When mentioning Van Cao, we often know that he is the author of the Vietnamese National Anthem, but such an introduction about him seems too sketchy, given his contributions to poetry - music - painting to the country's art.

Trinh Cong Son once spoke about Van Cao with such passionate words that music lovers have quoted him countless times in books, newspapers, and all over social networks: “In music, Van Cao is as noble as a king. In the field of songs, I am like a child dreaming of the sun as a paper kite to fly. Van Cao’s music is the music of flying fairies. I wander among the human world. He keeps flying and I keep sinking. Flying and sinking in private fates…”.

It is not wrong to say that Van Cao is one of the most talented artists in Vietnam, with many contributions in the fields of music as well as poetry and painting, in which he left behind many pioneering creations for those who came after him, guiding and laying the foundation for the development of modern Vietnamese literary and artistic life - especially his role in shaping the genres of love songs, heroic songs and epic poems in music as well as the epic poem genre in modern Vietnamese poetry.

During the pre-war period, Van Cao's love songs bore the strong imprint of Eastern poetry combined with Western classical features, becoming immortal musical works that transcended time such asSad autumn,Spring Wharf,Ancient zither,Lonely Autumn,Dream Stream,Heavenly PalacegoodTruong Chi... At the end of 1944, Van Cao joined the Viet Minh with his first task being to compose a march. The famine of 1945 and the revolutionary campaigns of that turbulent historical period inspired Van Cao to composeMarching Song, the song has become the beloved National Anthem of every Vietnamese person today. In the following period, Van Cao composed joyful and energetic revolutionary songs such asMy village,Harvest Day,Heading to Hanoi…and especiallyThe epic poem of Lo River, the song has left a strong mark in the history of modern music. Pham Duy commentedThe epic poem of Lo Riveris "the highest peak of resistance music in particular, of modern Vietnamese music in general" and Van Cao is the "father" of Vietnamese heroic and epic poems.

Not only a musical talent, Van Cao also wrote prose, poetry and painted, in each field he achieved certain successes. However, Van Cao's contributions to poetry and painting, for many different reasons, are much less mentioned than his achievements in music.

In the field of poetry, Vietnamese readers often know the narrative verses about his own life, his homeland, and his free life with friends. Above all, people remember his sorrowful verses about the extreme life of the poor people in the brothel, train station alleys, sidewalks, and market corners. Van Cao believes that “poets must seek out the thoughts, emotions, and feelings in reality among the people who are working hard every day to build.”

In the field of painting, Van Cao's works are no longer as complete as his musical and poetic works, for many reasons such as the responsibility of the preservers and the limited preservation conditions during the many years of war. It is almost only possible to base on the critical opinions of his contemporary literary friends such as painter Ta Ty and art critic Thai Ba Van, that Van Cao had "many valuable paintings, with unique artistic value". How many "many" is, how "unique" is, those who want to learn about Van Cao's painting style are hard to know. But the paintings brought to the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum along with the visual arts works such as book cover illustrations, vignettes for newspapers, matchbox label designs... can also show us a part of his sharp and delicate talent in the field of painting, not inferior to poetry and music.

If you think that Van Cao is a "wanderer who loves to play and forgets his homeland", it is completely wrong. Having studied martial arts since the age of 9, and having fought many times in the martial arts ring in Hai Phong, the Van Cao ofSpring Wharfas gangster as Hua Van Cuong ofShanghai Bund.In 1944, the artist put his pen and guitar aside and picked up a gun, becoming the Captain of the Viet Minh Honor Guard - specializing in protecting propaganda members and dealing with traitors - roughly speaking, an assassination organization in the inner city of Hanoi under the Japanese. He also spent time secretly operating in Lao Cai under the cover of being the talented and stylish owner of a bar named Bien Thuy near Coc Leu market. From here, Van Cao had the opportunity to meet, contact and become sworn brothers with the Meo King.

However, Van Cao only held a gun because the social circumstances at that time forced him to do so. In essence, he was still an artist of the pen and the guitar. When the revolutionary mission was completed, Van Cao refused the invitation to stay and work for the police force and said: "This job is not suitable for me."

