomy, hungry, cold and harsh winter days.
When the song was finished, Vũ Quý was very pleased. 'Tiến quân ca' is a revolutionary song, with a heroic and urging resonance, encouraging the spirit, fervour and patriotism of the soldiers and people of Vietnam to rise up together in struggle to win national independence.
On 17/8/1945, the song 'Tiến quân ca' rang out in the sky of Hà Nội with thousands of voices raised, resounding through its stirring passages. On 19/8/1945, a large rally met at the Nhà hát Lớn square, and the choir of the Thiếu niên Tiền phong sang 'Tiến quân ca' in salute to the red flag with yellow star.
The national anthem of Vietnam
After the success of the August Revolution, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was founded, and in 1946 the First National Assembly officially decided to choose 'Tiến quân ca' as the national anthem of Vietnam. In the first Constitution of Vietnam in 1946, Article 3 stated clearly: the national anthem is the song 'Tiến quân ca'.
The song 'Tiến quân ca' is considered not only a good piece of music compared with many national anthems of other countries, but also fully representative in value, because it has been bound in feeling to many successive generations through many arduous and glorious stages of the history of the Vietnamese nation.
Honours and final years
For his contributions to artistic activity, especially in composing the song 'Tiến quân ca', according to Decree No. 32-SL dated 25/4/1949, he was honoured with the Huân chương Kháng chiến hạng Nhất and the Huân chương Độc lập hạng Nhất.
He died on 10/7/1995 in Hà Nội.