His son, poet and painter Van Thao, recounted: “For Van Cao, having to eliminate a person was something he did not want. But because of the revolutionary mission, because of the lives of thousands of people, he was forced to take action to destroy the stubborn Vietnamese traitors.”

Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong also asked him: "Why after the resistance war against France, you still paint and write poetry, but people no longer listen to you sing?". Van Cao replied: "When I accepted to writeMarching Song, I did not prepare in advance to write a song, but as a dangerous agent of the special forces. I was an armed special force. My mission was to go into a city one night, holding a gun, to kill a person. I did it. It was war and hatred, simple as that. In the first days after the war, I returned to that house, and saw a widowed mother and orphaned children. How could I say what was most important to me in the songs that followed? Talk about the feat or say something else? So I kept quiet, and just wrote music without lyrics.

After the Geneva Agreement in 1954, Van Cao returned to Hanoi, worked for the Radio, but composed very little. In 1955, he picked up his pen again, writing articles for the special magazine Giai Pham. Together with a number of other artists, he advocated for freedom of literature and creation. And this was the reason that pushed him into a dark area for many years. Van Cao was denounced and had to go to a labor camp. His name was almost never mentioned again, his works were not performed in the North, except for the songNational Anthem- without even being credited. For the next thirty years, he made a living by doing various jobs such as writing music for films and plays, decorating stages, drawing newspaper advertisements, drawing match labels...

During this time, Van Cao almost stopped composing, and his life with his family was extremely difficult. He endured his talent in exile, like a "little prince" from a strange planet, loving Beauty and Poetry like he loved a fox and a rose, but that the "grown-ups" would never understand. Not being mentioned, not being able to compose, not being recognized, he lived like a prisoner on parole, silent and sad.

Photographer Nguyen Dinh Toan once said about Van Cao: "Many mornings, I went to his house. He just sat like that with a glass of wine and a cigarette in his hand. Silent. I took many pictures of him, took countless films. The pictures of him sitting next to the piano, holding a glass or sometimes a cigarette. All his thoughts seemed to stop. We just kept silent like that. I almost never saw him smile. In my life, I have never seen anyone as sad as Van Cao even though he never talked about it."

After 26 years of not singing, until 1975, when the country was unified, joy finally returned to the artist, leading him to write the last work of his life. He wrote about "normal season".

Van Cao named his last songFirst Spring.Refusing the boiling excitement of the day of peace, refusing even the familiar, lingering sadness, instead, he painted a very "normal" scene of the countryside, the old mother and the sound of chickens at noon... He returned toFirst SpringPrimitive, simple emotions, as if returning people to the purest, quietest and most sacred joys deep within them - emotions that had been buried and lost for too long during the war years.Payabout the lives of thosenormal season

Unfortunately, at that time, "people" did not know how to love, did not know how to care for "people". The song was printed right away in the Saigon Giai Phong newspaper, but it soon became lost, forgotten among the heroic, proud sounds of the songs at that time. It was not until twenty years later, when the talented musician passed away,First Springnewly resonated.

After Vietnam carried out renovation, Van Cao's works were gradually unbanned.

In 1989, a photo of musician Van Cao sitting pensively at the piano was published by National Geographic magazine. It was this photo that inspired the contemporary American composer, Robert Ashley, to compose a piano solo entitledVan Cao's Meditationin 1992.

The song itselfFirst Spring, even in 1976 after it was composed, somehow it was printed and performed in the far away Soviet Union. The song was even given Russian lyrics.

With countless works of art buried, few people today can fully understand the artist Van Cao. But Vietnamese people, and international friends, have not forgotten him. His spirit and music are still loved and resonate forever, like "the echoes of a thousand years ago still vibrating", transcending borders, overcoming contemporary prejudices, and becoming eternal with time.

There will always be generations of people who see Van Cao appearing heroic and proud, in the moment they sing in unison.Marching SongThere will also be some people, in the middle of a quiet night missing their homeland, they cannot stop singingThe first spring,to love life, love people in silence.